The study deals with issues related to the types of connections between institutions and elites in the context of political transformations. Its essential message is that the asynchronies produced between elite structures and institutional structures determine whether the transformation will be peaceful or violent, controlled or of a spontaneous character. Subsequently, the paper presents the dimensions of elite circulation, and it discusses the relations between the ways of elite change and institutional changes. It reviews the theories of the connections between political changes and market transformation, concluding with the statement that real political transformation can only occur if it brings along both market and political changes.