(Page 20 of 29) - CHOSEN TO LEAD: Generations of Rhodes Scholars in American Meritocracy. authored by Youn, Ted. and Arnold, Karen.

Youn and Arnold

ASHE 2006

Discussion: The Means and Ends of Public Leadership

The leadership reproduction model supports key contentions of social resource

theory (Lin, 2001). Rhodes Scholars’ public leadership attainment resulted from
accessing resources embedded in connections with others As social capital models
propose, Rhodes Scholars appear to acquire social resources through membership in
institutions located at the top of social prestige hierarchies. Pathways to power and
influence begin with childhood social location (family cultural capital, and historical
cohort). Family cultural capital predisposes future Rhodes Scholars to attend higher
education institutions located at different levels of the prestige hierarchy. However, family
background relates to children’s eventual attainment only insofar as childhood capital and
ability is converted into adult cultural, economic, and social resources. Though not as
often as their upper class peers, some less-privileged youth enroll in highly prestigious
universities. Regardless of childhood background, baccalaureate prestige is a crucial factor
in adult attainment. Capital conversion continues in highly select colleges and universities,
where students gain access to advantageous social ties and network connections. Rhodes
Scholars who graduate from top universities carry a lasting achievement advantage
apparently resulting from the Ivy League legacies of polished manner (elite “habitus”),
prestigious educational credentials (institutionalized cultural capital), and influential
personal connections (social capital). All study members entered the professional world
with the asset of the Rhodes Scholar credential and a new set of social resources acquired
at Oxford and in elite law schools, and reinforced through Rhodes Scholar networks.
Rhodes Scholars with the highest public leadership positions are those men and women
who mobilized these resources through social relations on appointed boards and direct
access to powerful individuals. The importance of Oxford and law school influences
suggest additional institutional sites for leadership socialization and social capital
acquisition. In sum, public leaders possess access to the top of social hierarchies, which
they activate within networks centered in major graduate schools, select professional
settings, and elite policy and opinion-making circles. Successful activation of scarce
cultural and social resources brings public leaders additional economic, cultural, and
social rewards.

The institution of the Rhodes Scholarship effectively shapes a coherent status

group among highly select young adults who have already gained significant cultural and
social resources in elite undergraduate colleges and universities. Intense rituals of
selection, initiation, and Oxford life give Rhodes Scholars a collective identity (Weber,
1946): a common understanding of their special status and a deep affinity with others who
have successfully traversed the same narrow channel of achievement. Continued contact
with fellow Rhodes Scholars and non-Rhodes with similar backgrounds occurs in elite law
schools and in rarified circles of governing boards, politics, and the national media.
Rhodes Scholars also continue their association through serving as selectors, participating
in the Rhodes alumni association, and reading and contributing to the American Rhodes
Scholar magazine, the American Oxonian. Such “repetitive encounters” (Collins, 1975, p.
53) maintain the coherence of the Rhodes Scholarship as a status group. Along with their
intensive socialization and its later reinforcement, the esteemed title of “Rhodes Scholar”
and the special opportunities and status it brings constitute a form of consecration, in