The Power Elite.

This article presents information about changes in the power structure in the U.S. Changes in the U.S. power structures have generally come about by institutional shifts in the relative positions of the political, the economic and the military orders. Until the downfall of the Congressional caucus of 1824, political institutions seemed quite central and political decisions were of great importance and many politicians, considered national statesmen of note. The military order of this period, was subordinate to the political order, which in turn was subordinate to the economic. The military was thus off to the side of the main driving forces of the U.S. history. With revenues greater and employees more numerous than those of many states, corporations controlled parties, bought laws and kept Congressmen of the neutral state. But during the thirties, the political order was still an instrument of small propertied farmers and businessmen, although they were weakened, having lost their chance for ascendency. In the decade of the thirties, a set of shifting balances involving newly instituted farm measures and newly organized labor unions made up the political and administrative drama of power. Now prestige accumulates in each of the higher circles, and the members of each borrow status from one another. Their self-images are fed by these accumulations and borrowings.