ABSTRACT
The liveliest issue that occupies political science is the status of pluralism with respect to power concentration theories. The theory of power elites starts with the social group, whereas the pluralist theory assumes the priority of the political party. These two alternative theories define what political sociology is about at the level of power and politics. Top elite policy-makers are not particularly hampered by democracy nor angered by it. While C. Wright Mills's critics are shrewd and knowing, and clarify many issues important to a discussion of the nature, function and division of power at a given time, they do not explain the enduring character of The Power Elite. To sneer that Mills merely represented some popular mistrust of power is to underestimate the extent to which the populace has been given good reason to do so.
