Who are the Power Elite

According to C. Wright Mills, changes in the American structure have not involved any radical “revolution"; the changes have been institutional adjustments in the relative positions of the economic, political and military domains.

The first phase of institutional adjustment refers to the period from the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) to the presidency of John Adams (ended 1801). In that period there were no clearly demarcated institutional orders in that economic, political and military affairs increasingly coincided, and a pseudo-feudal order prevailed (without a standing army). In the early 19th century, Jeffersonian ‘republicanism ’as political philosophy together with Alexander Hamilton’s laissez faire economic prescriptions were the dominant ethos of the emerging capitalist structure. Then there was the Civil War (1861-1865) that resulted in the consolidation of capital and the development of wage labor. In 1886, formal corporate ascendancy was acknowledged by the state when the Supreme Court declared that the 14th Amendment protected the corporation as a ‘person’ with inalienable rights. Following that ‘protection’, economic men sometimes through outright bribery or purchase of political men dominated the power structure that represented a ‘laissez faire state’ (with a brief ‘transparent’ progressive era (1896-1919) in response to the revolt by petty bourgeoisie (the Middle Class of the time) and large farm owners which resulted in several progressive reforms.

The Great Depression which started in 1929 created in the political establishment a center of power not seen before, since the institutions of the New Deal (the socialist props incorporated to save capitalism from collapse) regulated affairs of the corporations. This ‘independent power’ center incorporated through necessity, resulted in the economic men making inroads into political positions of power rather than ruling from the outside. With World War 2, the structure of the economy altered to a form of militarized capitalism, military men and their ideology became dominant in America. Military men increasingly entered the political directorate, and later the economic sphere in the major defense industries.

Mills wrote:

"The shape and meaning of the power elite today can be understood only when these three sets of structural trends are seen at their point of coincidence: (today) the military capitalism of private corporations exists in a weakened and formal democratic system containing a military order already quite political in outlook and demeanor….but these instituted elite (in the military, political and economic domains) is frequently in some tension: it comes together only on certain coinciding points and only on certain occasions of ‘crisis’." (1956:276).

Mills is against the simple Marxian (not Marx’s) view of a Ruling Class that states that an economic class rules. The structure of power in the US is more complex and involves interplay of military, economic and political power due to adjustments by the economic elite through necessity. Marx and Engels had stated the same in the Communist Manifesto:

"The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production and with them the whole relations of society..." (Marx and Engels, 1848)

This point, that the bourgeoisie, through necessity of survival might alter the ‘sub-structure’ and through it the ‘super-structure’, is lost on both the classical Marxists and the Neo-Millsians who argue against each other. There is no dispute between Mills and Marx given the above quote.
The power elite are those at the pinnacles of the economic, military and political institutions (chosen through co-optation and socialization), they move between these three institutional structures, in other words positions of power are interchangeable in the military, political and economic domains resulting in institutionally circumscribed adaptation, producing a near uniform world view among them. Further, this power elite possesses a specific and clear ‘class consciousness’ and unique image of self as a (social) psychological fact (considering themselves separate and superior to the rest of society), regardless of popularly ascribed ideological label or party membership, this is amply revealed in their wars of aggression where they butcher the underlying populations with impunity and quite impersonally.

It is not that they all come from a ‘common origin’ of privilege (most of them do) but the fact that they are institutionally selected, rewarded and promoted means that regardless of their ‘origin’ those at the top have similar world view. The fact that their selection represents common origin is merely there to enhance the probability of success (since no socialization is ever complete). Thus minorities are always a wild-card (a greater risk) because of difference of origin, even if they are molded by elite institutions. The difference is a difference of degree only. Origin and institutional vetting (and socialization) and not either/or determines degree of standardization of world view.

Factions might exist among the power elite but their coinciding "community of interests" and the resulting inner discipline (the psychological ‘fact’ in outlook) bind them together even across differences (Mills 1956:283). Given these forces that are at play among them, the way they have emerged and the institutions that have shaped them, it is impossible for them to break away from maintaining the structural status quo that has created them, in the decisions they make while in public office. These interests are driven by their worldview, the "military metaphysic", which has, since the end of World War II, come to describe the economic life of the U.S, in the form of a ‘permanent war economy’. The most important thing to remember is:

"We must remember that these men of the Power Elite now occupy the strategic places in the structure of American society; that they command the dominant institutions of the dominant nation; that as a set of men, they are in a position to make decisions with terrible consequences for the underlying populations of the world." (1956:286)

The Power Elite does not refer to people conspiring together in a coordinated way, it is not about conspiracy theory; rather it is about the dominant positions in the dominant institutional orders (military, political and economic) of the dominant country (DDD). How these positions and their interchangeability among the three domains, based on bureaucratic requirements (that includes choosing a certain type of person, how status is allocated through his career, how promotions are given etc) that results in similarity of worldview and ‘class consciousness’ regarding their unique group. This means that no drastic change of worldview is possible during their careers at the top, in that their ‘integrity’ and ‘identity’ depends on their doing what is required to maintain the structure that has pushed them to the top.

These elite prefer to work and use the existing institutions (in a society) to get what they want but when they feel their new demands will not be met with existing organizations, they construct new ones, like the Department of Homeland Security post 9/11 or on a larger scale, the nuclear family and white ethnic identity post World War 2 etc. Due to centralization of decision, communication and ownership and the destructive technology that has been developed by the military-state, the power at the disposal of the Power Elite is of such great magnitude that is "unequaled in human history" (Mills 1956:361)

References:

Mills, C. Wright. 1956. The Power Elite. USA: Oxford University Press.