The power elite is composed of [people] whose positions enable them to transcend the ordinary environments of ordinary men and women; they are in positions to make decisions having major consequences … they are in command of the major hierarchies and organizations of modern society. They rule the big corporations. They run the machinery of the state and claim its prerogatives. They direct the military establishment. They occupy the strategic command posts of the social structure, in which are now centered the effective means of the power and the wealth and the celebrity which they enjoy.1