I' Introduction to Domhoff Book

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I. Introduction to Domhoff Book II. Class and
Power Conceptual Considerations III. The
Corporate Community IV. Upper Class and the
Corporate Community
Note Please bring book to class for the duration
of this module
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• Who Rules America?
• A sociological classic
• First edition published in 1967
• Supplemented with a variety of other books by
  Domhoff
• More relevant than ever
• A valuable conceptual scheme for understanding
  power and politics in the U.S.

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Domhoffs Basic Research Question How is it
possible to have such extreme corporate
domination in a democratic country? (p. xi)
G. William Domhoff

• Has to support his assertion that extreme
  corporate domination exists
• Has to show how this can occur within a
  democratic context

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Class and Power Conceptual Considerations

• Class is a two-dimension concept. (p. 4)
• What distinction from a classic theorist of
  class does Domhoffs discussion conjure up?

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Class-in-itself (defined in terms of relationship
to the means of production) and Class-for-itself
(defined in terms of class consciousness and
organization)
Domhoff economic class vs. social class
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Power Focus on Distributive Power

• Three Indicators of Power
• Who benefits?
• Who governs?
• Who wins?

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Four Processes of Exercising Power

• the special-interest process
• the policy-planning process
• the candidate selection process
• the opinion-shaping process

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• The Corporate Community
• Discussion
• What is Domhoff trying to prove in Chapter 2?
• How is this chapter meant to prepare us for
  Chapter 3 on the Upper Class?

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• Do the owners and managers of the major
  corporations form a single community, or economic
  class?
• What evidence does Domhoff provide?
• What about possible counter-weights such as
  pension funds and small farmers and small
  business?

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Structural vs. Instrumental Power What is the
difference?
What does the structural power of corporations
consist of? Why do they not rely on it
alone? As a top corporate leader replied to a
sociologist who suggested to him during a
research interview that his company probably had
enough structural economic power to dispense with
its efforts to influence elected officials Im
not sure, but Im not willing to find out. (p.
43)
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The Upper Class Why does Domhoff focus on the
question of social cohesion? Quote, p. 46
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• What evidence exists that an upper social class
  exists?
• Boarding Schools
• Elite Colleges and final clubs
• Exclusive Social Clubs and Rituals
• The Social Register
• The Role of Upper Class Women
• Inheritance and Mobility

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Bohemian Grove
Film Trailer
Extra! (Nov/Dec. 1991
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• The Upper Class and Corporate Control
• Family Ownership
• Family Office, Holding Companies, Investment
  Partnerships
• Corporate Executives
• Assimilation of New Members
• Wealth

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Involvement in these institutions usually
instills a class awareness that includes feelings
of superiority, pride, and justified privilege.
Deep down, most members of the upper class think
they are better than other people, and therefore
fully deserving of their station in life. This
class awareness is based in corporate ownership,
but it is reinforced by the shared social
identities and interpersonal ties created through
participation in the social institutions of the
upper class (p. 68)
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The fact that the upper class is based in the
ownership and control of profit making
investments in stocks, bonds, and real estate
shows that it is a capitalist class as well as a
social class. (p. 68)
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An Internet Guide to Power Structure
Research http//darkwing.uoregon.edu/vburris/whor
ules/