At this crucial moment in American history, when voting rights could be expanded to include all citizens, or legislatively limited, this significantly updated edition of Who Rules America? shows precisely how the top 0.5% of the population, who own a rapidly growing share of the nation’s wealth, and an increasing percentage of its yearly income, dominate governmental decision-making. They have created a corporate community and a policy-planning network, made up of foundations, think-tanks, and policy-discussion groups, to develop the policies that become law. Through a leadership group called the power elite, the corporate rich provide campaign donations and other gifts and favors to elected officials, serve on federal advisory committees, and receive appointments to key positions in government, all of which make it possible for the corporate rich and the power elite to rule the country, despite constant challenges from the inclusionary alliance and from the Democratic Party. The book explains the role of both benign and dark attempts to influence public opinion, the machinations of the climate-denial network, and how the Supreme Court came to have an ultraconservative majority, who serve as a backstop for the corporate community as well as a legitimator of restrictions on voting rights, union rights, and abortion rights, by ruling that individual states have the power to set such limits.
Author(s): G. William Domhoff
Edition: 8 (ebk)
Publisher: Routledge (Taylor & Francis)
Year: 2022
Introduction: Setting the Stage for What Follows
Who Are the Top 0.5%?
Keeping Power and Politics in Perspective
A Guide to What Follows
1 Concepts, Definitions, and Power Indicators
Power Is a Relationship: The Social Science View of Power
The Social Psychology of Being Powerful or Powerless
The Four Major Power Networks
What Does “Power” Mean in American Culture?
Social Classes, According to Social Scientists
How Do Americans Perceive Social Classes?
Class, Caste, and Colorism in the United States
Cultures of Resistance and Liberation, Cultures of Resentment
There Have Been No Conspiracies to Take Over the Government
Three Power Indicators
Conclusion
2 The Corporate Community
Introduction
The General Contours of the Corporate Community
The Unexpected Origins of the Corporate Community
The Board of Directors
Two Important Business Sectors in the Corporate Community
The Director Network as a Leadership Group
The Corporate Lawyers
From Small Farms to Agribusinesses in the Corporate Community
Small Businesses and Their Reliance on the Corporate Community
Local Businesses Form Growth Coalitions
Structural Power and Its Limits
3 The Corporate Community and the Upper Class
Introduction
Is There an American Upper Class?
Prepping for Power
Social Clubs
Women’s Roles as a Window into the Upper Class
Continuity and Upward Mobility
The Upper Class and Corporate Control
The Social-Class Backgrounds of Corporate Executives
The Assimilation of Rising Corporate Executives
Drop-Outs, Failures, and Change Agents
Conclusion: Common Economic Interests and Social Bonds
4 The Corporate Rich, The Policy-Planning Network, and the Power Elite
Introduction
The Power Elite: An Institutionalized Leadership Group
Foundations
Think Tanks
Policy-Discussion Groups
The Creation of New Government Agencies
The Rise of Ultraconservative Foundations and Think Tanks
The Mixed Role of Universities in American Power Conflicts
Conclusion: The Policy-Planning Network in Perspective
5 The Role of Public Opinion
Introduction and Overview
An Overview of the Opinion-Shaping Network
The American Creed and Blaming the Victims
Benign Public Relations
Shaping Public Opinion through Educational Nonprofits
Manufacturing Crises and Spreading Doubt
Dark Public Relations: Attempts to “Enforce” Public Opinion
The Secondary Role of the Media
When Public Opinion Can and Cannot Be Ignored
Conclusion
6 Parties and Elections
Electoral Rules as Containment Strategies
Electoral Containment and Voter Suppression in America
Why Are There Only Two Major Parties?
The Two Political Parties: The In-Group Against the Out-Groups
The Republican and Democratic Coalitions from 1878 to 1994
Party Primaries Bring Wild Cards into Elections
The Big, Not Determinative, Role of Campaign Finance
Other Corporate Support for Candidates
The Liberal-Labor Alliance in Electoral Politics
How Did Joe Biden and Kamala Harris Win the 2020 Presidential Election?
The Results of the Candidate-Selection Process
But There’s Still Uncertainty
7 How the Power Elite Dominate Government
Introduction
The Special-Interest Process
The Policy-Making Process
Appointees to Government
The Trump and Biden Cabinets: A Study in Contrasts
The Supreme Court: A Bastion of Corporate Dominance
The Liberal-Labor Alliance and Congress
The Limits of Corporate Domination
Conclusion
8 Examining the American Power Structure in a Wider Perspective
Why Are the Corporate Rich So Powerful?
The Transformation of the American Power Structure
Power and Social Change
The What If’s and What’s Next’s
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Index
