In all of his writings, Mills interprets the world through a theoretical perspective very much influenced by Max Weber. In The Power Elite, Mills made clear his belief that the American policy of stability of power showing less strength today than was in the past. According to Mills, there are power elite in modern societies, elite who command the resources of vast bureaucratic organizations that have come to dominate industrial societies.
As the bureaucracies have centralized and enlarged the circle of those who run these organizations have narrowed and the consequences of their decisions have become enormous. According to Mills, the power elite are the key people in the three major institutions of modern society: 1) Economy; 2) Government; and 3) Military. The bureaucracies of state, corporations, and military have become enlarged and centralized and are a means of power never before equaled in human history. These hierarchies of power are the key to understanding modern industrial societies.
The elite live in the key leadership positions within the system of government that now dominate modern societies, the positions in which the effective means of power are now located. Thus their power is rooted in authority, an attribute of social organizations, not of individuals. It is not a conspiracy of evil men, he argues, but a social structure that has enlarged and centralized the decision-making process and then placed this authority in the hands of men of similar social background and outlook.
In Mills’ view, major national power now resides about completely in the economic, political, and military domains. All other institutions have reduced in scope and power or made secondary to the big three. It is their similar social backgrounds that provide one of the major sources of unity among the elite. Mills declared that the majority of the elite come from the upper third of the income and occupational pyramids. They are born of the same upper class. They attend the same preparatory schools and universities. They belong to the same organizations. They are closely linked through intermarriage.
The coordination of elites also comes from the exchange of workers between the three elite hierarchies. Mills declared that the nearness of business and government officials can be seen by the regularity with which men pass from one hierarchy to another. Mills also asserted that a good deal of the coordination comes from a growing structural integration of dominant institutions. As the elite domain becomes larger, more centralized, and more important in its activities, its integration with the other spheres becomes more prominent.
Of the three sectors of institutional power, Mills claims, the corporate sector is the most powerful. But the power elite cannot be understood as a mere reflection of economic elites; rather it is the alliance of economic, political, and military power. Mills saw two other levels of power in American society below the power elite. At the bottom are the great masses of people. Largely unorganized, ill informed, and virtually powerless, they are controlled and directed from above. The masses are economically dependent; they are economically and politically exploited. Because they are disorganized, the masses are far removed from the standard democratic public in which voluntary organizations hold the key to power.
Between the masses and the elite Mills saw a middle level of power. Composed of local opinion leaders and special interest groups, they neither represent the masses nor have any real effect on the elite. Mills saw the American Congress and American political parties as a reflection of this middle-level of power. Although Congress and political parties debate and decide some minor issues, the power elite ensures that no serious challenge to its authority and control is tolerated in the political arena. The positions of the elite allow them to go above the normal environments of men and women. The elite have access to levers of power that make their decisions (as well as their failure to act) significant.
By 1958 (Causes of World War III), Mills seemed much more disturbed with the rise of militarism among the elites than with the hypothesis that many elites were military men. According to Mills, the rise of the military position serves for the wellbeing of the elite of industrial societies. For the politician the military power serves as a cover for their lack of vision and innovative leadership. For corporate elites the preparations for war and the projection of military power provides a guarantee of stable profits through corporate subsidies. This militarism is inculcated in the population through school room and pulpit patriotism, through manipulation and control of the news, through the cultivation of opinion leaders and unofficial ideology.
But it is not just the existence of power elite that has allowed this manufactured militarism to dominate. It has also been enabled by the apathy and moral insensibility of the masses and by the political inactivity of intellectuals in both communist and capitalist countries. Most intellectual, scientific, and religious leaders are echoing the elaborate confusions of the elite. They are refusing to question elite policies; they are refusing to offer alternatives. They have abdicated their role; they allow the elite to rule unhindered.
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