The Power Elite

Historically, in small cities and towns in the US, a prominent set of families made communal decisions and socialized with one another. These families are part of an upper class and are conscious of that fact. In American history, this class has two factions in tension with one another: an old guard associated with family prestige, and new entrepreneurs who earned lots of money in less respectful ways. After World War II, the old guard declined, and rich industrialists and tradespeople rose to dominate the upper class. This faction resents governmental programs, such as the New Deal, that promise more economic equality. Therefore, it aims to destroy these programs because they threaten its feelings of superiority and prestige.

At the local level, the old guard remains at the top of the hierarchy. Given its leadership of economic functions, such as banking, its members decide community issues. The new upper class—"the 'operations' men—the vice-presidents of the banks, successful small businessmen, the ranking public officials [...]" (37)—implement the decisions of the ruling guard. Below them are petty civic leaders and then rank-and-file professionals, such as teachers, who round out the upper echelon at its bottom tier. However, during the mid-20th century, local hierarchies of power find themselves subordinated to national ones.

In business and other realms, to “remain merely local is to fail” (39). National corporations have offices in smaller cities, displacing the old economic and social leaders. The members of the new upper class own homes in the country and the city and travel extensively. Their connections are distant ones, with local ties almost nonexistent. As a result, members of this class bypass the local world of the old guard. Women, for example, see no reason to volunteer in the local community, preferring instead to connect with national figures. Prestige and power systems are national in scope, “no longer made up of decentralized little hierarchies” (45). Local societies are reduced to “satellites of status and class and power systems that extend beyond their local horizon” (46).

Prior to the Civil War, there was a core of older, wealthy families in big cities that comprised a “compact and stable” (48) upper class. Despite efforts to exclude the newly rich from membership in this class, this new wealth was too extensive to be resisted after the Civil War. Thus, Mrs. Astor’s list of the 400 prominent New York City families comprising "society," an exclusive membership limited to the old guard, failed in its efforts to exclude so-called new money. An upper class continues to exist, but it includes those with new wealth. Importantly, money can buy entrance into American high society. There is not enough stability or history of family lines in the US to enable old families to exclude the newly rich.

Yet inclusion on the social register means something, and those newly rich who join the upper class partake of the same socialization process that marks this class as set apart from others. Specifically, its members attend the same private schools. Schooling at the precollegiate level is an especially important experience. Exclusive boarding schools provide a unifying influence, nationalizing the upper-class. Such schools become more important than the pedigree of a family and, in fact, assume the role of an “organized extension of the family” (65). Students are groomed not to be too competitive but to have just the right amount of intelligence, enthusiasm, and deference. While boys and girls attend different schools, they are introduced to one another at functions to ensure that the members of this class marry their own.

Following this socialization, the men attend Ivy League schools, but that alone does not mark them as members of this class. Rather, their earlier schooling leads them to the right clubs in college. Later, they will join "gentleman’s clubs," which provide important networks for decision-making and for certifying those who are socially fit (62). All over the nation, the members of this class recognize one another. They form the elite of the upper class, and they make decisions in powerful institutions. Their perspective is shaped and informed by their peers in “small, closed, intimate groups” (69).

Given the development of mass communication, new types of prestigious people, or celebrities, compete against and even displace those in high society or on the Metropolitan 400 list. At the same time, the institutional elite and society families compete with and borrow prestige from professional entertainers or celebrities. Mills describes café society in the New York City of the 1950s, where the institutional elite, metropolitan socialites, and professional entertainers mix and mingle. Those with new money find ready entry into café society, and they opt for that over the high society of Newport or the other traditional enclaves of the wealthy. A hierarchy determined by publicity replaces a hierarchy based on descent.

Yet Mills notes that celebrities are at times selected and created for profit. They occupy positions of prestige only because they are celebrated. For example, business created the image of the "all-American Girl," who sets the guidelines for fashion and conduct and stands at the head of café society. Slightly erotic, her image is used in advertising. Once these professional entertainers lose publicity, however, they lose prestige and fade from national view. Socialites can opt for entry into the celebrity world, but many of them do not desire it, even though it is the only way open to them to claim prestige.

In Washington, D.C., there is no café society. Instead, men in the higher circles of politics, economics, and the military work to achieve influence. The positions that they occupy and the power that they command dictate their status. Prestige derives from their positions and their offices, not their family names. The greater the power of the institution they command, the more likely that they will become national celebrities. Mills notes that the power of a nation’s military determines its political standing in the world. Military leaders gain more power and prestige in wartime, but they fully joined the national system of prestige by the mid-20th century.

Mills defines prestige as “a sort of domination exercised on our mind by an individual, a work, or an idea” (87). He notes that "an elite cannot acquire prestige without power; it cannot retain prestige without reputation" (88). If someone has a significant moral reputation, that individual can hold onto prestige even if power is lost. Yet for one with little reputation, prestige disappears quickly without power. Prestige not only serves a unifying function for the elite in its exclusiveness, but it also supports power by transforming it into authority. When people have authority, others do not challenge their power. Instead, they accept their expertise and legitimacy. In the 1920s, indicators began pointing toward a status merger among the economic, military, and political elite who seek to buttress their power with an “enduring and stable prestige” (91). Yet Mills comments that this elite might also be content to stay away from celebrity status, disguising its power behind liberal and democratic rhetoric and allowing professional entertainers to distract the public from its maneuvers. Notably, in contrast to this group, professional entertainers would quickly lose prestige with their loss of celebrity.