Power Elite Model

The political process in America is complicated, messy, and altogether avoided by most Americans. Contrary to popular belief, the United States of America is a neither a direct democracy nor fully a republic; instead we are a representational democracy. In most cities and town across America the mayors, and other city officials, are elected by the popular vote (whoever gets the most votes in an election wins). Counties and States use the same method when deciding who gets to be governor, state senators, or county commissioners. States are divided up into districts based on population numbers in order to elect the peoples’ representatives in either the state legislative house or the United States House of Representatives. When Americans go to

Or even those that voted them into office? The short answer is, no. But the full answer is much more complicated than that. There are three models for analyzing the exercise of power in our country and they are: the pluralist model, the power elite model, and the autonomous state model. The pluralist theory states that political power should be regarded as systematically distinct from economic power, and that political power is not necessarily concentrated in the hands of a single group, but instead widely dispersed among a variety of groups and organizations comprised of average citizens from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. The power elite theory argues that there is really only one group which dominates in our political system, the upper-class elite who fully control the wealth and power in American society. The autonomous state model theorists assert that predominant power is firmly located in state government, not in organized groups or within one dominant social

The American economy, our politicians, and military support systems are increasingly linked by wealth and power. The power elite, like the Koch brothers, make decisions in our capitalist society that impact every other American citizen. People in the power elite form a social class that is defined as the inner circle of the upper social classes with all their interconnected relations. With the recent election of Donald Trump as out 45th president, I would argue that it is the power elite who exercise the most power in America despite their relatively low