ABSTRACT
People performing roles in the subordinate institutions may possess power, but it is usually exercised in such a way that it serves corporate ends. Subreption replaces institutional autonomy, a half-truth so near and dear to the hearts of mainstream liberals, with institutional hegemony, the foundation of corporate power and the reality of twentieth-century America. The processes and the structure of power that they support are laid bare through an institutional not an individual framework of analysis. Institutional analysis is the key to understanding power based on obedience or compliance. An institution is an organized set of roles and the habits of thought people learn as they perform them. Furthermore, our current institutional structure is one of corporate hegemony, which means that in the family, the school, and then in the corporation proper, individuals are shaped by the roles they play in each institution, and each institution is itself linked to the corporation.
