I couldn't agree more with Dayne -- I've been a "fan" of Bill Domhoff's since the first edition of WHO RULES AMERICA?
What I think Domhoff has done is take the concept of the bourgeois class --- the owners of the means of production --- and show how a select group within this class becomes the "political" ruling class --- he actually shows the mechanisms whereby these "elite" individuals within the bourgeoisie actually get to "rule" --- This becomes evidence for the assertion by Marx (don't have the exact reference or wording) that the STATE is the "executive committee of the bourgeoisie" --- I don't think the lack of a "personnel taxonomy" of who actually is "in" the bourgeois class is such a big deal. If Marx is right that capitalist dynamics depends on the interactions between the bourgeoisie (the owners of "wealth producing capital" in sufficient amount that they end up hiring members of the working class to work for them --- there are plenty of "self exploiting" individuals who own means of production but hire no workers --- ) and the working class. (By the way, Mike Zweig has written numerous versions which identify the membership in the American Working Class --- an important antidote to the squishy view of how many Americans who are "middle class") The value of Domhoff's research is that it is valuable evidence to refute the mainstream political science view that the American polity is based on the competition of mini-interest groups which leads to what has been called "pluralism" --- he has meticulously connected political power in the US to ownership (or control) over vast blocs of capital .... -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#7853): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/7853 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/81962865/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
