China erupted in outrage when Mr. Patten proposed in October that Hong Kong's legislature be made more democratic, effectively ending a cozy system in which a small elite of business leaders and British officials ran the colony.

Since that time, the same elite has largely run Iranian politics, though it has divided itself into competing factions, and the act of wielding power has mellowed many hard-liners into pragmatists.

While the elite may run only two or three marathons a year, they cash in on shorter road races.

But the Democratic elites no longer run the party.

Maya kings and elite did not run such a hands-on economy.

Instead of an influx of foreign overlords stirring up resentment, the native elite ran things on Rome's behalf.

"The fact is that if we don't nurture students like these, we run the risk of a society of haves and have-nots, where only the elite run the country and there is no middle class."

Russian elites are courageously maintaining a liberal democracy at home and running a Soviet-like foreign policy abroad.

Alan Dawley chaired the session and discussion which produced vibrant and vital debate and discussion on the central question of how U.S. foreign policy can be changed after elites run the country into a war.

Bribes for Peace All of this is obviously more compassionate and sensitive, more tolerant of the sovereignty of weak states even when it seems their elites may have run amok or when in fact no sovereign state exists, as in Somalia.