Issue of Power and Class in the U.S.

Consider the evidence offered by Domhoff (1983) in his analysis of social class and power relations in America today. G. William Domhoff is a professor of psychology and sociology at the University of California at Santa Cruz. He wrote an earlier analysis of the same issues, and with this newer book he is updating his views and considering how power relations may have changed in the interim, particularly as a result of the political and social currents of the 1980s.

Domhoff rightly begins with a definition, of power, turning to Max Weber, who saw power as the chance of an individual or a group to realize their own will in a social action even when others resist. Domhoff follows other theorists by noting that in a profound sense, it is not power that is wielded in American democratic society but influence. We can decide who has influence by looking to certain indicators, logical demonstrations that power is possessed or used. We can ask who benefits, who governs, and who wins in terms of public policy, and the answers show who has the influence.

Domhoff makes his argument clear at the outset of his book and then provides the evidence and the analysis to shape that arg

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ons and uses outside references as a framework for the presentation. He cites studies of social groups and their behavior and various statistics showing how power may be distributed, who uses it, and how they use it. In his analysis of corporate America, for instance, he delves into the ownership of the major corporations, which are family-owned and which are not, and how the leadership is selected. Domhoff points out the organizations and groups at each level that are used by the elites to press their influence. At the social level there are clubs, elite schools, and other membership organizations which concentrate the collective power of their members. In business the corporation itself can be such an organization, along with various business councils, trade groups, and other alliances. At the governmental level there are committees, foundations, policy-discussion groups, councils, and so on all directed to a given subject or to a class of subjects--foreign relations, domestic relations, race relations, and so on. These groups are a clear demonstration that while Americans are uncomfortable with the idea of influence and with the sense that those with influence achieve what they want while those without influence do not
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Approximate Word count = 1492
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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