World Economic Forum

===Formation of a detached elite===
{{Anchor|Davos Man|"Davos Man"}}
The formation of a detached elite, which is often co-labelled through the [[neologism]] "Davos Man", refers to a global group whose members view themselves as completely "international". The term refers to people who "have little need for national loyalty, view national boundaries as obstacles, and see national governments as residues from the past whose only useful function is to facilitate the elite's global operations" according to political scientist [[Samuel P. Huntington]], who is credited with inventing the neologism.<ref>Timothy Garton Ash. [https://www.theguardian.com/comment/story/0,,1404411,00.html Davos man's death wish] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080821094256/http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0%2C%2C1404411%2C00.html |date=21 August 2008}}, ''[[The Guardian]]'', 3 February 2005</ref> In his 2004 article "Dead Souls: The Denationalization of the American Elite", Huntington argues that this international perspective is a minority elitist position not shared by the nationalist majority of the people.<ref>Samuel Huntington. [http://nationalinterest.org/article/dead-souls-the-denationalization-of-the-american-elite-620 "Dead Souls: The Denationalization of the American Elite"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160914184047/http://nationalinterest.org/article/dead-souls-the-denationalization-of-the-american-elite-620 |date=14 September 2016}}, ''[[The National Interest]]'', Spring 2004</ref>

The [[Transnational Institute]] describes the World Economic Forum's main purpose as being "to function as a socializing institution for the emerging global elite, globalization's "Mafiocracy" of bankers, industrialists, oligarchs, technocrats and politicians. They promote common ideas, and serve common interests: their own."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Marshall |first1=Andrew |title=World Economic Forum: A History and Analysis |url=https://www.tni.org/en/article/world-economic-forum-a-history-and-analysis |website=The Transnational Institute |date=20 January 2015 |access-date=9 August 2021 |archive-date=9 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210809055744/https://www.tni.org/en/article/world-economic-forum-a-history-and-analysis |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2019, the ''[[Manager Magazin]]'' journalist Henrik Müller argued that the "Davos Man" had already decayed into different groups and camps. He sees three central drivers for this development:<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=https://www.manager-magazin.de/politik/weltwirtschaft/wef-in-davos-weltwirtschaftsforum-und-seine-probleme-a-1248970.html&prev=search|title="Davos Man" and his successors|first=Henrik|last=Müller|date=21 January 2019 |access-date=14 June 2020|archive-date=14 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200614163618/https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=https://www.manager-magazin.de/politik/weltwirtschaft/wef-in-davos-weltwirtschaftsforum-und-seine-probleme-a-1248970.html&prev=search|url-status=live}}</ref>
* Ideologically: the liberal western model is no longer considered a universal role model that other countries strive for (with China's digital totalitarianism or the traditional absolutism in the Persian Gulf as counter-proposals, all of which are represented by government members in Davos).
* Socially: societies increasingly disintegrate into different groups, each of which evokes its own identity (e.g. embodied through the Brexit vote or congressional blockades in the USA).
* Economically: the measured economic reality largely contradicts the established ideas of how the economy should actually work (despite economic upswings, wages and prices e.g. barely rise).