Excerpt: The Power Elite

Mills, C. Wright. [1956] 2005. "The Power Elite". Pp. 332-336 in Understanding Society, 2nd ed., edited by Margaret L. Andersen, Kim Logio, and Howard Taylor. Belmont, CA: Thomson Learning, Inc.

Position is everything. That's the core argument of C. Wright Mills' book (excerpted here), The Power Elite, a seminal work in the study of social hierarchy. Decisions are made daily that affect more than how much milk we take in our coffee; laws are passed, governments are overthrown, wars are begun, and The Bomb is dropped. These are powerful decisions, and those who make them do so from positions of great authority.

The power that these "elite" possess, Mills argues, has nothing to do with personal attributes. It's not the shrewd intellect of the captain-of-industry, nor the cunning tact of the Congressman, nor the ingenious strategy of the general that affords them authority over society, but the fact that they are captain-of-industry, Congressman, and general.

Mills proposes that true power is found in social positions that hold the most decisive consequences: the state, the corporations, and the military. All other areas of social life are decentralized and hold nowhere near the power of these three institutions:

Families and churches and schools adapt to modern life; governments and armies and corporations shape it; and, as they do so, they turn these lesser institutions into means for their ends.

The "Big Three" have developed in America from weak, loosely-connected organizations to strong, bureaucratic, and centralized institutions, increasingly interacting with each other to dominate American social life. As they do, certain key positions appear at the top of each hierarchy—positions that allow the individuals who occupy them to wield immense power over American society.

I agree with Mills' assessment. As a Christian and sociologist, I too believe that "power is not of a man. Wealth does not center in the person of the wealthy. Celebrity is not inherent in any personality". Granted, certain learned characteristics may help an individual rise to the level of power elite, but if we accept the idea that societies tend to produce the kinds of people they need to thrive then it's imperative that the strength of social structure be understood.

Relevance: 5/5 (very relevant)
Salience: 5/5 (very salient)

References:

• Jacob Burckhardt - quoted in disagreement. "What Jacob Burckhardt said of 'great men,' most Americans might well say of their elite: 'They are all that we are not.'" - quoted in agreement.