1. The Irony of Democracy
15 ed.
th
CHAPTER 3
ELITES IN AMERICA

2.  Describe the evolution of elites in
the U.S.
Learning Objectives
 Explain the New Deal and
progressive Eras as elite self-
interest.
 Identify important types of
organization in which national elites
are found.
 Differentiate governmental and
private sector elites.
 Explain the expanding role of
government and governmental
elites.

3. The Evolution of U.S. Elites

4. The Evolution of U.S. Elites
 Elite membership has evolved slowly.
 Industrialization, technology, other new sources of wealth have
produced new elites who have been absorbed into the system.
 Political conflict has centered on a narrow range of
issues.
 The Civil War was the only time elites were deeply divided
over the nature of U.S. society.

5. Early Elite Consensus:
Hamilton’s Financial Vision

6. Hamilton’s Financial Vision
 President George Washington’s Secretary of the
Treasury favored a strong national government as a
means of protecting property and stimulating economic
and industrial growth.
 Paid off the Revolutionary War debts (government bonds) at face
value – providing a significant profit to investors, created a pool of
capital available for investment in industrialization of the U.S.
 Established a Bank of the United States.
 Created conflict between merchants and bankers who
benefited from Hamilton’s policies and plantation owners
and slaveholders who did not.

7. Early Elite Consensus
 The first transfer of power, where the “out” party
peacefully replaced the “in” party illustrated the strength
of the consensus among elites.
 In the 1800 elections, the Federalists were defeated and
Thomas Jefferson won the presidency.
 Allowed the plantation owners and other landed interests to gain
power.
 Majority of Americans earned their living from the land, elites
mobilized the masses.
 The Democratic-Republicans made few changes to
Hamilton’s policies, ultimately adopted them.

8. The Rise of the West

9. The Rise of the West
 Western settlers were mainly middle and lower class
immigrants.
 Hard work resulted in rapid upward social mobility and creation of
new elites.
 Ideal of individualism, self-creation, wealth and power won by
competitive skill demands a more open elite system, greater
opportunity to acquire wealth and influence.
 Andrew Jackson’s presidential victory in 1828 was one of
new western elites.
 Jacksonian’s became advocates of the principle that all (white) men
should have the right to vote and hold public office.

10. The Rise of the West

11. Elite Cleavage: The Civil War
CLEAVAGE, VIOLENCE, AND SECESSION
LINCOLN AND SLAVERY

12. Elite Cleavage
 Southern elites could not profitably produce cotton
without slave labor.
 Cotton accounted for more than half of the value of all U.S.
goods shipped abroad before the Civil War.
 Wanted to expand cotton industry in the West.
 Northern elites had no direct interest in abolishing
slavery in the South, yet opposed slavery in the
West.
 Wanted small farmers who produced food and raw goods for
the commercial and industrial east.

13. Cleavage, Violence, and Secession
 Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857) – Supreme Court decided
that Congress had no authority to forbid slavery in any
territory - the Constitution protected slave property.
 In the 1860 presidential elections, Lincoln and the
Republican Party won the Electoral College.
 Many Southern leaders announced they would not accept the
outcome if Lincoln won.
 December 20, 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union,
followed by ten other states in the next six months.
 Southern Confederate forces attacked the Fort Sumter U.S. military
base in April 1861, beginning the Civil War.

14. Lincoln and Slavery
 Exclusive concern was halting slavery in the West.
 Wanted to tie western territories to the northern system.
 Lincoln’s goal was to bring the South back to the
Union, restore orderly government, and establish
that the states cannot resist national authority with
force.
 The Emancipation Proclamation was a political and
military tactic to preserve the union and make
foreign intervention in the Civil War less likely.

15. Rise of the New Industrial Elite

16. Industrial Elite
 Transformation from agricultural to industrial reached
climax after the Civil War.
 Homestead Act of 1862
 Transcontinental Railroad Act of 1862
 Rise of corporations and stock markets
 Introduction of machinery in factories
 Southern planters were removed from the national scene
 Business became increasingly competitive, little
companies disappeared, production rose and resulted in
the emergence of monopolies.

17. Reform as Elite Self-Interest: The
Progressive Era to the New Deal
PROGRESSIVE ERA
THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND THE NEW DEAL
NOBLESSE OBLIGE

18. Reform as Elite Self-Interest
 First generation of U.S. capitalists had little sense of
public responsibility.
 Their success arose from natural selection, survival of the
fittest – social Darwinist ideas.
 Mass discontent resulted in radical movements such
as anarchism and socialism.
 1901 assassination of President William McKinley was a
catalyst for elites to adjust the system.

19. Progressive Era
 Industrialization and urbanization rose to a peak in
late 1800’s.
 Brought about social disruption and vast numbers of masses
were left out of the economic boom.
 Elites in the U.S. witnessed similar events abroad,
took action to pre-empt agitation and anger aimed at
elites.
 Implemented a variety of laws and regulations (Fig 3-1)

20. Progressive Era
 President’s Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson
criticized elites for lack of public responsibility.
 Urged elites to value welfare of the masses as an aspect of its own
welfare.
 Programs aimed to preserve competition, individualism, enterprise,
and opportunity.
 Wilson’s Federal Trade Commission
 Federal Reserve Act
 Roosevelt broke up a number of monopolies
 Government regulation required to see that elites function in the
public interest.

21. Progressive Era

22. The Great Depression and the New Deal
 Following the stock market crash of October 1929,
the U.S. economy virtually came to a halt.
 By 1932, one out of four persons in the U.S. was unemployed,
one out of five was on welfare.
 President Herbert Hoover intervened with the
Emergency Relief and Construction Act’s public
works programs, created the Reconstruction
Finance Corporation to back loans.
 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act worsened the economy and made
Hoover appear ineffective.

23. The New Deal
 President Franklin D. Roosevelt elected in 1932
 Nation’s elites agreed that reform and regard for the public
welfare were essential to maintaining the political system.
 New Deal reformed the existing capitalist system.
 A series of improvisations aimed at making government act
humanely and compassionately toward those suffering hardship.
 Transferred significant amounts of power from private sector to
government.
 Minimize the ups and downs of the business cycle, protect the
masses.

24. Noblesse Oblige
 Philosophy of elite responsibility for the welfare of the masses.
 FDR came from two of the oldest elite families in the
U.S.
 Personal philosophy became the prevailing one of the new
liberal establishment.
 Generated a belief among the masses that the elites had their
best interests at heart.

25. The Growth of Government:
The New Deal to the Cold War
GLOBALIZATION

26. The Growth of Government
 Following WWII, federal spending settled at 18-20%
of the economy, lasted through 2008.
 As money flowed to the federal government, power
also moved from the private sector to the public.
 An elite class of government, military, business, and political
leaders were running the nation to their mutual benefit.
 No clear line of division between government and
business enterprise.
 Goals of government and corporate management have largely
blurred together.

27. The Growth of Government

28. The Growth of Government
 1960’s expansion of the role of government through
social welfare programs and increased regulation of
the economy.
 President Bill Clinton reduced the size and cost of
government.
 President George W. Bush provided higher levels of spending
and programming.
 Size of government hit record high in President Barack
Obama’s first year – purchased 2 automobile companies and
taking over failing banks, though the process began under the
Bush administration.

29. Globalization
 The United States is now a large player in a global
economy.
 Globalization’s affect on the power of elites is discussed in
Chapter 14.

30. Finding the Elites in the United
States

31. Finding the Elites in the United States
 Elites hold positions of power; two overlapping
categories – political and economic.
 Most elites can be found in government
 Congress, presidency, bureaucracy, state and local government
 Others are non-governmental
 Media, political parties, interest groups

32. Economic Elites in the United
States
INDUSTRIAL CONCENTRATION
FINANCIAL CONCENTRATION
CORPORATE ELITES
MANAGEMENT POWER
INTERLOCKING DIRECTORATES

33. Economic Elites
 The people who hold positions of power in the small
number of large corporations and banks.
 Generally held to high levels of accountability.
 Pluralism views business interest as just another
interest group, competing with all other interest
groups.
 Elitism views economic elites as distinctly powerful
in shaping government policy and making decisions
that directly influence our lives.

34. Industrial Concentration
 Economic enterprise has consolidated into a small
number of giant corporations.
 The 500 largest U.S. corporations collectively take in about
$10.6 trillion in revenues every year.

35. Industrial Concentration

36. Financial Concentration
 The nation’s 10 largest commercial banks control
nearly half of all banking assets.
 The financial crisis which began in 2007 resulted in partial
government ownership of Citigroup and Ally Bank.
 Recent banking mergers have resulted in greater
concentration.
 Insurance companies and investment firms have
immense power in the U.S. economy as well.

37. Financial Concentration

38. Corporate Elites
 Through the 1930’s, the nation’s largest corporations
were controlled by the tycoons who’d created them.
 By the 1930’s, control of most had passed to
professional managers.
 Theory of “managerialism” – general management skills are
more important than detailed production-specific knowledge –
became the conventional wisdom about corporate
governance.

39. Corporate Elites

40. Management Power
 Corporate power rests in the hands of the top
managers of the nation’s large industrial
corporations and financial institutions.
 Theoretically, stockholders have ultimate power over
management, but really have little control over the actions of
the corporations.
 Most sign over “proxies” so top management can cast votes for
them at annual meetings of stockholders.
 Formal division of power in a corporation is between
the board of directors and the company executives.

41. Management Power

42. Management Power

43. Interlocking Directorates
 A director of one corporation also sits on the boards
of one or more other corporations.
 Further concentrates power

44. Government and Corporate
Elites: Revolving Doors

45. Revolving Doors
 Politicians may know how to run for office, but may not
know how to run the government – some turn to
experienced executive elites to staff key positions in their
administrations.
 Elitist model expects a “revolving” door, elites move from
power positions in banking, industry, law, etc. to power
positions in government and back again.
 An exception are the members of President Obama’s cabinet, nearly
all of whom are career politicians (former governors, senators, etc.)
 Executives from Goldman Sacs have held numerous key
government positions.

46. Revolving Doors

47. Elite Policymaking Institutions
PUBLIC POLICY AS ELITE PREFERENCE
THE FOUNDATIONS AND UNIVERSITIES
THE THINK TANKS
THE MEDIA
THE WASHINGTON INSIDERS

48. Elite Policymaking Institutions
 U.S. elite are also found in foundations, policy-planning
organizations or think-tanks, mass media, and universities.
 These are a kind of “third force” in U.S. society.
 Most influential institutions include the Ford Foundation,
Rockefeller Foundation and Carnegie Corporation, Brookings
Institute, the RAND corporation, American Enterprise Institute,
Cato Institute, etc. – called the Establishment.
 Elites communicate with the masses and each other through
Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, etc.
 President Obama’s chief economic advisor had previously been with the
U.S. Treasury Department, D.E. Shaw Group, and Harvard University
(as president).

49. Public Policy as Elite Preference
 Pluralist model of the policy process views policy as the
product of competition, bargaining, and compromise among
many diverse groups.
 Interest groups viewed as principle actors.
 Elitist model views public policy as determined by a relatively
small group of like-minded individuals, reflecting their own
values and preferences.
 Initial resources for research, study, planning, etc. comes from corporate
and personal wealth which is channeled into foundations, universities,
policy-planning groups.
 Corporate presidents and directors, top wealth holders also sit on the
governing boards of foundations, universities, and policy-planning
groups to oversee the spending of their funds.

50. The Foundations and Universities
 Foundations provide a link between wealth and the
intellectual community.
 Universities must respond to the policy interests of
foundations.
 University intellectuals working independently occasionally
have impact on policymaking, though intellectuals on the
whole respond to policy direction set by foundations,
corporations, government agencies

51. The Foundations and Universities

52. The Think Tanks
 Policy-planning groups are central coordinating
points in policymaking process.
 Review relevant university and foundation-supported research
with the goal of developing policy recommendations.
 At the same time, endeavor to build consensus among
corporate, media, financial, civic, intellectual, and government
leaders.
 Of the most cited think tanks, 47% are centrist, 37%
are conservative, and 16% are progressive (left of
center)

53. The Media
 Play a vital role in preparing public opinion for policy
change.
 Media define the “problem” as a problem, setting the agenda
for policy making.
 Encourage politicians to assume new policy stances by
allocating valuable network airtime to those who speak out
about new policy directions.

54. The Washington Insiders
 White House staff, congressional committee staffs,
top executive administrators maintain close contact
with policy-planning groups.
 These groups often help prepare legislation.

55. Power in the United States: An
Elitist Interpretation

56. Power in the United States
 Power is organized into large organizations, private
and public:
 Banks and financial institutions
 Corporations
 Universities
 Law firms
 Religious institutions
 Military and government bureaucracies

57. U.S. Political Economic History:
An Elitist Interpretation

58. U.S. Political Economic History
 Movement of nonelites into elite positions must be
slow and continuous in order to maintain stability.
 Potential elite members must demonstrate
commitment to basic elite consensus.
 Changes in public policy must be incremental rather
than revolutionary.