Power elite

The power elite is a small group whose members hold disproportionate influence across political, economic, and military institutions. The concept emphasizes how elite networks can shape decisions beyond any single institution.

C. Wright Mills: An American sociologist who analyzed the concentration of power among political, corporate, and military leaders. His account gave the power elite its best-known modern formulation.
Vilfredo Pareto: An Italian sociologist and economist known for theories of elites and their circulation. His work framed political change as competition and replacement among elites.
Pluralism: A theory that political power is dispersed among competing groups and interests. It challenges the claim that a cohesive elite dominates major decisions.
Political inequality: Unequal ability among people or groups to influence political decisions and outcomes. Elite concentration can leave some citizens with far less influence than others.
Elite theory: A family of theories arguing that a small minority governs or dominates societies. The power elite is a specific account within this broader tradition.
Gaetano Mosca: An Italian political theorist who argued that organized minorities rule over unorganized majorities. His ruling-class theory anticipates the power elite’s focus on minority control.
Marxist theory: A tradition of social analysis centered on class relations, capitalism, and conflict. It explains domination primarily through class structure rather than a cross-institutional elite.
Corporate power: The capacity of businesses to shape markets, public policy, and social conditions. Corporate leaders form one of the institutional groups central to Mills’s account.
Social network analysis: A method for studying relationships among people, organizations, and other entities as networks. It can reveal ties linking leaders across otherwise separate institutions.
Robert Michels: A German-Italian sociologist who formulated the iron law of oligarchy. His account explains why large organizations tend to concentrate leadership.

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