Abstract
In this chapter I argue that Elite Theory rather than Marxism is the most appropriate framework for understanding our ruling elites during the period. I survey the basic tenets of American Elite Theory: that ruling elites maintain their legitimacy by promoting an ideology that justifies their rule, by embodying to some degree the values and aspirations of those below them in the class system, and by rejuvenating themselves to some extent by being open to new members. And I explain my key concepts: “power” as a function of influential social roles and the “political elite” as dominated by members of the top three social classes: Old Money, New Money, and the upper-middle class. I argue that while the various factions of our ruling elite represent very different interests and are thus not strictly speaking a hegemonic oligarchy, until recently they have tended to share power and not directly attacked their opponents’ interests. However, beginning in the 1970s, reactionary factions of the Republican Party began to work systematically to take control of the political directorate.
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- 1.
See Wright (1977, 67–71) on the difficulties of using the basic Marxist notion of “mode of production” to account for work in a governmental bureaucracy.
- 2.
For an extended argument about the implications of elite rule in America, see Dye and Zeigler (1996).
- 3.
As far as I know, there is no solid sociological research on whether the lifestyle of Old Money has changed since the 1980s. However, popular notions of what it means to be a member of Old Money do not seem to have changed much. See, for example, Rosenthal et al. (2018).
- 4.
A number of recent studies (Reeves 2017; Stewart 2018) have argued that since the 1970s the wealthiest 20 percent of households, outside the top 1 percent, now constitute a new force in American culture, hoarding their privileges at the expense of the lower classes and forming a new aristocracy. These households contain at least one credentialed manager or professional. Perrucci and Wysong (2008, 31) go so far as to argue that this privileged top 20 percent have turned America into a two-class society: an upper privileged class and a lower “new working class,” although Perucci and Wysong label the top segment of the new working class as “comfortable.” This group includes “school teachers, civil servants, social workers, nurses, some small-business owners, and skilled unionized carpenters, machinists, or electricians.” The evidence for the “top 20 percent” does help explain increasing inequality in the United States since the 1970s, but it does not fundamentally change how we should conceptualize the ruling elite. The “top 20 percent,” not counting the very top 1 percent, includes those who have been traditionally labeled “upper-middle class” and New Money, two of the three groups that have historically constituted the ruling elite.
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Smit, D. (2019). Elite Theory and the American Political Directorate. In: Power and Class in Political Fiction. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26769-8_3
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