ABSTRACT
Thomas R. Dye adequately summarizes the literature on power theory and adds a needed dimension of analysis: the institutional framework in which power decisions are made. The work is written within a tradition that assumes the power variable in American society can be conceptually isolated for research and can serve as a basic tool for identifying the nation's institutional elite. Dye also makes a contribution to the theory of power by working through an operational separation of corporate, government, and public interests that is clearly more sophisticated than earlier triads of military, political, and economic interests. The work is written within a tradition that assumes the power variable in American society can be conceptually isolated for research and can serve as a basic tool for identifying the nation's institutional elite. The power concentration framework breaks apart since there is disagreement among the power elite about a wide variety of items.
