Charles Wright Mills: The Power Elite and Their Significance

„The power elite is composed of men whose positions enable them to transcend the ordinary environments of ordinary men and women; they are in positions to make decisions having major consequences. Whether they do or do not make such decisions is less important than the fact that they do occupy such pivotal positions: their failure to act, their failure to make decisions, is itself an act that is often of greater consequence than the decisions they do make. For they are in command of the major hierarchies and organizations of modern society. They rule the big corporations. They run the machinery of the state and claim its prerogatives. They direct the military establishment. They occupy the strategic command posts of the social structure, in which are now centered the effective means of the power and the wealth and the celebrity which they enjoy.“

Charles Wright MillsCharles Wright Mills describes the power elite and their pivotal role in politics, economy, and society.
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Charles Wright Mills was an American sociologist who examined modern societies and the role of intellectuals.

Quote by Charles Wright Mills on the power elite and their central role in society, economy, and politics.


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Charles Wright Mills (1916–1962) was an American sociologist. His work examined postwar societies and the interaction of political, military, and economic elites. His best-known works include “The Power Elite,” “White Collar: The American Middle Classes,” and “The Sociological Imagination.”

Charles Wright Mills quote about the power elite and national decisionsCopyright © yoice.net – Quote Artwork
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"By the power elite, we refer to those political, economic, and military circles which as an intricate set of overlapping cliques share decisions having at least national consequences. In so far as national events are decided, the power elite are those who decide them." Charles Wright Mills
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Charles Wright Mills quote about the power elite and historical circumstancesCopyright © yoice.net – Quote Artwork
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"What I am asserting is that in this particular epoch a conjunction of historical circumstances has led to the rise of an elite of power; that the men of the circles composing this elite, severally and collectively, now make such key decisions as are made; and that, given the enlargement and the centralization of the means of power now available, the decisions that they make and fail to make carry more consequences for more people than has ever been the case in the world history of mankind" Charles Wright Mills
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Charles Wright Mills quote about the power elite and social responsibilityCopyright © yoice.net – Quote Artwork
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"The men of the higher circles are not representative men; their high position is not a result of moral virtue; their fabulous success is not firmly connected with meritorious ability. Those who sit in the seats of the high and the mighty are selected and formed by the means of power, the sources of wealth, the mechanics of celebrity, which prevail in their society. They are not men selected and formed by a civil service that is linked with the world of knowledge and sensibility. They are not men shaped by nationally responsible parties that debate openly and clearly the issues this nation now so unintelligently confronts. They are not men held in responsible check by a plurality of voluntary associations which connect debating publics with the pinnacles of decision. Commanders of power unequaled in human history, they have succeeded within the American system of organized irresponsibility." Charles Wright Mills
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Quote by Aldous Huxley about the power elite manipulating millions through factories, media, and financeCopyright © yoice.net – Quote Artwork
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"This Power Elite directly employs several millions of the country´s working force in its factories, offices and stores, controls many millions more by lending them the money to buy its products, and, through its ownership of the media of mass communication, influences the thoughts, the feelings and the actions of virtually everybody. To parody the words of W. Churchill, never have so many been manipulated so much by few." Aldous Huxley
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Quote about the ruling elite controlling major institutions in the USA by Steve JacobsonCopyright © yoice.net – Quote Artwork
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"Political and economic power in the United States is concentrated in the hands of a “ruling elite” that controls most of U.S.-based multinational corporations, major communication media, the most influential foundations, major private universities and most public utilities. Founded in 1921, the Council of Foreign Relations is the key link between the large corporations and the federal government. It has been called a “school for statesmen” and “comes close to being an organ of what C. Wright Mills has called the Power Elite – a group of men, similar in interest and outlook shaping events from invulnerable positions behind the scenes. The creation of the United Nations was a Council project, as well as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank." Steve Jacobson
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Charles Wright Mills quote about social homogeneity and the power eliteCopyright © yoice.net – Quote Artwork
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"But it is not only the similarities of social origin, religious affiliation, nativity, and education that are important to the psychological and social affinities of the members of the power elite. Even if their recruitment and formal training were more heterogeneous than they are, these men would still be of quite homogeneous social type. For the most important set of facts about a circle of men is the criteria of admission, of praise, of honor, of promotion that prevails among them; if these are similar within a circle, then they will tend as personalities to become similar." Charles Wright Mills
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Quote by John Lennon about Life and DeathJohn Lennon quote about life and deathCopyright © yoice.net – Quote ArtworkCharles Wright Mills quote about social homogeneity and the power eliteCopyright © yoice.net – Quote ArtworkCharles Wright Mills Quote on Social Homogeneity of the Power Elite