According to Mills, "Elites rule in institutional terms rather than psychological terms." Comment.. (UPSC CSE Mains 2020 - Sociology, Paper 1)
- Wright Mills in his book titled the Power Elite in 1956, discusses the analysis of American society. Mills seek to explain elite rule in institutional terms as he identifies three key institutions in USA – the major business corporations, the military and the federal government. These institutions occupy pivotal positions in society. Those who occupy command posts in these three key institutions constitute the elite. The holders of these command posts though apparently distinguishable from one another in terms of their association with three key institutions are sufficiently similar in their values, interests and ideals and are interconnected to form a single ruling minority. He names this ruling minority ''the power elite''.
- Of the three sectors of institutional power, Mills claims, the corporate sector is the most powerful. But the power elite cannot be understood as a mere reflection of economic elites; rather it is the alliance of economic, political, and military power. Mills saw two other levels of power in American society below the Corporate Elites. At the bottom are the great masses of people. Largely unorganized, ill informed, and virtually powerless, they are controlled and manipulated from above. The masses are economically dependent; they are economically and politically exploited. Because they are disorganized, the masses are far removed from the classic democratic public in which voluntary organizations hold the key to power.
- Between the masses and the elite Mills saw a middle level of power. Composed of local opinion leaders and special interest groups, they neither represent the masses nor have any real effect on the elite. Mills saw the American Congress and American political parties as a reflection of this middle-level of power. Although Congress and political parties debate and decide some minor issues, the power elite ensures that no serious challenge to its authority and control is tolerated in the political arena. The positions of the elite allow them to transcend the ordinary environments of men and women. The elite have access to levers of power that make their decisions (as well as their failure to act) consequential.
- Free from popular control, the power elite pursue its own concerns power and self-aggrandizement.Mill says that owing to importance of political reasons that Hiroshima, Nagasaki (Japan) was attacked with nuclear bomb and was completely devastated. However, Cambodia, Iraq and now Afghanistan are suffering from the autocratic tendency and activities of American power-elite.
- Viewing their nature of this kind Mills predicted that whenever there happens a third world war, they would be responsible for it. Mills further opines that in internal matters the power elite is not committed to the mass. It means if their policies favour the mass, it is merely incidental. That is why American mass is always unhappy with governmental procedures.
- Mills’ conclusions about the nature and distribution of power on the national level are largely echoed in an investigation of power on the local level by Floyd Hunter, Community Power Structure is a study of a large southern city in the USA given the pseudonym of ‘Regional City’ but generally believed to be Atlanta, Georgia.
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