Another danger is political authoritarianism, especially when combined with control of an unelected elite over any powerful state.

The organization is run by an unelected elite committed to a self-serving ideology.

But local officials and journalists say the quality of life in the city still depends largely on an unelected elite that controls the flow of money, privilege and influence.

Bob Crowe is the only labour type politician who has worked out how this unelected elite works and politically attacks them and their class in a highly effective manner.

Mr. Clinton's attacks have even prompted leaders of the "reform" parties, which in the past have denounced the overconcentration of power in the hands of Japan's unelected elite, to rally to the bureaucrats' defense.

Among the most vocal critics was Patrick J. Buchanan, a White House speechwriter and author of a famous 1969 speech by Spiro Agnew attacking the media as a "small and unelected elite."

Though reformers have abolished parts of the Communist power structure, many people are discovering that an unelected elite still controls money, privilege and influence.

"Iran is governed by an unelected clerical elite not accountable to the people," the official said, speaking anonymously under ground rules imposed by the department.

It will disenfranchise unelected elites and give democratic power back to individuals.

Instead, they look like meetings of unelected elites, of technocrats who make decisions in secret and who rely upon intentionally impenetrable language, who settle differences through arcane fudges.