But it is also good to keep in mind, contra-Mills, that owners also rule and sometimes they do more actual ruling than those who lead the government. If anyone has taught me this it is Doug. When banks, insurance companies, and coporations decide what to do where they are making a public decision that is labled a private decision. A bank that is owned by the government is part of the "state." A bank that is owned by stockholders is no less part of the state in a very broad sense but it is no longer part of the government. Railroads through the latter part of the nineteenth century set land use policy for vast swaths of the nation, established townships, decided who and where to recruit for the populations of those towns. In other words they functioned as quasi-states.
On 3/29/06, Miles Jackson <cqmv at pdx.edu> wrote:
>
> Doug Henwood wrote:
> > Miles Jackson wrote:
> >> So according to this terminology, Doug's interested in the psychology
> >> of the governing class/power elite, not the ruling class. (It's
> >> strange to me how fuzzy the concept "ruling class" is on a left-wing
> >> mail list!)
> >
> >
> > Hmm, that's not the way I'm thinking of it. I'm thinking of a
> > politically engaged subset of the bourgeoisie who, with the help of
> > hired hands (lobbyists, politicians, pundits, professors, publicists),
> > control state policy and the production of ideology.
> >
>
> That's what Mills would call the "economic sector" of the power elite.
> (Jim provided a nice synopsis of Mills upthread). The more I think
> about this, the more I agree with Mills that the term "ruling class" is
> not very useful.
>
> Miles
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>
-- Jerry Monaco's Philosophy, Politics, Culture Weblog is Shandean Postscripts to Politics, Philosophy, and Culture http://monacojerry.livejournal.com/
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