CHAPTER TWO

CONCENTRATION OF POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC POWER

Chapter Two Breakdown

• Power in the United States: Who Rules?• The Power Elite Perspective• The Business Dominance Perspective• The Structuralist Perspective• Political Alienation• Toward the Democratic Ideal

• Schools fail to distinguish between democratic ideals and political realities:– Why?

Schools are agents of political socialization

Power in the United States: Who Rules?

• The Pluralist Perspective– Power is equally distributed in the US– No one group is politically dominant– The US is a democratic nation

• People’s Beliefs about Political Power

The Pluralist Perspective• Elaborated upon by David Riesman’s book: The Lonely Crowd• Distribution of power among competing and contending interest groups• No one group dominates at all times or is even interested in all matters of

national policy• The federal government does not side with any one group, in other words

the economy and the state are not linked• In order to gain strength, the groups must appeal to the citizenry, the

government acts as fair arbiter that regulates the competition for the greater good

• Inequality in wealth among groups and people is ignored by this perspective

• Riesman used to term Veto Groups for those groups that can counter people of wealth and power in order to veto policies that might affect their interests.

• The wealthy are just like any other group• The U.S. is a ‘middle class’ country.

People’s Beliefs about Political Power

• Surveys conducted on people’s beliefs about political and economic power in the U.S. find that significant number of people do not believe in the pluralist perspective.

• The Muskegon Studies (1960s): rich, middle class and poor selected for surveys. Asked questions about who runs the country: 1. No one group 2. Military, political and economic elite 3.Big Businessmen

– 1. Pluralist position (3/5) 2. Power Elite perspective (1/5), 3. Business dominance perspective (1/5)

• The higher the income the more likely that participants would choose the pluralist perspective

• Statements B and C were mostly picked by the poor those whose reality of everyday life did not lend credibility to pluralism– 10 years after the Muskegon study (1978), Steven

Stack conducted a study in which 3/4ths showed support for the Power Elite perspective.

• Polls on Attitudes toward Government– 2003 poll, 70% of respondents agreed that “this country’s political system

is so controlled by special interests and partisanship that it cannot respond to the country’s real needs”

– 75% agreed that “ elected officials in Washington lose touch with the people very quickly

– Political alienation and less confidence in the government• How does all of this fit in with democracy?

• Polls on Attitudes toward Business– They are big and influential– Business and industry should be under private control– Confidence in major corporations down from 55 to 8 percent between

1966-2003

• Group pluralism — democratic society is composed of 1. wide variety of interest groups that 2. develop around specific needs or interests and 3. each competes to get what it wants.

• According to this view, 4. the state is NEUTRAL referee, and simply mediates and makes sure demands are balanced. Competition is “fair” 5. Each groups power is diluted because people belong to many overlapping groups. 6. Society is balanced because everyone agrees that there are certain basic rules. When some interest groups don’t address needs 7. others arise and so this problem is corrected. Interest groups waiting to come into existence are Potential Interest Groups.

1.Group pluralists assume that groups have the same strength, membership and power. Are interest groups representing the homeless as powerful as the NRA?

2.They are ambiguous at best when they claim that “group interests” are the same as the “common good”. Is gun ownership a “common good”? Is weak environmental control a “common good”?

3. Potential interest groups, groups that don’t yet exist but might come into existence if needs aren't addressed- is speculation at best. A belief in “ghosts” that might materialize and rescue us. Facts show that troubles and issues persist over generations and these “ghosts” never materialize.

4. Ignores the importance of resource mobilization and ownership in the power possessed by interest groups. Those who control the resources can mobilize the strongest groups and get the results they desire. Similar to economic concentration

Elite Pluralism Theory — Competing elected (political) elites coexist and compromise to achieve balanced government for the common good. If they don’t deliver they are driven out of office by voters, who elect others who will fix their troubles.

1. Does not explain major decisions by non- elected (economic and other) elites, members of think tanks and policy committees, corp. execs, financial chiefs, members of cabinets etc, who are the real architects of national and foreign policy and major decisions?

2. Does not explain why major social problems continue to exist over generations, if the system is balanced and self-correcting.

3. Doesn’t explain why there is voter alienation or apathy.4. Doesn’t explain how major decisions are made before any voting

takes place e.g. campaign issues, candidates that will represent the party, campaign procedures, funding etc

5. Doesn’t explain how all elections are rigged against third party candidates from the start through media, coverage, funds, debates etc.

6. A two party state is not too different from a one party state like the Soviet Union, two is not much of a PLURAL-ITY!

• Power elite theory — select or elite group of individuals, that occupy the dominant positions in the dominant institutions of the dominant country ,ensuring that their interests prevail over all others. Word coined by C. W. Mills in his 1956 book, “The Power Elite”

•

The Power Elite is composed of men whose positions enable them to transcend the ordinary environments of everyday men and women; they are in positions to make decisions having major consequences…For they are in command of the major hierarchies and organizations of modern society…They occupy the strategic command posts of the social structure, in which are now centered the effective means of the power and…wealth.".

• Video on power elite-

Power Elite Theory

– 1. Class identity — sense of belonging to a particular economic class resulting from shared life experiences. They possess class consciousness- consider themselves separate from the rest of society ( and superior), and treat each other different than how they treat the rest of us.

– 2. Co-optation — socialization of prospective and new members of power elite so they share the worldview of that elite. Only those that are socialized/co-opted are allowed in-

Power Elite Theory

– 3. Interchangeability of elites — mobility of power elite members from one institutional sphere of influence to another- e.g. from the military to the economic to the political etc ex-corporate execs coming into the political arena and filling major posts e.g. Rumsfeld, Cheney etc, and military leaders going into industry that gets military contracts or politics like Powell, Wesley Clark; also the interlocking directorates of corporations with the director of one serving on the board of another corporation as well.

• 4. Community of Interests- they might differ and disagree on specifics but on broad/larger issues of global and national significance they have an alliance

• 5. Military Metaphysic: The military definition of reality, related to a permanent war economy, huge military budgets, keeping threats alive to feed that budget and protection of raw materials and multinationals abroad

Power Elite Theory

• A Power Elite Analysis of the State-Economy Relationship– Power elite theorists suggest the state is not

neutral or independent• Heavily influenced by capital and corporate interests,

promote the military metaphysic, the military definition of reality, thus the military institution becomes dominant as well.

C.W. Mills and the Power Elite- summary

• The Power Elite, as C. Wright Mills pointed out, involves the 1. “uneasy coincidence of economic, military and political power” (Mills 1956:278), where 2. chosen elites move within and between the three institutional structures. The Power Elite as Mills pointed out possesses a 3. specific and clear ‘class consciousness’ and unique image of self as a psychological fact, regardless of ideological label or party membership. Factions might exist among the Power Elite but their coinciding 4. “community of interests” and the resulting inner discipline bind them together even across differences (Mills 1956:283).

• Given these forces that are at play among them, the way they have emerged and the 5. institutions that have shaped them, it is impossible for them to break away from the corporate world and its interests in the decisions they make while in public office. Their 6. world view, shaped by these institutions, prevents them from seeing things differently.

• What is that worldview called?- Exam Question

• Answer= ______________.

THE GULF WARS

• Intersection of political, economic and military:“It is in the continual preparation for war that the power elite now finds the

major basis for the furthering of the several and coinciding interests of its members…The expectation of war solves many problems of the “crackpot realists” (Mills, The Power Elite)

• 1991 Gulf War: who benefited Oil Profits/Military Industrial Sales/ Savings & Loan distraction/ End of the cold war against the Soviets, new justification for the MIC needed.

Voting: Who Participates?• Pluralists emphasize the importance of elections and voting• Power elite theorists argue that voters vote after major

decisions have already been made i.e. by committees who select their candidates, the one’s who can raise the most money, rigging elections against third party candidates etc. Campaign formation, candidate selection, and party agenda and support, media coverage are important aspects of the electoral process but occur without any participation from the public for the most part.

• Voting just gives the “appearance” that people are empowered while in reality those that come to power, the power elite are a uniform group of people, coming from similar backgrounds having a similar social profile and make more or less similar decisions.

Identifying the Power Elite

• Three major components– Big business and the corporate rich

• i.e. the economic elite

– Top military officials• i.e. the military elite

– The executive branch of the government• i.e. the political elite

INSTITUTIONAL TRENDS THAT LED TO THE POWER ELITE1.Concentration of private ownership and domination of

communication2.Development of a permanent war establishment3.The existence of a political vacuum that was filled by

military men and corporate executives at the very top with Congress reduced to middle levels of power

4.The massification of society at the bottom due to manipulation that leads to little demands on the powerful and political apathy

The Business Dominance Perspective

• Notes the relationship between class inequality and distribution of political power

• Marx’s Ruling Class: The State is a committee for managing the common affairs of the bourgeoisie, i.e. the government functions in the interest of a particular social class.

• The Social Upper Class: the social group that enjoys the greatest status and prestige in U.S. society. – Members of the ‘high society’ that are listed in social registers

maintained in major U.S. cities– There are specific institutions that cater to their needs: private school,

universities, clubs and resorts etc– Members of this class sense themselves “different” to others who do

not belong in their group, because of similarity of life experience and institutions they attend they tend to intermarry among their own group

– There is great overlap between those that are considered high in status terms and those that possess the greatest wealth: in other words the social elite are also the economic elite to a large extent.

• This social and economic ‘upper class’ are also the governing class:– G. William Domhoff defined the governing class as “ a social and

economic upper class that owns a disproportionate amount of the country’s wealth, received a disproportionate amount of the country’s yearly income, and contributes a disproportionate number of its members to the controlling institutions and key decision-making groups of the country.”

– Financing a political campaign requires a lot of money. Upper class people, those with the most wealth that do finance poltical campaigns tend to support people that do not threaten upper-class interests.

– Appointees to keep posts in the President’s cabinet, judiciary and national bureaucracy tend to disproportionately from the upper class or are rewarde, “coopted upwards” based on how well they have served upper class interests in the past

According to Mills’ power elite there is no ‘democracy’ in the U.S. since people’s thoughts are manipulated through control of information, financing of elections and non-democratic appointments to key decision making posts, the two party monopoly etc.

According to Domhoff and his ‘business dominance perspective’ democracy does exist in the U.S. but it is to be found in the splits among the governing class itself. The governing class is composed of the social and economic elite and their helpers. People in this class differ among themselves on what aspects of their privileged ‘status quo’ they want to defend.

The Structuralism Perspective• The proponents of the structuralist perspective do not deny

that a few at the top weild power but they claim that those at the top are constrained in how they decide due to the needs of the current structure that happens to be a corporatized capitalist economy

• From Free Enterprise to “Corporate Capitalism”– As the economy has changed from a free enterprise, mom and

pop style capitalsm of the mid 19th century to corporate capitalism post Civil War where a few corporations now dominate all product and service areas

• Less than 1% of all corporations account for over 80% of the total output of the private sector (Michael Parenti 1995)

• Concentration of economic power in the United States:– 4300 individuals i.e. 4300/300,000,000 *100= 0.001% of

the U.S. population, own about one half of the country’s assets, two thirds of banking assets, one half of all communication and utilities, and more than two thirds of all insurance assets…the reason : corporate consolidation of industrial and financial assets in a small number of giant corporations. (Thomas Dye 1995)

• According to the structuralism perspective, when the few corporations become so dominant in production and employment of individuals, it does not matter who the elite are this system has to be preserved in order to protect the nations’s assets and people’s jobs. No matter who runs the government, upper class or not they will make similar decisions in preserving the status quo to maintain a healthy economic order- the interests of the capitalist class are thus “naturally served”.

• When the needs of the public are at odds with the needs of the capitalists even then decisions are made to benefit the capitalists with a claim of ‘trickle down’ benefits eventually getting to the public.

• How would you criticize this perspective?– Are decisions made merely to ‘preserve’ the

corporate economy or are they made to successively enhance the power of the corporate economy even if it harms the public? Is the structure changing to further strengthen the power of the corporations or merely maintaining it

Political Alienation• Democracy requires that the public takes part in decisions that

affect their lives, in choosing their leaders and making informed decisions

• Political Nonparticipation: Political alienation: People who are politically alienated feel that the system does not address issues that are important to them and so they do not participate– In political apathy: they do not care about the outcome– In political alienation: they care about the outcome but feel the system

does not care about their needs– Political alienation and apathy leads to low voter turnout and

participation rates

• The turnout in presidential elections is low but in Congressional elections it is even lower. Low turnout combined with surveys of people’s satisfaction levels with government reveals that: declining turnouts are a result of cynicism and disgust over the workings of the political system.

• The Influence of the “New Right”– The apathy and alientation of the many has led to the few “active”

conservative participants to step in and fill the vacuum, referred to as the “New Right” whose agenda has included: less government interference in corporate affairs, enhanced military spending, starting wars abroad, cutting back social services and welfare etc.

• The New Right’s history can be traced to the great depression when conservatives opposed FDR’s “New Deal’ Policies.– The New Deal rescued capitalism from collapse by incorporating

socialist ideals into the workings of the economic system, recognizing the rights of workers to form unions and created a variety of programs to provide a ‘safety net’ to aid the jobless and the poor.

– In the 1960s the federal government responded to civil rights protest by implementing the civil rights act outlawing previously legalized segregation, expanded spending on public education and launched a ‘war on poverty’. In the 1970s passed laws to reduce environmental contamination by corporations.

• The New Right’s agenda has been the undoing of the New Deal and other liberal reforms passed by the government. It is composed of – The Religious, white Christian evangelical groups– The corporate “think tanks”– Conservative wing of the Republican Party

• Political Extremeism:– When people feel that regular institutional

avenues to having their voices heard are blocked , it leads to social frustration and a coping mechanism of which the reaction can be

• 1. Political apathy and Political alienation• 2. Political Extremism : April 1995 Oklahoma City

Bombing- there may be 100,000 armed militia group members in the United States

Toward the Democratic Ideal• How can the concentration of political and economic power

be arrested and reversed?– Staying Silent is similar to acknowledging the status quo– Success is possible:

• The Civil Rights Act• Ending the war in Vietnam and other anti-war movments

– Grassroots Movements and Activism– Alterations in government conduct:

• Political Action Committees permit corporate and trade groups to make massive contributions to elections by bypassing private restrictions on direct contributions to candidates

• Soft money: contributions used for party building activities, get out the vote efforts etc

The key to making the US democratic is to cut the tie between economic self interest and political behavior