Power elite

Elite (from late 18th century French élite), is a term that originates from Latin eligere (“to choose, elect”). In political and sociological theory for a small group of powerful people that controls a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege or political power in a society.

American sociologist C. Wright Mills wrote in his 1957 book The Power Elite of the "elite" as: "those political, economic, and military circles, which as an intricate set of overlapping small but dominant groups share decisions having at least national consequences. Insofar as national events are decided, the power elite are those who decide them". Mills states that the power elite members recognize other members' mutual exalted position in society. "As a rule, '[t]hey accept one another, understand one another, marry one another, tend to work and to think, if not together at least alike'." "It is a well-regulated existence where education plays a critical role. Youthful upper-class members attend prominent preparatory schools, which not only open doors to such elite universities as Harvard, Yale, and Princeton but also to the universities' highly exclusive clubs. These memberships in turn pave the way to the prominent social clubs located in all major cities and serving as sites for important business contacts".

The men who receive the education necessary for elitist privilege obtain the background and contacts that allow them to enter three branches of the power elite, which are;

According to Mills, the governing elite in the United States primarily draws its members from political leaders, including the president, and a handful of key cabinet members and close advisers, major corporate owners and directors, and high-ranking military officers These groups overlap, and elites tend to circulate from one sector to another, consolidating power in the process.

Unlike the ruling class, a social formation based on heritage and social ties, the power elite is characterized by the organizational structures through which its wealth is acquired. According to Mills, the power elite rose from "the managerial reorganization of the propertied classes into the more or less unified stratum of the corporate rich". Domhoff further clarified the differences in the two terms: "The upper class as a whole does not do the ruling. Instead, class rule is manifested through the activities of a wide variety of organizations and institutions...Leaders within the upper class join with high-level employees in the organizations they control to make up what will be called the power elite".

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