Power Elite

The concept of power elite was first spelled out by C. Wright Mills (1916–1962), an American critical social theorist of the post-World War II era. The power elite is a composite set of interrelated circles that, by virtue of their position at the top of the three layers (political, corporate, and military) of the American social system, make decisions that have both national and international consequences. The concept was primarily intended to respond to two theories that, according to Mills, have inadequately addressed the issues of power structure and distribution in the United States. Adherents of the ruling-class theory, because of their economic determinist stance, disregarded both the relative autonomy of noneconomic institutions and institutional interdependence. On the other hand, pluralists, failing to see the three levels of power that have emerged in postwar America, mistakenly assumed that in the United States power is spread out among competing groups.

Based on his institutional approach, Mills paints a different picture. For him, being part of the power elite is only marginally related to personal charisma; nor does power emanate from the possession of economic or symbolic capital alone. The latter are meaningful only within an institutional context. Extricated out of institutional settings, the power elite become too dispersed at best or too ordinary at worst to influence society effectively. Mills, accordingly, focused on the key social organizations that have played a critical role in the United States. All other institutions are consigned to a secondary level or even molded by the three major institutions. Of these, the economic, political, and military institutions have become the most decisive ones in the postwar United States. It is within the economic, political, and military orders of the American social context that the power elite assert their authority.

In the economic order, Mills notes that big corporations have replaced small scattered economic units, resulting in the formation of a corporate elite who both control the few hundred corporations and make critical economic decisions. To the extent that their true nature cannot be understood without linking them with the other two elites, the power of the corporate elite is transeconomic. Most importantly, it is the permanent war economy that sustains their influence. In the political order, the role of the federal government has expanded, thereby diminishing the power of the states. The expansion is so extensive that virtually every fabric of American society is affected by it. The enlargement, according to Mills, did not merely involve sheer quantitative expansion of the bureaucratic apparatus. Rather, the augmentation exhibited a qualitative growth, with the important consequence of organically linking business and government. Consequently, the ascendancy of corporate individuals into the political realm has given the “political directorate” a more influential position than it ever had in the political history of the United States. In the military order, high-ranking generals have assumed power with a social significance not limited within the confines of their institution. This is largely because, after World War II, the military became the most expensive aspect of American society. Moreover, what has given prominence to the military order is the almost pervasive influence of “military metaphysics.” The metaphysics encourages Americans to see no solution other than militaristic ones to the problems that surface within the international political and economic field.

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