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Elite theory is a theory of the state which seeks to describe and explain the power relationships in modern society. It argues that a small minority, comprised of members of the economic elite and policy-planning networks, hold the most power no matter what happens in elections in a country. Through positions in corporations or on corporate boards, and influence over the policy-planning networks through financial support of foundations or positions with think tanks or policy-discussion groups, members of the "elite" are able to have significant power over policy decisions of corporations and governments. A state is a set of institutions that possess the authority to make the rules that govern the people in one or more societies, having internal and external sovereignty over a definite territory. ...
Economics (deriving from the Greek words οίκω [okos], house, and νÎμω [nemo], rules hence household management) is the social science that studies the allocation of scarce resources to satisfy unlimited wants. ...
Look up policy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
This article is about the institution. ...
The theory stands in opposition to pluralism in suggesting that democracy is a utopian ideal. It also stands in opposition to state autonomy theory. Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Pluralism Pluralism is, in the general sense, the affirmation and acceptance of diversity. ...
Left panel (The Earthly Paradise, Garden of Eden), from Hieronymus Boschs The Garden of Earthly Delights. ...
Elite theorists
C. Wright Mills C. Wright Mills published his book The Power Elite in 1956 claiming a new perspective on systems of power in the USA. He identified a triumvirate of power groups – political, economic and military – who form a distinguishable, although not unified body, wielding power in the American state: Charles Wright Mills (August 28, 1916, Waco, Texas – March 20, 1962, Nyack, New York) was an American sociologist. ...
The Power Elite is an influential book written by sociologist C. Wright Mills in 1956. ...
Year 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
He proposed that this group had been generated through a process of rationalisation at work in all advanced industrial societies where by the mechanisms of power became concentrated funnelling overall control into the hands of a limited, somewhat corrupt group (Bottomore 1993:25). This reflected a decline in politics as an arena for debate and relegation to a merely formal level of discourse (Mills 1956:274). This macro-scale analysis sought to point out the degradation of democracy in "advanced" societies and the fact that power generally lies outside the boundaries of elected representatives.
Floyd Hunter The elite theory analysis of power was also applied on the micro scale in community power studies such as that by Floyd Hunter (1953). Hunter examined in detail the power relationships evident in his "Regional City" looking for the "real" holders of power rather than those in obvious official positions. He posited a structural-functional approach which mapped the hierarchies and webs of interconnection operating within the city – mapping relationships of power between businessmen, politicians, clergy etc. The study was promoted to debunk current concepts of any ‘democracy’ present within urban politics and reaffirm the arguments for a true representative democracy (Hunter 1953:6). This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...
Representative democracy is a form of democracy founded on the exercise of popular sovereignty by the peoples representatives. ...
This type of analysis was also used in later, larger scale, studies such as that carried out by M. Schwarz examining the power structures within the sphere of the corporate elite in the USA (Schwarz 1987).
James Burnham James Burnham’s early work The Managerial Revolution sought to express the movement of all functional power into the hands of managers rather than politicians or businessmen – separating ownership and control (Bottomore 193:59). James Burnham (1905–1987) was an American popular political theorist, former Communist activist and intellectual, known for his work The Managerial Revolution, published in 1941, which heavily influenced George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four. // Burnham was of English Catholic stock, although he was an atheist for much of his life...
Robert D. Putnam Robert Putnam saw the development of technical and exclusive knowledge among administrators and other specialist groups as a mechanism by which power is stripped from the democratic process and slipped sideways to the advisors and specialists influencing the decision making process (Putnam 1977:385). Robert David Putnam (born January 9, 1941 in Rochester, New York) is a political scientist and professor at Harvard Universitys Kennedy School of Government, well-known for his writings on civic engagement, civil society, and social capital, a concept of which he is probably the leading exponent. ...
The Democratic Process is a style of government where the citizens have the right to participate in the decisions of their government. ...
Decision making is the cognitive process of selecting a course of action from among multiple alternatives. ...
"If the dominant figures of the past hundred years have been the entrepreneur, the businessman, and the industrial executive, the ‘new men’ are the scientists, the mathematicians, the economists, and the engineers of the new intellectual technology" (Putnam 1976:384).
References - Bottomore, T. (1993) Elites and Society (2nd Edition). London: Routledge.
- Burnham, J. (1960) The Managerial Revolution. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
- Hunter, Floyd (1953) Community Power Structure: A Study of Decision Makers
- Putnam, R. D. (1976) The Comparative Study of Political Elites. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
- Putnam, R. D. (1977) ‘Elite Transformation in Advance Industrial Societies: An Empirical Assessment of the Theory of Technocracy’ in Comparative Political Studies Vol. 10, No. 3, pp383-411.
- Schwarz, M. (ed.) (1987) The Structure of Power in America: The Corporate Elite as a Ruling Class. New York: Holmes & Meier.
- Wright Mills, C (1956) The Power Elite
Pearson can mean Pearson PLC the media conglomerate. ...
The Power Elite is an influential book written by sociologist C. Wright Mills in 1956. ...
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