SOC033

Description

Section information text: G. William Domhoff's Who Rules America? (2014), originally published in 1967 and now in its seventh edition, uses empirical data to document its controversial assertions about the centralization of power in the hands of a "corporate community" in the United States. While enormous amounts of data are available on many of the topics that Domhoff addresses, he is only able to summarize the most basic data on any given topic. This presents us with a tremendous opportunity: the ability to incorporate empirical research projects that expand upon Domhoff's analyses in this class. In his early chapters, Domhoff uses data to document the existence of a corporate community. Later he spends considerable time documenting a variety of ways that this elite group uses its economic power to gain political power. Specifically, he discusses (1) a policy planning network, comprised of corporate-funded foundations and think tanks, that tries to shape national policy-making to serve corporate interests; (2) the corporate funding of political action committees, designed to support the election/reelection of pro-corporate legislators; and (3) corporate lobbying expenditures, designed to encourage elected officials to support legislation of interest to the corporate community. We will do original "power structure research" on all of these aspects of Domhoff's argument