Elites and the U.S.

The Congress, the bureaucracy, the domestic presidency, and the foreign affairs presidency together work to create an elitist system. This elitist system is in the hands of wealthy individuals and groups who prevent the people from taking as much part in the government as they should. The elites have similar goals and work together to control the political agenda and the outcome of the political process. This elitist system is unjust because it steals from the people their right to a fuller and more meaningful participation in what is supposed to be a democratic system.

C. Wright Mills writes the following:

important policies are set by a loose coalition of three groups . . . [This] elite theory [holds that] three major influences of policy--corporate leaders, military leaders, and a small group of key governmental leaders--are the true "power elite" in America . . . These elite theorists believe that government has become increasingly alienated from the people and is rarely responsive to their wishes (O'Connor and Sabato 12).

The most important piece of evidence to support the argument that the Congress is elitist and unresponsive to the needs of the people is the opinion of the people themselves. O'Connor and Sabato write that "before the 1994 midterm elections, public confidence in Congress fell to 8 percent" (161). Part of this lack of trust and confidence has to do with the view that the Congress is unresponsive to the needs of the people, that the Congress is c

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m indirectly. An important difference between Congressional and bureaucratic elitism has to do with the actual membership of the Congress and the bureaucracy. Whereas the Congress is made up of individuals who are almost all members of the elite group themselves (although some may occasionally defy the elitist position on individual issues), the bureaucracy is generally not made up of elites. Certainly, individuals in the bureaucracy have attitudes reflecting those of elitist members of Congress in their desire to achieve and maintain power at the expense of the needs of the people, but, as O'Connor and Sabato write, for the most part "women and minorities are better represented as a proportion of the workforce in the bureaucracy than in the nation as a whole" (249). However, in terms of the question of the elitist effect of the activities of the bureaucracy, the bureaucracy supports the elite system just as effectively and consistently as the Congress does, if not more so. What makes the bureaucracy elitist in impact, if not always in terms of its personnel, is that its infamous red tape serves to maintain the status quo, which itself is elitist. If the people want a change in government, they must first influence the Congress

Category: Government - E