Who holds and exercises power in the US?

In studying power, political sociologists have drawn upon:

• Marx and neo-Marxists such as Poulantzas and Mills;
• Weber and neo-Weberians such as Skocpol and Tilly; and
• Durkheim, Tocqueville and neo-Consensualists such as Putnam

Four different perspectives can be outlined:

Critical decisions are made by the upper class.

Major institutions (such as corporations, military and government) dominate decisions.

State is the main locus of power.

Different parties and groups play different roles on different political issues.

A weak state?

• a federal state – cp. the UK and France; and
• local governments make critical decisions.

However, there was centralisation and concentration of the authority during the Roosevelt Administration and afterwards. In particular, they accomplished several things:

i) Roosevelt expanded the power and influence of the presidency at the expense of the Congress. For example, Roosevelt established the Social Security Program during the Great Depression. In addition, he became active in the Second World War (1939-45).

After Roosevelt, administrations adopted an aggressive role in the world affairs. Presidents made critical decisions such as the dropping of the atomic bombs, and strong foreign policy with respect to the Soviet Union, the Middle East and Vietnam.

ii) The establishment of CIA and FBI

Initially these agencies were intelligence-gathering institutions and focused on national security. But they expanded their role. Their activities included Cuba and the Bay of Pigs to oust Castro; legal and illegal operations to destabilise leftist Latin American countries such as Chile, Nicaragua and Guatemala; McCarthyism and the anti-communist witch-hunt; campaigns to discredit African-American civil rights leaders such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King.

During much of the post-1945 period, the Federal Budget on military expenditure was between 30-40%.

Combining the executive branch of the government ability to make critical decisions about war and the authority and power of the CIA and the FBI, creates a war-making side of the state policy.

There is a welfare side to the state policy, though it is limited compared to the Scandinavian countries that have social democratic welfare systems, and weak in relation to the German and French that have corporativist welfare systems.

Indeed, the US has a residualist welfare state, providing a limited coverage in terms of time and areas. Only 14-15% of its GDP is spent on public social security and health expenditure.

While the US has a strong war-dimension, its welfare aspects are weak. Yet, why? Some political sociologists have suggested class, while other point to the state.

What is the nature and extent of the power of the business community and the corporations?

a) evidence of lop-sided distribution of resources; e.g., 200 largest firms control 61% of assets of the firms.

b) evidence of a ‘corporate community’;

• such as corporate interlocks (corporations have ownership rights in other corporations) , interlocking directorate (directors belong to other corporations) and business networking (businesses co-operate together); and
• the growth of multinational corporations and its influence on the state; e.g., oil companies’ influence on public energy policy, corporate donation to parties, and directors entering into key state positions and appointments.

Evidence suggests that there is a ruling class.

Economic inequality – distribution of income and wealth; not a society of economic equals.

Political equality – Marshall emphasises three types of rights:

• civil rights;
• economic rights; and
• social rights – entitlements and benefits by the state.

• a land of economic opportunity and of corporate giants;
• a place of free speech and assembly, and of corporate communities;
• a terrain of equality and opportunity for all, and of considerable inequality and concentration of power.