Few men in the world have in their hands the power, or the faculty, to make great decisions. In The Structure of Power in American Society C. Wright Mills (1958) makes the understanding of the content clear. In fact, Mills focuses on the centralization of determining institutions’ powers or, as he refers to it, “the triangle of powers” (economic, political and military) during the middle of the twentieths century in the United States. The author delights the audience, to whom the book is directed, with notions that appear fluent and very limpid. The chapter explains how, through the centuries, power has been a central matter in every society and how this power degreed during the centuries. This precious thing was and is, in his perspective,
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This, links us back to the elite conception. These, through the centuries, with the appropriation of power, have created a circle, an “hereditary caste”, different fields that are always unified within American society that act together to defend their common interests and keep their status quo stable. We are talking about individuals that are akin to have the same view of the world, for example gone to highly ranked private schools or university, more generally having the same privileged backgrounds, and they also have common important friendships in the, as Wright Mills refers to it, “big tree”. Under this entente of powerful institutions, the writer states, that there are two other levels of power in American society. At the very bottom are placed the great masses of people, largely unorganized and moulded from above. These masses are economically and politically dependent and exploited, as through the decades they became affected by apathy and moral insensibility, and subsequently they abdicated their role, leaving the power to the elite. Interposed between the masses and the elite, the sociologist saw a middle level of power, composed of local opinion leader or political parties. They neither represented the masses nor had any kind of effect on the elite which was capable to build a structural
This, links us back to the elite conception. These, through the centuries, with the appropriation of power, have created a circle, an “hereditary caste”, different fields that are always unified within American society that act together to defend their common interests and keep their status quo stable. We are talking about individuals that are akin to have the same view of the world, for example gone to highly ranked private schools or university, more generally having the same privileged backgrounds, and they also have common important friendships in the, as Wright Mills refers to it, “big tree”. Under this entente of powerful institutions, the writer states, that there are two other levels of power in American society. At the very bottom are placed the great masses of people, largely unorganized and moulded from above. These masses are economically and politically dependent and exploited, as through the decades they became affected by apathy and moral insensibility, and subsequently they abdicated their role, leaving the power to the elite. Interposed between the masses and the elite, the sociologist saw a middle level of power, composed of local opinion leader or political parties. They neither represented the masses nor had any kind of effect on the elite which was capable to build a structural