Who Rules America?

[enigma2517]

Found this:

http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/index.html


You'll find the following here: a brief overview of the American power structure at the national level and an in-depth look at power at the local level; an overview of the Four Networks theory of power, which provides the best general theory of power and social change within which to situate the class-domination theory I've developed specifically for the United States; commentaries on alternative theories of power; a special section on the Bohemian Club & Bohemian Grove, including pictures of the club in San Francisco and the encampment in the redwoods; suggestions for activists on what they can learn from social science research; links to Web sites and books about power and social change in the United States; and much more. You can use the menu on the left side of the page to navigate through the site.

Apart from that Bohemian Grove junk, it seems pretty interesting and well-researched.

I haven't had a chance to read through all (or most) of it yet, but I encourage everybody to and tell me what you think.

Even though they make an issue of class-society, they reject the Marxist analysis of it. Comments?

[Jimmie Higgins]

He wants leftists to "transform" the Democratic party? So he's basically a neo-reformist with dillusions about the nature of the democratic party?

He suggests that if Nader had thrown his support to Gore in 2000, it would have usherd in a new progressive era... yeah, right, Kusinich tried that in 2004 and ended up telling anti-war voters to vote for a pro-war canidate: Kerry.

[Jimmie Higgins]

I didn't read everything, just kind of skimmed. Some of the criticisms of marxism are worth noteing, but seem to be superficial rather than fundamental criticisms of marxism.

One of the more interesting questions he raises from what I've read is the question of why do workers believe or act in ways contray to their own class intrests. His answers seem to be a bit impressionistic in that he says, well people actually do feel that they have a decent standard of living even though wages have stagnated or declined and are more concerned with religious questions or hobbies or family or what ever other distractions.

Now you might be able to conduct some research in social sciences which show this to be true, but you could have probably found similar opinions in the US in the 1920s or 1950s, yet a few years latter, there were mass movements of workers or students or opressesd people in the US.

[Severian]

Domhoff's worth reading as a sociologist of the ruling class, and its organizations. Including its social organizations like the Bohemian Grove; they're part of how the country's richest families know each other socially and can more readily form a common understanding of their class interests.

Lots of sociologist and anthropologists have studied the "underclass" for the benefit of the ruling class; Domhoff has used the same techniques to study the upper class...and workers can benefit from reading his stuff.