Is everyone in the Elite universe aware of elites and their status? If not, what would happen to someone who doesn't know what an elite is when they are given a command? Would they follow it without fully understanding why?
Being an Elite is a social status, not a magical power. They have rings with ID codes on them that people can check to make sure they are Elite, though no one has ever been recorded as faking it.
Why people completely and utterly accept the authority and power of The Elite is purposely left vague.
There’s more detail in The Elite short stories: