Dennis Wrong described The Power Elite as "an uneven blend of journalism, sociology, and moral indignation". Mills hands back his prophet's robes and settles down to being a sociologist again." Īdolf Berle noted the book contained "an uncomfortable degree of truth", but Mills presented "an angry cartoon, not a serious picture". derisively said, "I look forward to the time when Mr. Mills formulated a very short summary of his book: "Who, after all, runs America? No one runs it altogether, but in so far as any group does, the power elite." Reception and criticism Ĭommenting on The Power Elite, Arthur M. federal government, including the senior leadership in the Executive Office of the President, sometimes variously drawn from elected officials of the Democratic and Republican parties but usually professional government bureaucrats the "Political Directorate": "fifty-odd men of the executive branch" of the U.S.the "Warlords": senior military officers, most importantly the Joint Chiefs of Staff.the "Corporate Rich": major landowners and corporate shareholders.the "Chief Executives": presidents and CEOs of the most important companies within each industrial sector."Celebrities": prominent entertainers and media personalities.the "Metropolitan 400": members of historically notable local families in the principal American cities, generally represented on the Social Register.The resulting elites, who control the three dominant institutions (military, economy and political system) can be generally grouped into one of six types, according to Mills: Shown here are Rose and Joseph Kennedy in 1940. Historically prominent families, such as the Kennedy family, form the "Metropolitan 400". ![]() In this manner, the mantle of the elite is generally passed down along familial lines over the generations. Those so initiated, Mills continues, receive their invitations based on social links first established in elite private preparatory academies, where they were enrolled as part of family traditions and family connections. Mills identifies two classes of Ivy League alumni, those were initiated into an upper echelon fraternity such as the Harvard College social clubs of Porcellian or Fly Club, and those who were not. the point is not Harvard, but which Harvard?" But, Mills notes, "Harvard or Yale or Princeton is not enough. The members of the power elite, according to Mills, often enter into positions of societal prominence through educations obtained at eastern establishment universities like Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. The Ones Who Decide." Nonetheless, he sees them as a quasi-hereditary caste. Importantly, and as distinct from modern American conspiracy theory, Mills explains that the elite themselves may not be aware of their status as an elite, noting that "often they are uncertain about their roles" and "without conscious effort, they absorb the aspiration to be. the military establishment, formerly an object of "distrust fed by state militia," but now an entity with "all the grim and clumsy efficiency of a sprawling bureaucratic domain.".a strong federal political order that has inherited power from "a decentralized set of several dozen states" and "now enters into each and every cranny of the social structure," and."two or three hundred giant corporations" which have replaced the traditional agrarian and craft economy,.Their decisions (or lack thereof) have enormous consequences, not only for Americans but, "the underlying populations of the world." The institutions which they head, Mills posits, are a triumvirate of groups that have inherited or succeeded weaker predecessors: The Joint Chiefs of Staff, pictured here in 1949, are one of six ruling elites Mills identified.Īccording to Mills, the eponymous "power elite" are those that occupy the dominant positions, in the three pillar institutions (state security, economic and political) of a dominant country.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |