Article 4

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1Article 4Who Rules America?G. William DomhoffPower and Class in the United StatesPower and class are terms that make Americans a little uneasy,and concepts like power elite and dominant class immediatelyput people on guard. The idea that a relatively fixed group ofprivileged people might shape the economy and governmentfor their own benefit goes against the American grain. Never-theless,... the owners and top-level managers in large income-producing properties are far and away the dominant power fig-ures in the United States. Their corporations, banks, and agri-businesses come together as a corporate community thatdominates the federal government in Washington. Their real es-tate, construction, and land development companies formgrowth coalitions that dominate most local , there is competition within both the corporate commu-nity and the local growth coalitions for profits and investmentopportunities, and there are sometimes tensions between na-tional corporations and local growth coalitions, but both are co-hesive on policy issues affecting their general welfare, and inthe face of demands by organized workers, l

entrepreneurs, people who sell locations and buildings. They come together as local upper classes in their respective cities and sometimes mingle with the corporate rich in educational or resort settings. The corporate rich and the gr owth entrepreneurs supplement their small numbers by developing and directing a wide variety

  Developing, Entrepreneurs