Wpływ transformacji gospodarczej na proces formowania elit w państwach Kaukazu Południowego (wybrane aspekty)

Internally polarized counter-elites, that are often involved in corporate in-terests, do not have enough power to oppose the negative manifestations of economic transformation. In the countries of the South Caucasus, there are two types of business elites, the internal and the external ones, which „grew up” from the economic trans-formation. The external elites result from the privatization process, in which primarily Russians and Kazakhs are engaged. Concerning their interests in the region, they are lobbying the decision-making processes, while the local elites create the aforementioned mentioned „representative system”. The wealth fac-tor is therefore the way to exercise power. The research on business elites remains a discursive issue, which seems to be an endless subject to develop. Its analysis opens a broad discussion on the methodology of the study of elites, both in terms of their mechanisms and characteristics, as well as the theory itself.