In this paper, we will discuss the advantages and drawbacks of a systematic methodology for translating the sample design of national elite survey to the European and global levels. We use as starting point the sector-based sampling design of the German Potsdam elite survey (Bürklin et al. 1997) which is composed of leaders working in 13 sectors of activity (i.e., administration, politics, economy, finance, professional lobbyists, church, media, civil society, research, labour union, justice, culture, military). This sector-based sample design is then translated to the European and global levels in such a way as to maximize the comparability of the samples across the three levels of analysis (i.e., national, European and global) and to avoid any overlap between the samples across the three levels of analysis. Up to now, previous attempts at sampling European or global elites focused mainly on one or two sectors of activity such as economy and finance (e.g., Sklair, 2000) or politics and/or administration (e.g., CIRcap 2007, EECS 2009, Hooghe, 2002) (with the exception of Transatlantic Trend Leader Survey, 2011). By contrast, our methodology enables us to expand the sample design to a much broader range of sectors of activity. Moreover, the inclusion of three levels in the sample methodology enables us to compare positions and characteristics of national elites with those of elites working at both the EU and global levels.
