Who Rules America Now?

Who Rules America Now? PDF Author: G. William Domhoff
Publisher: Touchstone
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
The author is convinced that there is a ruling class in America today. He examines the American power structure as it has developed in the 1980s. He presents systematic, empirical evidence that a fixed group of privileged people dominates the American economy and government. The book demonstrates that an upper class comprising only one-half of one percent of the population occupies key positions within the corporate community. It shows how leaders within this "power elite" reach government and dominate it through processes of special-interest lobbying, policy planning and candidate selection. It is written not to promote any political ideology, but to analyze our society with accuracy.

Who Rules America Now?

Who Rules America Now? PDF Author: G. William Domhoff
Publisher: Touchstone
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 244

Get Book Here

Book Description
The author is convinced that there is a ruling class in America today. He examines the American power structure as it has developed in the 1980s. He presents systematic, empirical evidence that a fixed group of privileged people dominates the American economy and government. The book demonstrates that an upper class comprising only one-half of one percent of the population occupies key positions within the corporate community. It shows how leaders within this "power elite" reach government and dominate it through processes of special-interest lobbying, policy planning and candidate selection. It is written not to promote any political ideology, but to analyze our society with accuracy.

The Structure of Power in America

The Structure of Power in America PDF Author: Michael Schwartz
Publisher: Holmes & Meier Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
In a collective enterprise, fourteen leading social scientists have worked closely to explore the power network connecting U.S. corporate structure with other key sectors of the society. In clear, non-technical terms, the contributors examine such issues as interlocking boards, business control of banks, the government as an agent of the ruling class, the "cap-ture" of regulatory agencies by the businesses they were supposed to regulate, and penetration of various U.S. insti-tutions by a corporate "inner group." In addition, this volume contains the first general analysis of the structure of intercorporate co-ordination among multinational businesses and the expression of business interest in educa-tional systems, transportation policy, urban investment, and academic political theory. Together the essays address not only the processes of cor-porate decision making and policy formation, but also the vulnerability of the elite to mass discontent, the fragility of its role in the face of mass action.

Studying the Power Elite

Studying the Power Elite PDF Author: G. William Domhoff
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000032108
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
This book critiques and extends the analysis of power in the classic, Who Rules America?, on the fiftieth anniversary of its original publication in 1967—and through its subsequent editions. The chapters, written especially for this book by twelve sociologists and political scientists, provide fresh insights and new findings on many contemporary topics, among them the concerted attempt to privatize public schools; foreign policy and the growing role of the military-industrial component of the power elite; the successes and failures of union challenges to the power elite; the ongoing and increasingly global battles of a major sector of agribusiness; and the surprising details of how those who hold to the egalitarian values of social democracy were able to tip the scales in a bitter conflict within the power elite itself on a crucial banking reform in the aftermath of the Great Recession. These social scientists thereby point the way forward in the study of power, not just in the United States, but globally. A brief introductory chapter situates Who Rules America? within the context of the most visible theories of power over the past fifty years—pluralism, Marxism, Millsian elite theory, and historical institutionalism. Then, a chapter by G. William Domhoff, the author of Who Rules America?, takes us behind the scenes on how the original version was researched and written, tracing the evolution of the book in terms of new concepts and research discoveries by Domhoff himself, as well as many other power structure researchers, through the 2014 seventh edition. Readers will find differences of opinion and analysis from chapter to chapter. The authors were encouraged to express their views independently and frankly. They do so in an admirable and useful fashion that will stimulate everyone’s thinking on these difficult and complex issues, setting the agenda for future studies of power.

Power in America

Power in America PDF Author: John F. Keller
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description


Political Power in America

Political Power in America PDF Author: Anthony R. DiMaggio
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438476957
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 514

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Book Description
Analyzing major political institutions such as Congress, the courts, the presidency, and the media, this book chronicles how the interests of affluent Americans—particularly business, professional, and corporate interests—dominate over those of "average" citizens. Anthony R. DiMaggio examines American political behavior, as it relates to lobbying, citizen activism, media consumption, and voting, to demonstrate how the public is often misinformed and manipulated regarding major political and economic matters. However, record public distrust of the government and the increasing popularity of mass protests suggest that most Americans are deeply unhappy with the political status quo, and many are willing to fight for change. Political Power in America details this interplay between a political system dominated by the affluent few and the rise of mass political distrust and protest. It offers information and tools needed to better understand the democratic deficit in American politics, while providing opportunities for discussing what we might do to address the mounting crisis of declining democracy.

Ruling America

Ruling America PDF Author: Steve Fraser
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674017474
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
Ruling America offers a panoramic history of our country's ruling elites from the time of the American Revolution to the present. At its heart is the greatest of American paradoxes: How have tiny minorities of the rich and privileged consistently exercised so much power in a nation built on the notion of rule by the people? In a series of thought-provoking essays, leading scholars of American history examine every epoch in which ruling economic elites have shaped our national experience. They explore how elites came into existence, how they established their dominance over public affairs, and how their rule came to an end. The contributors analyze the elite coalition that led the Revolution and then examine the antebellum planters of the South and the merchant patricians of the North. Later chapters vividly portray the Gilded Age "robber barons," the great finance capitalists in the age of J. P. Morgan, and the foreign-policy "Establishment" of the post-World War II years. The book concludes with a dissection of the corporate-led counter-revolution against the New Deal characteristic of the Reagan and Bush era. Rarely in the last half-century has one book afforded such a comprehensive look at the ways elite wealth and power have influenced the American experiment with democracy. At a time when the distribution of wealth and power has never been more unequal, Ruling America is of urgent contemporary relevance.

The China Choice

The China Choice PDF Author: Hugh White
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199684715
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
How should the West respond to the inexorable rise of China? Hugh White attempts to answer the key geopolitcal question of the 21st century - one which will have momentous consequences for us all.

Routes of Power

Routes of Power PDF Author: Christopher F. Jones
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674728890
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
The fossil fuel revolution is usually a tale of advances in energy production. Christopher Jones tells a tale of advances in energy access—canals, pipelines, wires delivering cheap, abundant power to cities at a distance from production sites. Between 1820 and 1930 these new transportation networks set the U.S. on a path to fossil fuel dependence.

From Wealth to Power

From Wealth to Power PDF Author: Fareed Zakaria
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691010358
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
What turns rich nations into great powers? How do wealthy countries begin extending their influence abroad? These questions are vital to understanding one of the most important sources of instability in international politics: the emergence of a new power. In From Wealth to Power, Fareed Zakaria seeks to answer these questions by examining the most puzzling case of a rising power in modern history--that of the United States. If rich nations routinely become great powers, Zakaria asks, then how do we explain the strange inactivity of the United States in the late nineteenth century? By 1885, the U.S. was the richest country in the world. And yet, by all military, political, and diplomatic measures, it was a minor power. To explain this discrepancy, Zakaria considers a wide variety of cases between 1865 and 1908 when the U.S. considered expanding its influence in such diverse places as Canada, the Dominican Republic, and Iceland. Consistent with the realist theory of international relations, he argues that the President and his administration tried to increase the country's political influence abroad when they saw an increase in the nation's relative economic power. But they frequently had to curtail their plans for expansion, he shows, because they lacked a strong central government that could harness that economic power for the purposes of foreign policy. America was an unusual power--a strong nation with a weak state. It was not until late in the century, when power shifted from states to the federal government and from the legislative to the executive branch, that leaders in Washington could mobilize the nation's resources for international influence. Zakaria's exploration of this tension between national power and state structure will change how we view the emergence of new powers and deepen our understanding of America's exceptional history.

The Corporate Rich and the Power Elite in the Twentieth Century

The Corporate Rich and the Power Elite in the Twentieth Century PDF Author: G. William Domhoff
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780367252021
Category : Corporations
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book demonstrates exactly how the corporate rich developed and implemented the policies and government structures that allowed them to dominate America in the 20th-century. Written with unparalleled insight, Domhoff offers a remarkable look into the nature of power during a pivotal time, with added significance for the current era.