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Owen Raymond
Ms. Dzienkiewicz
Period 8
15 September 2015
Who Governs in the United States Democracy?
Both Wright Mills and Robert Dahl express their ideas on who controls the United States
government and democracy in general. Wright Mills description on how our government is run
is however exceptionally more accurate than Robert Dahls. Both ideas differ completely yet
Wright Mills outlook seems to be more closely related to the United States.
In Wright Mills excerpt he theorizes about a democracy containing a power elite. He
says that the power elites are above the average person and pull the strings of our government. In
the excerpt Mills says that the average Americans have little understanding on many important
issues and must rely on the power elites to make everything run smoothly. In one sentence Mills
relates the average American to a little child trusting in someone or something to make
everything run smoothly. Mills explains the power elites in his book by saying, The power elite
is composed of men whose positions enable them to transcend the ordinary environments of
ordinary men and women; they are in positions to make decisions having major consequences.
Whether they do or do not make such decisions is less important than the fact that they do
occupy such pivotal positions: their failure to act, their failure to make decisions, is itself an act
that is often of greater consequence than the decisions they do make. For they are in command of

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the major hierarchies and organizations of modern society (Mills 71). Mills later says that
directly below the power elites on the power scale are the professional politicians, Congress, and
the upper class people of America. In the excerpt Mills also says, It is not that the elite believe
in a compact elite behind the scenes and a mass down below. It is not put in that language. It is
just that the people are of necessity confused and must, like trusting children, place all the new
world foreign policy and strategy and executive action in the hands of the experts (Mills 77).
Robert Dahls theory of pluralism is the opposite of Mills theory of power elitism.
Unlike Mills idea that the government is run by a few elites that control the government, Dahl
says that the government is run by a bunch of groups competing for different goals. Dahl
explains the basic idea of pluralism by saying, At least in theory, anyone can enter the political
stratum where numerous interest groups compete and bargain for their goals. Public policy is
made by the steady appeasement of relatively small groups (Dahl 88). In one part of the excerpt
Dahl relates the competing groups to that of artists and intellectuals and explains how if one
group were taken out it would significantly affect the other. He later goes on to explain how in
the political stratum people tend to be strategic and scientific or rational, while people in the
apolitical stratum are less calculating and how their decisions are based off of habit or emotion.
In both theories the average Americans never truly make the decisions, they are
determined by either the elites or the competing groups. Both explain how the average
Americans are never fully in charge, however Mills idea of the elites controlling the government
is more accurate when being related to that of the United States. In the United States there are
competing groups such as the Democrats and the Republicans, but they do not act in same way
the Dahl theorizes. Mills theory of power elites that are controlling the government pertains more

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to the United States than Dahls theory because in the Unites States government there are higher
officials that do get to make big decisions due to their skills and wealth, one example of this is
the presidents Cabinet.
Both Dahls idea of pluralism and Mills idea of power elitism are very strong and
different theories about who governs the United States. Mills idea, however can be found in more
places in the US and pertains more to the United States government than Dahls.

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Works Cited
Mills, Wright The Power Elite The Lanahan Readings in the American Polity Fifth ed.
Published by Lanahan publishers, INC. Baltimore MD. 2011 Edited by Ann G., Serow and
Everett C. Ladd.
Dahl, Robert Who Governs? and A Preface to Democratic Theory The Lanahan Readings
in the American Polity Fifth ed. Published by Lanahan publishers, INC. Baltimore MD. 2011
Edited by Ann G., Serow and Everett C. Ladd.