DISCUSS THE ROLE OF THE ELITES IN ZAMBIAN POLITICS.

ANSWER!!!!!!!!!!!

The word elite refer to a small group of individuals who have a lot of power and authority
according to the position they hold in a certain organization.

The elite can be divided into two: political elites and civil elites.

Political elites are the elected officials such as the president, cabinet ministers, MPs, and
councilors.

Civil elites are civil servants who are not elected but are largely appointed based on their
qualifications through education and professions.

The two groups work together in making policies and decisions to guide the affairs of the
country, for example the proclamation of the state of emergency by the political elites; the
president of Zambia and the parliament, also the decision made by government to reject
genetically modified foods towards the end of year 2002. The elites are defended for making
certain decisions without involving many other citizens because of the following reasons:

1 the political elites are the elected officials, and they are the representatives of the
citizenry.

2 they are better educated than most ordinary citizens.

3 they have more classified information relevant for decision making which many ordinary
citizens do not have especially the president.

4 some decisions may be of emergency nature, which if delayed through slow wide
consultations can be costly to the nation.

5 consensus building happens to be easier and faster when few people are involved in
decision making process.

However, there some disadvantages to the elite model.

1 the elite model is less democratic, since it does not encourage citizen participation in the
decision making process.

2 fewer people mean fewer ideas.

3 the elite model can make policy implementation difficult when the people are not
involved in the decision making process.