Research Paper on:
C. Wright Mills: Power Elite

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
dichotomy of representation whenever a civilized society is involved. Indeed, the very notion of social justice often leads directly to social injustice, inasmuch as there have always been -  and will likely continue to be - a distinct separation between and among social classes, establishing what has come to be known as the power elite. According to Mills  (2004), social inequality, therefore, is the unfair preference that exists in a given society where certain groups of people are not provided with the same social, political and economic opportunities  as others are. "That we do not know the limits of such power, and that we hope it does have limits, does not remove the fact that much power  today is successfully employed without the sanction of the reason or the conscience of the obedient. Surely nowadays we need not argue that, in the last resort, coercion is  the final form of power" (Mills 2004:241). Mills (2004) contends that a disproportionately small percentage of the population - typically middle-aged white men - dominate over American business, government  and military, leaving the vast majority of people to wallow in the manifestation of such inequitable social and economic status. Western capitalism remains powerful and persistent because of its  overwhelming influence upon the smaller but dominant upper class elite, those whose desires and objectives are considered more important than the middle or lower class populations. This element of  cultural superiority and class stature clearly illustrates how capitalism is nothing more than a system that invokes exploitation and alienation, and stands in the way of solving world poverty.  Mills (2004) provides a significantly better understanding of just how imbalanced the United States truly is, even though America boasts the greatest capacity for economic and social justice in the