Who Rules America? The Triumph of the Corporate Rich

Abstract

Preface Introduction 1. Power and Class in America What is Power? The Social Science View of Power Three Power Indicators What is a Social Class? Social Class According to Social Scientists 2. The Corporate Community The Unexpected Origins of the Corporate Community The Board of Directors The Corporate Community The Director Network as a Leadership Group The Corporate Lawyers From Small Farms to the Agrifood Business Small Business: Not a Counterweight Local Businesses Form Growth Coalitions Structural Power and Its Limits 3. The Corporate Community and the Upper Class Is There an American Upper Class? Prepping for Power Social Clubs The Feminine Half of the Upper Class Dropouts, Failures, and Change Agents Continuity and Upward Mobility Is the Upper Class an Economic Class? The Upper Class and Corporate Control Where Do Corporate Executives Come From? The Assimilation of Rising Corporate Executives Class Awareness 4. The Policy-Planning Network An Overview of the Policy-Planning Network Corporate Interlocks with Think Tanks and Policy Groups Foundations Think Tanks The Mixed Role of Universities in American Power Conflicts The Policy-Discussion Groups The Committee for Economic Development The Liberal-Labor Policy Network The Power Elite The Policy-Planning Network in Perspective 5. The Role of Public Opinion An Overview of the Opinion-Shaping Network Striving to Shape Opinion on Foreign Policy Trying to Shape Opinion on Economic Policies The Power Elite and Social Issues The Role of the Mass Media Attempts to Enforce Public Opinion When Public Opinion Can and Cannot be Ignored 6. Parties and Elections Electoral Rules as Containment Strategies Electoral Constraints and Voter Suppression in America How Growth Coalitions Changed Electoral Rules How Elections Nonetheless Matter Why Only Two Major Parties? Republicans and Democrats Party Primaries as Government Structures The Big, Not Determinative, Role of Campaign Finance The Obama Donor Network: A Case History Other Corporate Support for Candidates The Liberal-Labor Alliance in Electoral Politics The Results of the Candidate Selection Process But There's Still Uncertainty 7. How the Power Elite Dominate Government The Role of Governments The Special-Interest Process The Policy-Making Process Appointees to Government The First Obama Administration Supreme Court Appointments The Liberal-Labor Alliance and Congress Corporate Complaints of Impotence: Their Real Fears The Limits of Corporate Domination 8. The Big Picture Why Are the Corporate Rich So Powerful? The Transformation of the American Power Structure Power and Social Change 9. What Do Other Social Scientists Think? Pluralism Historical Institutionalism The Organizational State Perspective Elite Theory References Index