Power

power elite

• part of the social historical context (conflict view)

• a social problem in itself

Formal structure of American democracy:

Balance of powers

Executive Legislative Judicial

What Mills sees happening

• Business and government “more intricately and deeply involved with each other”

• Military ascendancy; “enlarged and military state”

• Permanent-war economy; military capitalism; “military has benefited the most” (45)

Power Elite

• Mills defined it as a concentration of power among socially allied members of three key sectors:

• Economic: large corporations

• Political: especially the executive branch of the federal government

• Military

Power elite

• “ascendancy of the corporation’s man as a political eminence…” (Mills, 1956)

• “tied to their dominant locales…”

• “however, they…transcend the particularity of interest…[and] lace the three types of milieux together.”

Power elite

• Not a conspiracy; but official secrecy increases

• Institutional trends

• Social similarities and psychological affinities

• power elite “encroach” upon the old balances

The Power Elite acc. Domhoff

The Power Elite

Corporate Community

Policy-Formation Organizations

Social Upper Class

Domhoff on power and class• Value assumptions:

– Democracy in politics– Mobility in class

• Power elite dominates (“power to set the terms…not total control”)

• Corporate-conservative coalition vs. liberal-labor coalition

• This is a class conflict• Domhoff’s website:

http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/ • They rule: http://www.theyrule.net/

Case study: Enron

Enron and the power elite• Kenneth Lay, former employee of old Federal Power

Commission put Enron together in 1980s• 1993: Wendy Gramm (wife of TX. Sen. Phil), chair of

Commodity Futures Trading Commission; exempts energy derivative contracts from oversight. Weeks later, joins Enron Board.

• 1994: lobbies Securities and Exchange Commission for utility monopoly exemption, wins

• 1996: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission allows electricity deregulation; five years later California has electricity crisis

• 2000: Commodity Futures Modernization Act allows Enron to further its speculative activity in commodities from electricity to water

Enron and the power elite

• Spent $5.9 million on federal politics since 1989• President Bush’s largest contributor: $1 million

for campaigns for governor and president• Kenneth Lay had close personal ties

– Played golf with Bill Clinton

– George W. Bush called him “Kenny Boy”

– Interviewed prospective cabinet members

– Private meetings with Vice President Cheney on energy policy (GAO lawsuit)

Enron and the power elite

Lawrence Lindsey, chief economic advisor

Paid consultant to Enron during campaign

Robert B. Zoellick, U.S. Trade Representative

Paid Enron consultant

Theodore W. Kassinger, Commerce Dept. General Counsel

Paid Enron consultant

William G. Schubert, Maritime Administrator

Paid Enron consultant

Harvey L. Pitt, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman

Indirect ties, “hand picked” for position by Lay

Thomas E. White, Secretary of the Army

Former Vice Chairman, Enron Energy Services

Marc F. Racicot, National Republican Party Chairman

Enron lobbyist

35 administration officials Held Enron stock

Members of current administration with former Enron ties

What about elections?

• Which sector of P.E. do we elect?

• Describe the process

What is the contradiction?

• P.E. vs. masses

• Elite interests vs. democracy

Social movements

• “sustained, organized, collective effort that focuses on some aspect of social change” (Blackwell Dictionary or Sociology, 262)

• usually arise when institutional (mainstream, legitimate) means of social change unavailable

• expression of grassroots democracy?