Class, Status and Power

Class, Status and Power
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Social Stratification and American Leadership:
Stratification refers to a chain of command or pecking order system in any given organization, community or society in general (Kerbo, 1999.p.2). It describes a hierarchy of positions defining the relationship between economic production and social benefits which accrue to the power holders. Put simply therefore, social stratification describes the relationship between class, status and power in society. Power may be defined to refer to the ability to influence and control others and may take various forms including but not limited to political power, economic power, military power, ideological power, and intellectual power (Kerbo, 1999.p.4). This paper will discuss extend to which America`s leadership has been influenced by the elements of social stratification (class, status and power) over the years. Focus will be directed towards class domination aspects in American leadership with specific references to the relationships between the social class, the corporate community, the ruling elite and government policy formulation.
Before engaging into deep discussion relating to power, it is important to highlight and underline the indicators of power especially as applied to a social group or social class. In the definition given above for power, no mention is given to the role of "force" or "coercion" in the exercising of power hence many would wish to know what criteria should be used to identify or measure the power concept. The main power indicators in any social group/class lie in three vital categories; "who benefits, who governs, and who wins" (Kerbo, 1999.p.5). Basically, the most powerful will be those who benefits most from the experiences and material objects of society`s high value. This explains why most Americans highly value wealth and well being, battle for representation in key positions in institutions, and actively engage in policy issue debates (Kerbo, 1999.p.11).
Over the years, money (wealth) has been the determining factor for who holds prime power in America. For instance, it is common knowledge that George Washington was a massive land owner. The 19th century presidents were favoured by rail road interest, while finance, oil and agribusiness were the strengths of George Bush. It can therefore be generalized that the rules which governed the policy framework for waging battles were generated by the owners of income generating property (or as Marx would put; the rules and policies were established by the owners of the means of production i.e. the capitalists) (Kerbo, 1999.p.23). It is important to mention here that the main reason why money rules in the USA is due to the absence of other established key competitive networks such as big church and big government as was the Europe case, and also absence of a big military before 1940s that would pose a threat to government (Kerbo, 1999.p.24).
America`s long time power network has remained primarily that of business-owning class and the working class coupled with a few cases of self employed individuals, independent professionals and entrepreneurs. The American historical background laid foundation for this capitalist mode of leadership through division of people into various groupings including; free and slave, white and black, and immigrant ethnic groups. The working class was also weakened so that they could not effectively unite to demand their rights from the system. Money has put a few in positions to dominate the majority by putting the few in position to dictate terms governing operation of the other groups and classes. Ordinarily, America may be viewed as having free speech, rule of law that also lead to organized elections, and organized opposition which puts the government in check. However, this paper will illustrate how the wealthy few have managed to rule the majority (based on class and power) against the pluralistic principles (Kerbo, 1999.p.27).
In the USA, the wealthy few constitute a social upper class through which institutions are established primarily to serve their children and nurture them into upper-class status as well. The newly upcoming wealthy individuals and groups also get assimilated into these institutions. Corporations in the US are controlled by the upper class and used to create and control more wealth for "wealthy generations" to come. Analysts have also established that there has been created a non profit organizations network in the US meant to bring together the upper class and corporate leaders (who are not yet members of the upper class) for reasons of US policy deliberations. The upper class also teams up with employees of various organizations in order to dominate the federal government. Those in the working class possess relatively less power than their colleagues in other democracies. More so, corporate leaders and the rich too claim to be relatively weak (Kerbo, 1999.p.35).
In America, there exists the social upper class on top of the status ladder associated with wealth and income. This is the most visible in the general power framework because it is usually the centre of interest. A social class describes a relationship (interaction) of individual, groups or families, who perceive themselves to be at the same status level, treat one another as equals, share similar ideas, lifestyle and views regarding the world. The social upper class consists of those who view themselves as "rich" or "elite" or simply "exclusive". This category adds up to not more that 1% of the general population. The upper class members afford to live in expensive residences, their children attend the best private learning institutions, and their elder members socialize in classy clubs. The upper class women too get to be introduced to high society through expensive classy social interactions and are also nurtured to become executive leaders of social cultural organizations through trainings they are given from the Junior League nationwide organization (Kerbo, 1999.p.49).
The importance of the social institutions in America can not be overemphasized. While such institutions significantly contribute to establishing social cohesion, the same sense of cohesion also "helps" to exclude some other class/groups of people from the organizations. In these expensive and exclusive social organizations, the upcoming wealthy generation is nurtured to develop an elaborate understanding of wealth related issues. For the purpose of this paper, these social institutions serve to create the analytical foundation of power and class. Put differently, the social institutions will generate the focal point at which members of the upper class can be assessed with relation to the political, ideological and economic powerbases within society (Kerbo, 1999.p.51). The upper class in America is by scope, widespread across the entire nation due to the overlapping nature of clubs to which they belong as members. For instance, a person who is a member of a club with branches in various States gets to interact with the other upper class members of these various branches of the club in the other cities. Though such class indicators can not be generalized, they go along way to determine power relations in America.
Turning to the corporate community, a great power base (both organizational and legal) has been established and sustained by Corporations in the US for many decades. Individual corporations are by no means powerful since they are able to hire and fire wo...