Theories of Power in Democracy

After reading some of C Wright Mills work I must respectfully disagree with him. Yes, our democracy is run by elitists. Also, corporations and the military do have some power in our Federal government. However, I do not believe that there is this "triangle of power" that he mentioned. We must remember that our government is not controlled by a bunch of elitists that make policies just to benefit themselves. That would be a form of a tyrannous government. We must remember what James Madison told us through the federalist papers. He talked about how our nation is essentially made up of factions. These factions will eventually form political parties, but if large political parties form, then the parties will essentially break down into these smaller factions.
             Now these factions, when people come together, can form interest groups and political parties. As the pluralist theory states, all of these groups, no matter how small, can affect the government. However, this is where I must draw the line and state that power in our democracy is best represented by the theory of hyper pluralism as of right now. There are so many groups involved with the government that some group's issues are polar opposites of each other. In fact, some groups are so strong that the government is weakened. One example of this is the interest group known as the NRA. This group is so strong even though is run by so few that the government seems to have very little choice but to listen to it. When a representative tries to pass gun control laws, it is met with gridlock because of how many people agree with the NRA. These groups, whether it be interest groups or political parties create a lot of gridlock. A huge example of this is how Congress has run in the past couple of years. Not only that but there has been some very confusing legislation passed because of these groups. This screams that this government's power is best represented by the hyper pluralism. In fact, this appears to be the exact definition of hyper pluralism. I will agree with C Wright Mills in that the elitists do make some policies that benefit themselves, but the system of power is just more represented by hyper pluralism due to these things.


Here is a link to a video that helps to show gridlock: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nightly-news/52365614#52365614