Power and influence in American society are exercised by groups of people, whether Democrats or Republicans, who control the wealth of the nation. Any which way they can, they influence the national agenda. “Americans may be equal, but some are more equal than others,” economist Paul Krugman wrote a while ago. The most obvious influential actor is the political establishment ~ career politicians, top government officials, and prominent political families. They can be found at various levels of the government, from local and regional to national, and often have significant influence over policy decisions and the direction of the country.
But they are beholden to corporate elites of large corporations and their executives who wield considerable power and influence in the United States. This group includes CEOs, board members, and major shareholders who shape economic policies, control vast resources, and influence government decisions through lobbying and campaign contributions. They have been the beneficiaries of globalization, and to a great extent, responsible for the economic rise of China.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s recent visit to China would serve their interest, which many of them think is also the national interest. However, one might wonder if it is the financial sector that is the ultimate influencer and source of power, the sector that includes investment banks, hedge funds, and other financial institutions, along with prominent figures such as Warren Buffett, for example, that have significant influence over economic policies, and can shape the direction of global markets.
Since the beginning of the Internet revolution, the technological elites, a new class of influential individuals in Silicon Valley, tech executives, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists, often have exercised substantial influence over the direction of technology, innovation, and digital policies. Recently they shook us up by unleashing the large language AI model Chat-GPT that might one day turn us into intellectual Lilliputians. Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai, and Satya Nadella, for example, exercise extraordinary global influence, more than some global statesmen; and they are shaping our future. Nevertheless, the elites of the political establishment, Wall Street, corporate America, and Silicon Valley do not directly shape public opinion.
It’s the media conglomerates, news organizations, and powerful figures in the entertainment industry, people such as Rupert Murdoch, who have a significant impact on public opinion. They influence political discourse by shaping national narratives. They exert influence over policy decisions through their universal reach and ability to shape public opinion. Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Donald Trump, for example, sprang up from the media and entertainment establishment controlled by the corporate wealthy.
That said, America’s rulers characteristically emerge from a combination of factors, including wealth, education, social networks, and access to opportunities. Inherited wealth provides them with advantages such as access to high-quality education in elite schools, business connections, and capital to start their own ventures, if they dare. Family wealth can span multiple generations, allowing individuals to maintain their influence and power over time. Some like Trump seem to be indestructible.
Wealth and inheritance enable these people to get admission to prestigious educational institutions like Ivy League universities, elite private schools, and top-tier colleges – rich and abundantly endowed academic establishments that play a significant role in shaping the ruling classes. These institutions by providing networking opportunities, first-rate education, and access to influential alumni networks, create multiple pathways for individuals to enter positions of power.
The patronage of political families and access to networks can significantly impact an individual’s ability to join the ruling classes. Furthermore, associations with influential politicians, party members, or top government officials can provide access to important political positions and lucrative appointments that create opportunities for influence within the political establishment. Several top universities in the United States, Ivy League plus especially Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, MIT, University of Chicago, Dartmouth College, and others have historically produced a significant number of members of America’s ruling classes, including leaders in politics, law, business, finance, technology, entrepreneurship, and academia. With multibillion-dollar endowments perpetually replenished by America’s wealthiest, who send their children there, merit or no merit, these universities are financially untouchables, and politically important.
Many alumni of these prestigious schools not only run 500 Fortune companies, US embassies, think tanks, global charities, academia, major news organizations, and media and entertainment establishments; but also, they educate the elites and the ruling class members of many foreign nations including the Arab Muslim nations, India, China, South Africa, and others. It’s the students from these nations, especially Asian-Americans, who protested that Affirmative Action was cheating them of their merits and thus depriving them of the opportunities to join the ruling classes.
Affirmative Action had opened the doors for Blacks and other left-behind groups, as well as white women, to join the American ruling classes through the portals of elite universities ~ people such as General Colin Powell, Secretary of Defense General Lloyd Austin III, Barack Obama, Condoleezza Rice, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, and not least Justice Clarence Thomas, to name a few. The nullification of Affirmative Action would lead to a decline in the enrolment of these groups into elite universities, resulting in reduced diversity among graduates who go on to become part of the ruling classes.
This may lead to a more homogeneous ruling class, mostly of white men, that is less representative of the overall population that’s increasingly becoming multi-racial and multi-ethnic.
NARAIN BATRA The writer is author of The First Freedoms and America’s Culture of Innovation and most recently, India In A New Key: Nehru to Modi, is working on a new book, Freedom and the Age of Artificial Intelligence. He is affiliated with the diplomacy and international program at the Norwich University Graduate College