Power Elite Theory

“This tirangle of power is now a structural fact, and it is the key to any understanding of the higher circles in America today.”(pg192). Though there is still an ongoing debate among academics as to how they should classify Mills in terms of his theoretical perspectives given the broad range of subjects he wrote about and the various classical sociological theories he used to explore these subjects. None the less Somewhat of a consensus has be reached with regards to Mills conception of the power elite model as being a pseudo marxist interpretation of the political,militaristic, and economic shift that had begun to take place in america with a heavy emphasis on post WW2 america. However some may be quick to argue back that given his fascination …show more content…
Mills states that conviction and intellectualism has fallen to the wayside as “mass persuasion” is the tool in which the power elite use to justify their rule of law that no longer requires justification so long as the idea put forth is done so in a convincing manner. This rampant social cohesion is expressed primarily through militaristic, political and economic institutions that have become so intermingled it is often hard to recognize that infact they are separate institutions. By centralizing all the power and authority into small power elite groups the majority of the public are left voiceless which is why such groups implement false measures of control that they grant to congress and lobbyists who the powerless average citizen feel are representing their interests. However this hierarchy of power only grants the illusion of control for those vast majority of American citizens that are far removed from the power elite. A contemporary example of this the idea of “corporate personhood” that extends political rights to massive corporations within the united states that essentially provides a legal loophole in which corporations may donate vast sums of money to finance political agendas as if they corporate entity itself was a “person”. So far such a legal loophole as lead to a dramatic increase in corporate donations to political figures who inturn further a corporate agenda. Perhaps it is also important that not every member of the american political infrastructure would be a member of the power elite as their are many subdivisions of power and in order to truly be a member of the powellite one must have a mixture of all three social institutions as noted early. Take the Iraq war for example, congress voted not to engage in such a war, as they and the american people