ABSTRACT

The strength of local governments and the existence of land-based growth machines together add a further dimension to the American power structure. The first of the four networks through which the power elite dominates the federal government is the special-interest process. It deals with the narrow and short-run policy concerns of individuals, families, specific corporations, or specific industries. Through a detailed consideration of Western civilization from its origins to the early twentieth century, Mann shows that these networks intertwine in complex ways and that classes and states only emerged as the dominant power networks in the few centuries. One of the first systematic studies of power in the United States was carried out at the local level, and social scientists have been concerned with what is called community power ever since. Many studies of special-interest process by political scientists and journalists show that members of the power elite usually win.