Who's Running America? : The Bush Restoration

by Dye, Thomas R.

• ISBN13: 9780130974624
• ISBN10: 0130974625
• Edition: 7th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-12-27
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

Arguing that the power in America is concentrated in large institutions, this book studies the people at the top of these institutionswho they are, how much power they wield, and how they came to power. Tom Dye has chronicled the national leadership since the Nixon-Ford years, each edition featuring the current president and his staff. The seventh edition focuses on the new Bush administration and the contrast it will bring to Washington following 8 years of Clinton dominance. The commentary is supported by years of data analysis involving more than 7000 institutional elites, which includes governmental and corporate leaders.This edition describes the return of the Bush dynasty to power. It includes a new chapter on "The Money Elite" , describing the power of the banking and financial community as well as the Federal Reserve Board; Chapter 7 now covers important issues concerning elite interlocking, recruitment, social characteristics, class, and factionalism; the discussion of "How Institutional Leaders Make Public Policy" has been expanded greatly in Chapter 8; several discussions have been added, including "The Globalization of Economic Power," "The Battle for IBM," "Alan Greenspan: Ruling over Money," "Hillary Clinton: Power and Ambition," and "Liberal and Conservative Factions among Elites" .

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Elitism in a Democracy	1	(12)
The Inevitability of Elites	2	(1)
The Institutional Basis of Power	3	(2)
Power as Decision-Making: The Pluralist View	5	(2)
Identifying Positions of Power	7	(3)
Dimensions of America's Elite	10	(1)
Some Questions for Research	11	(2)
The Corporate Directors	13	(26)
The Concentration of Economic Power	13	(3)
The Globalization of Economic Power	16	(2)
Institutionalizing the Global Economy	18	(3)
Who Controls Corporate America?	21	(3)
The Managers: Climbing the Corporate Ladder	24	(2)
The Inheritors: Starting at the Top	26	(4)
Paychecks of the Corporate Chiefs	30	(1)
Corporate Counterrevolutions	30	(1)
The Battle for IBM	31	(2)
Hostile Takeovers	33	(2)
The Limits of Corporate Power	35	(2)
Summary	37	(2)
The Money Elite	39	(16)
The Concentration of Financial Resources	39	(2)
The Banking Boardrooms	41	(2)
Banking ``Reform''	43	(2)
The Federal Reserve Board	45	(1)
Controlling the Money Supply	46	(1)
Alan Greenspan: Ruling over Money	47	(1)
The Securities and Exchange Commission	48	(1)
The Superrich: Distinguishing Wealth from Power	49	(5)
Summary	54	(1)
The Governing Circles	55	(42)
The Concentration of Governmental Power	56	(1)
The Fat Cat Contributors	57	(1)
The Politicians: Ambition and Office Seeking	58	(4)
Bill Clinton: The Political Climber	62	(5)
The Bush Family Dynasty	67	(6)
Executive Decision-Makers: The Serious People	73	(4)
The Bush Restoration	77	(5)
The Congressional Establishment	82	(2)
Ted Kennedy: The Political Inheritor	84	(2)
Hillary Clinton: Power and Ambition	86	(2)
The Judges	88	(5)
The Military Establishment	93	(2)
Summary	95	(2)
The Media Moguls	97	(18)
Agenda-Setting: Deciding What Will Be Decided	97	(2)
The Concentration of Media Power	99	(4)
Ted Turner: Maverick Media Mogul	103	(1)
Katherine Graham: The Most Powerful Woman in America	104	(2)
The Celebrity Newsmakers	106	(1)
Bad News and Good Profits	107	(1)
Liberal Bias in the News	108	(2)
Prime Time: Socializing the Masses	110	(2)
Summary	112	(3)
The Civic Establishment	115	(20)
The American ``Establishment''	115	(2)
The ``Superlawyers''	117	(4)
The ``Fixers'': Pedding Power for Profit	121	(2)
The Foundations	123	(3)
The Policy-Planning Organizations	126	(5)
The Billion Dollar Universities	131	(2)
Summary	133	(2)
The Structure of Institutional Power	135	(36)
Questions in Elite Research	135	(1)
Convergence or Specialization at the Top?	136	(1)
Sources of Elite Cohesion	137	(2)
``Interlockers'' and ``Specialists''	139	(3)
The Rockefellers: End of a Dynasty?	142	(4)
Elite Recruitment: Getting to the Top	146	(4)
Class: A Touchy Subject	150	(2)
African Americans at the Top	152	(2)
Women at the Top	154	(4)
Elite Factionalism: Cowboys and Yankees	158	(7)
The New Tycoons	165	(3)
Summary	168	(3)
How Institutional Elites Make Public Policy	171	(32)
Policy as Elite Preference	171	(1)
An Oligarchical Model of National Policy-Making	172	(3)
The Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission	175	(5)
The Business Roundtable and the Committee on Economic Development	180	(4)
The Brookings Institution	184	(3)
Competition among Elites: AEI and Heritage	187	(4)
Liberal and Conservative Factions among Elites	191	(3)
The ``Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy''	194	(6)
The ``Proximate Policy-Makers''	200	(1)
Summary	201	(2)
Institutional Elites in America	203	(12)
Institutional Power in America Hierarchy and Polyarchy among Institutional Elites	204	(3)
Summary of Findings	207	(5)
Concentration of Institutional Resources	207	(1)
The Size of the Nation's Elite	207	(1)
Interlocking versus Specialization	208	(1)
Inheritors versus Climbers	208	(1)
Separate Channels of Recruitment	208	(1)
Social Class and Elite Recruitment	209	(1)
Conflict and Consensus among Elites	209	(1)
Factionalism among Elites	210	(1)
An Oligarchic Model of National Policy-Making	211	(1)
Power: Inside and Outsider Views	212	(1)
Who's Running America?	212	(3)
Index	215

Excerpts

Who''s Running America?has not been supported by any grant or contract from any institution, public or private. It grew out of a graduate seminar "Research on Power and Elites" at Florida State University. Initially, biographical data for over 5,000 members of various institutional elites were collected and coded by students. These computerized biographies constituted the original database for the continuing project Who''s Running America?The database has been revised periodically, and data on over 7,000 institutional elites have been collected and coded. Two articles based on this data from the early 1970s were published in social science journals: Thomas R. Dye, Eugene R. DeGlercq, and John W. Pickering, "Concentration, Specialization and Interlocking among Institutional Elites," Social Science Quarterly(June 1973), pp. 8-28. Thomas R. Dye and John W. Pickering, "Governmental and Corporate Elites: Convergence and Specialization," Journal of Politics(November 1974), pp. 900-25. We are indebted to a number of commentators who wrote to us before and after publication of these articles, including scholars G. William Domhoff, Suzanne Keller, John Walton, Robert Lineberry, Harmon Zeigler, and Charles Bonjean. The First Edition of this book was published in 1976 and described national leadership in the Nixon-Ford years. The First Edition was subtitled Institutional Leadership in the United States. The Second Edition of this volume, The Carter Years,reflected changes in national leadership which occurred with the election of Jimmy Carter to the presidency and the advent of a new Democratic administration. The Third Edition of this book, The Reagan Years,involved the collection of an entire new database for national leaders in 1980-81. Special topics were addressed in several articles in professional journals, including: Thomas R. Dye, "Oligarchic Tendencies in National Policy-Making: The Role of the Private Policy-Planning Organization," Journal of Politics,40 (May 1978), 309-31. Thomas R. Dye and Julie Strickland, "Women at the Top," Social Science Quarterly,63 (March 1982). The Fourth Edition, The Conservative Years,discussed changes in national leadership during the 1980s. Additional research on corporate ownership was examined in professional journals: Thomas R. Dye, "Who Owns America?" Social Science Quarterly,64 (December 1983), 862-70. Thomas R. Dye, "Strategic Ownership Positions in U.S. Industry and Banking," American Journal of Economics and Sociology,44 (January 1985), 9-22. The Fifth Edition, The Bush Era,updated both corporate and governmental leadership to 1990. Additional detailed analysis of institutional power was published in: Thomas R. Dye, "Organizing Power for Policy Planning," in Power Elites and Organizations,eds. G. William Domhoff and Thomas R. Dye (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1987). The Sixth Edition, The Clinton Years,chronicled changes in leadership in Washington accompanying the arrival of the first Democratic administration in twelve years. We observed that the "Friends of Bill and Hillary" differed from previous administrations in their lack of experience outside of government. Almost all top Clinton officials were lawyers, lobbyists, politicians, and bureaucrats; very few had any background in business, banking, the media, or the military. An article developed in conjunction with the Sixth Edition appeared as: Thomas R. Dye, "The Friends of Bill and Hillary" P. S. Political Science and Politics,26 (December, 1993), 693-95. The Seventh Edition, The Bush Restoration,describes the return of "The Bush Dynasty" to power. It also adds a new chapter on "The Money Elite" that describes the power of the banking and financial community as well as the Federal Reserve Board. Important issues concerning elite interlocking, recruitment, social characteristics, class, and factionalism have been integrated into a single chapter, Chapter 7, "The Structure of Institutional Power." Our discussion "How Institutional Elites Make Public Policy" (Chapter 8) has been expanded significantly. Among new discussions in the Seventh Edition are the following: "The Globalization of Economic Power," "Institutionalizing the Global Economy," "Paychecks of the Corporate Chiefs," "The Battle for IBM," "The Federal Reserve Board," "Alan Greenspan: Ruling over Money," "The Bush Family Dynasty," "The Bush Restoration," "Hillary Clinton: Power and Ambition," "The 'Fixers'': Peddling Power for Profit," "Liberal and Conservative Factions among Elites," "The ''Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy.''" Our continuing work on the topic of Chapter 8, "How Institutional Elites Make Public Policy" was expanded into a full-length book: Thomas R. Dye, Top Down Policymaking(New York: Chatham House, 2001). Also, papers on this topic were delivered at the Seventeenth World Congress of the International Political Science Association, Quebec, 2000, and the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Washington, 2000. The decision to "name names" was carefully considered. We know that occupants of top institutional positions change over time and that some of our information will be out of date by the time of publication. And with thousands of names, some mistakes are inevitable. However, the biographical sketches provide "flesh and bones" to the statistical analysis; they "personalize" the numbers and percentages in our research. The people who run America arereal people, and we know of no better way to impress this fact upon our readers. Thomas R. Dye