Charles wright mills

Tuesday, April 11, 2023

© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender 1

SOC4044 Sociological Theory:

Charles Wright Mills



Charles Wright Mills

1916-1962Born in Waco, TexasMiddle-ClassRoman Catholic



Charles Wright MillsCharacter and Social Structure



Charles Wright MillsSociological Imagination

Sociological ImaginationThe sociological imagination enables us to

grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society.

No social study that does not come back to the problems of biography, of history and of intersections within a society has completed its intellectual journey.

Mills (1959:6)




Personal Troubles versus Public Issues

Troubles occur within the character of the individual and within the range of his immediate relations with others; they have to do with his self and with those limited areas of social life of which he is directly and personally aware. . . A trouble is a private matter: values cherished by an individual are felt by him to be threatened.




Issues have to do with matters that transcend these local environments of the individual and the range of his inner life. . . An issue is a public matter: some value cherished by publics is felt to be threatened. Often there is a debate about what that value really is and about what it is that really threatens it.

Mills (1959:8)



Charles Wright MillsThe Power-Elite

In 1956, Mills published a book entitled The Power Elite in which he traced the social class backgrounds of leaders in business, government, and other major

spheres of influence and authority. It is not necessary to prove a conspiracy among these people or even to

show that they are in contact with one another, in order to suggest that the decisions made in one power sector reinforce those made in others. As

products of similar class locations and socialization experiences, these leaders will think alike, share a vision of what is fair and good, and act in ways that

maintain the existing stratification system.




The empirical tests of Mill’s thesis have centered on identifying a “national

upper class” whose members own most of the nation’s wealth, manage its corporations and banks, run the

universities and foundations, control the mass media, and staff the highest

levels of government and the courts (Schwartz 1987; Domhoff, 1990).




It is worth noting in this regard that contrary to the “log cabin” myth, all but five of our presidents were from the upper or upper-middle classes, including Abraham Lincoln (Pressen

1984; Baltzell and Schneiderman 1988).




The emphasis of recent research has been less on the content of

socialization than on the structural links among the members of this elite: from schools and clubs to marriages and jobs. These are interlocks that

extend beyond the world of business to involve politics, education, and

control over information.




The Power-EliteGovernmentBusinessMilitaryJudiciaryFoundationsMedia




This phenomenon is most obvious in presidential appointments

(Riddlesberger and King 1989) and in the actual movement of people from on sphere to another, as when corporate officers become cabinet members, or when heads of regulatory agencies leave government for jobs in the

industries they previously regulated.




Another source of support for the power-elite vision of the world lies in the vast resources of the major American

foundations. Foundations are tax-exempt organizations built on endowments from very wealthy families. Funds

from the interest on the endowments are used to finance various educational and charitable causes chosen by the trustees and managers of the foundations. As members of the elite strata, shaped by similar schooling and social

networks, the men, primarily WASP, who run major foundations are not likely to lend

their support to people or organizations whose goal is to overthrow the existing system or to challenge American

interest abroad.




Levels Unified power-elite Diversified and balanced plurality of

interest groups Mass of unorganized people who have

no power over the elite




Changes Increasing concentration of power




Operation One group determines all major policies Manipulation of people at the bottom by

group at the top




Bases Coincidence of interests among major

institutions (economic, military, governmental)

Social similarities and psychological affinities among those who direct major institutions




Consequences Enhancement of interests of

corporations, armed forces, and executive branch of government

Decline of politics as public debate Decline of responsible and accountable

power--loss of democracy

Documents

Charles wright mills