The Elite Ruling Class: Milieu for Conspiracy

A "social class" is a network of interacting and intermarrying families who perceive each other as equals and have distinctive lifestyles and attitudes which differentiate them from other classes. (G. William Domhoff, Who Really Rules? (1978 edition), p. 12)

There is, then a ruling social class in the United States, and this sociological fact should be the starting point for economic and political analysis at any level. This ruling class includes about .5 to 1 percent of the population, owns about 20-25 percent of all privately held wealth, receives a highly disproportionate share of the yearly national income, controls major banks and corporations, formulates economic and political programs through a series of policy networks, and dominates -- at the very least -- the federal government in Washington, D.C. and city government in New Haven, Connecticut. (Domhoff, op. cit., p. 175)

G. William Domhoff's sociological works reveal a truly empirical study that defines and traces the power inherent in America's upper class. He shows that they sit on boards of large banks and corporations and thus exercise control over even more wealth than they actually own.



You can find a summary of Domhoff's research here: Power in America

Other authors, like Stephen Birmingham, E. Digby Baltzell and the Konoliges have chronicled one aspect or another of the upper class. Domhoff has produced the empirical evidence that the upper class constitutes a true ruling class in the USA.

His book, The Powers That Be: Processes of Ruling Class Domination in America exposes the processes and institutions that provide the upper class conduits of influence and power. Campaign contributions represent only one of those channels.

Academician Noam Chomsky also sees that an elite class rules America. While I do not agree with either Domhoff or Chomsky in their leftist/liberal perspectives, I do appreciate their observations of the present state of affairs.

Here is Chomsky's assessment: