{
  "id": "elite.few",
  "term": "elite",
  "sense": "few",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "published",
  "level": 17,
  "domain": "agency",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "A collective self that reads the walls on it as set by an out-group: a few whose reach is wide, read as outside its boundary though they are members.",
  "folk_gloss": "a small group with great wealth, influence or power, often contrasted with the general public",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "collective-self.shared",
      "boundary.limit",
      "out-group.outside",
      "wide.spatial",
      "reach.action",
      "member.social",
      "set.fix",
      "power.over",
      "read.information",
      "wall.range-end",
      "outside.spatial"
    ],
    "interaction": "The setters of the group's walls are placed outside the boundary even though they are members, so the walls read as imposed from outside and not as the group's own.",
    "novel_properties": [
      "members relocated outside by their reach",
      "the group's walls read as not its own"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "C. Wright Mills's 1956 book 'The Power Elite' studied the small groups at the top of American business, military and politics.",
      "domain": "sociology"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "id": "establishment.settled",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "the elite is a few read by reach; the establishment is those in office read as keeping walls where they are"
    },
    {
      "id": "ordinary-people.core",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "the other pole of the same split"
    },
    {
      "id": "one-percent.few",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "the one percent is named by wealth; the elite by its reach over the group's walls"
    }
  ],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "coastal elite",
    "coastal elites",
    "elites",
    "liberal elite",
    "power elite",
    "the elite",
    "the elites"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "claude-opus-5-5:hand-curated",
    "date": "2026-09-29",
    "confidence": 0.85,
    "sources": [
      "schema/power-agency-phase.md"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-elite.few"
}