The Power Elite

1. Power is concentrated in three interlocking institutional hierarchies.

The power elite is composed of men whose positions enable them to transcend the ordinary environments of ordinary men and women; they are in positions to make decisions having major consequences.

The institutional command posts. Power does not reside in the personal qualities of individuals, but in the strategic positions they occupy at the summits of the nation's major hierarchies. These hierarchies—the state, the corporation, and the military—constitute the modern means of power, wealth, and celebrity.

The interlocking directorate. The leaders of these three domains do not rule in isolation; instead, their decisions ramify into one another, creating an interconnected triangle of power. This structural coincidence of interests is driven by:

• The coordination of corporate economic decisions with military programs.
• The movement of personnel between high corporate, political, and military offices.
• The shared social origins, lifestyles, and psychological affinities of the elite.

The illusion of impotence. While ordinary citizens feel trapped by forces they cannot govern, the power elite actively shapes the framework of modern society. Their failure to act is often of greater consequence than the decisions they do make, as they command the organizational machinery that determines the fate of millions.

2. National institutions have eclipsed local societies and traditional aristocracies.

To remain merely local is to fail; it is to be overshadowed by the wealth, the power, and the status of nationally important men.

The decline of localism. Historically, American power was decentralized, rooted in local family lines and regional economies. However, the rise of the national corporation and the centralized state has turned once-sovereign local societies into mere satellites of national status and power.

The nationalization of status. The old upper classes, who based their prestige on family pedigree and local residence, have been bought out or bypassed by the national corporate rich. This nationalization of status is maintained through exclusive institutions that select and train the next generation:

• Elite New England preparatory schools like Groton and St. Paul's.
• Ivy League universities and their highly exclusive eating and final clubs.
• Metropolitan gentlemen's clubs that serve as informal centers of financial deal-making.

The corporate invasion. When national corporations establish local branches, their big-city executives dwarf and ignore local high society. The local upper classes are forced to either withdraw into quiet isolation or attempt to assimilate into the national corporate hierarchy.

3. The celebrity industry distracts the public and legitimizes elite power.

The professional celebrity, male and female, is the crowning result of the star system of a society that makes a fetish of competition.

The power of distraction. In the modern status system, the traditional "society lady" has been replaced by the professional celebrity of the entertainment world. This synthetic world of glamour, created from above by the mass media, serves to distract the public's attention from the serious operations of the power elite.

The status merger. In the public arena of "cafe society," the institutional elite, the wealthy socialite, and the professional entertainer mingle to cash in on one another's prestige. This interaction creates a national system of honor where:

• Politicians adopt the techniques of show business to appear "natural" on television.
• Corporate executives borrow glamour by associating with famous athletes and actors.
• The public is encouraged to worship trivial stars rather than hold decision-makers accountable.

The synthetic personality. The celebrity is a highly manufactured product, turned out by a disciplined staff of publicists and makeup artists. By focusing the spotlight on these ephemeral figures, the power elite can conveniently keep their own consequential decisions out of the public eye.

4. The very rich and chief executives form a unified corporate rich class.

No man, to my knowledge, has ever entered the ranks of the great American fortunes merely by a slow bureaucratic crawl up the corporate hierarchies.

The corporate rich. The very rich and the chief executives are not two separate classes, but are deeply integrated within the corporate system of property and privilege. The modern corporation is the prime source of wealth, and position within it determines one's access to the accumulation of advantages.

The accumulation of advantages. Getting really rich in America requires a "big jump" of promotion, speculation, or financial manipulation, followed by a riskless parlay of assets. The corporate rich protect and expand their wealth through a variety of institutionalized privileges:

• High-salaried positions supplemented by stock options and deferred-pay contracts.
• Tax loopholes such as capital gains, depletion allowances, and family trusts.
• Lavish corporate expense accounts that fund personal travel, entertainment, and luxury.

The sound man. The executives who rise to the top are selected not for their creative brilliance, but for their conformity to the corporate character. They must be "sound" team players who fit into the established cliques and prioritize financial expediency above all else.

5. A permanent war economy has fueled a dangerous military ascendancy.

American militarism, in fully developed form, would mean the triumph in all areas of life of the military metaphysic, and hence the subordination to it of all other ways of life.

The military ascendancy. Since World War II, the United States has abandoned its historic distrust of standing armies and entered a state of permanent war preparedness. The "warlords"—the high military brass—have ascended to the higher circles of national decision-making, transforming the military into a powerful political and economic force.

The military metaphysic. This ascendancy is justified by a "military metaphysic" that defines international reality entirely in terms of war potential and military threats. Under this worldview, peace is seen only as an uneasy interlude maintained by a balance of mutual fright, leading to:

• The allocation of the majority of the federal budget to military security.
• The militarization of scientific research and higher education through defense contracts.
• The penetration of military personnel into corporate boards and diplomatic missions.

The default of diplomacy. As military definitions of reality prevail, traditional civilian diplomacy collapses. Decisions of grave international consequence are treated as "military necessities" and decided by cliques of generals and corporate-political allies, bypassing democratic debate.

6. Political outsiders and corporate chiefs have captured the political directorate.

The executive supremacy means the relegation of the legislature to the middle levels of political power; it means the decline of the professional politician...

The political directorate. The executive branch of the federal government has centralized power, reducing the Congress to a subordinate role. The key policy-making positions in this "political directorate" are increasingly occupied not by professional politicians, but by political outsiders.

The corporate invasion of state. These political outsiders are predominantly members or agents of the corporate rich and the high military. They bypass the traditional elective path, entering the government through appointment to run the state like a business:

• Corporate executives and lawyers occupy the top cabinet and sub-cabinet posts.
• The state is run by cliques of co-opted insiders rather than a neutral civil service.
• Government regulatory agencies are transformed into outposts of the industries they regulate.

The decline of the politician. The professional party politician is relegated to managing local patronage and congressional maneuvering on the middle levels of power. The real decisions of state are made by the executive directorate, who are politically unaccountable to the electorate.

7. The classic democratic "theory of balance" is a romantic myth.

The doctrine of the harmony of interests thus serves as an ingenious moral device invoked, in perfect sincerity, by privileged groups in order to justify and maintain their dominant position.

The myth of pluralism. Many observers cling to the eighteenth-century idea that American power is a self-regulating balance of competing interest groups. Mills rejects this "romantic pluralism," arguing that while a balance may exist on the middle levels of power, it does not reach the top.

The stalemated middle. The middle levels of power, centered in the Congress and local pressure groups, have degenerated into a semi-organized stalemate. This deadlock prevents any coordinated action from below, while the top elite operates with virtual autonomy:

• Small business, labor unions, and consumer groups are locked in a petty struggle for local favors.
• The major political parties lack national discipline and fail to present clear policy alternatives.
• The "checks and balances" of the Constitution are bypassed by executive emergency powers.

The unified top. Above this stalemated middle, the corporate, military, and political elites form a highly unified coalition. Their interests coincide on major national policies, allowing them to govern without effective opposition or countervailing power.

8. Active democratic publics have been transformed into a passive mass society.

The public, so conceived, is the loom of classic, eighteenth-century democracy... But now we must recognize this description as a set of images out of a fairy tale...

The rise of the mass. In a genuine democracy, a community of active publics discusses issues, formulates opinions, and translates those opinions into collective action. In modern America, however, this public is being systematically transformed into a passive "society of masses."

The media market. The mass media have expropriated the public's capacity for independent discussion, turning citizens into a mere media market. This psychological manipulation is characterized by:

• A tiny group of opinion-makers delivering standardized messages to millions of passive receivers.
• The inability of the individual to answer back or engage in meaningful public debate.
• The stereotyping of experience, which prevents people from trusting their own senses.
• The reduction of education to vocational training and the inculcation of nationalist loyalties.

The loss of community. Sunk in the segregated routines of the metropolitan metropolis, the individual loses any structural view of society. Lacking independent voluntary associations to connect them to power, men in the mass feel insecure, politically impotent, and vaguely anxious.

9. The "higher immorality" and "crackpot realism" define the elite's mindlessness.

Nowadays what we are up against is precisely the absence of mind of any sort as a public force; what we are up against is a disinterest in and a fear of knowledge that might have liberating public relevance.

The higher immorality. Mills argues that public corruption is not merely a matter of a few bad apples, but is a systematic feature of the American elite. The "higher immorality" is the institutionalized relaxation of moral standards within the corporate, military, and political worlds.

The crackpot realists. The men of the power elite are characterized by a profound intellectual mediocrity and a fear of genuine knowledge. In the name of "realism" and "practicality," these "crackpot realists" have constructed a paranoid reality that:

• Replaces reasoned public debate with commercial-style public relations and manipulation.
• Expands the area of the "official secret" to hide fateful decisions from the public.
• Relies on the "expert" and "the Lord" to justify policies that lack rational foundation.
• Equates material success and money-making with personal virtue and intelligence.

The divorce of mind. Knowledge and power have been completely divorced in the higher circles. The man of knowledge is no longer a peer to the man of power, but has been reduced to a hired technician or consultant who serves to legitimize the elite's decisions.

10. Organized irresponsibility thrives in a political and intellectual vacuum.

Commanders of power unequaled in human history, they have succeeded within the American system of organized irresponsibility.

Organized irresponsibility. The ultimate consequence of the rise of the power elite is the creation of a system of organized irresponsibility. Because decisions are made by interlocking cliques behind closed doors, no single group or individual can be held accountable for their outcomes.

The intellectual default. This irresponsibility is furthered by the default of the intellectual community, which has surrendered to a comfortable "conservative mood." Instead of criticizing the elite, many scholars have taken to celebrating the status quo or denying that a power elite even exists:

• Liberals focus on the noisy middle levels of power, sustaining the illusion of a balancing society.
• Historians rewrite the past to provide comforting myths that justify the present.
• Social scientists reduce the study of power to a harmless enumeration of a plurality of causes.

The challenge of accountability. To restore responsible government, we must reject both the fatalism of "blind drift" and the paranoia of "conspiracy theories." We must hold the power elite accountable for the terrible consequences of their decisions, for the means of power are now too enormous to be left in irresponsible hands.

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