G. WILLIAM Domhoff is a retired research professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who continues to write about his interests in both psychology and sociology. In psychology, his focus is the scientific study of dreams. However, this prolific social scientist's most prominent contribution can be found in sociology, specifically in the area of the power structure in the United States.

Domhoff's perspectives about power relations in society can be traced to the work of economist Paul Sweezy, political scientist Robert Dahl, sociologists E. Digby Baltzell and Floyd Hunter, and especially the maverick political sociologist C. Wright Mills. From Mills, Domhoff borrowed the concept of the power elite, a ruling group who controls power in society by dominating the business, military, and governmental institutions. In ...