Policy Among the Power Wielders

...Representing important social and economic complexes, industrial and community leaders become aware of needs which can only be met by changes in public policy, and...

...If he had carried his analysis further, Hunter certainly could have added something more to our understanding of the policy– making process...

...We get a fascinating picture of those who make policy in the United States, but we do not get new perspectives on how it is made...

...At the top, he held, an integrated power structure exists, composed of corporation executives, the chiefs of the military establishment and the politicians associated with them...

...Reviewed by Samuel P. Huntington Assistant Director, Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University THE CHANGING POWER structure of contemporary American society is inherently an object of fascination and controversy...

...Hunter's analysis thus focuses primarily upon economic issues of primary concern to private groups, and he devotes very little attention to how decisions are made in defense policy and foreign policy...

...The fact that he has so little new to say about how policy is made is perhaps the most disappointing and yet the most significant aspect of Hunter's study...

...Second Rater," and "Third Rater...

...In part, this is due to the elusiveness of the concept and the variety of ways in which power is exercised...

...Bankers, lawyers, publishers and military men also are found in the "inner circuit" of policy–makers, but the largest and, one feels, the most influential group consists of the directors, board chairmen and presidents of vast industrial complexes...

...He has certainly not accomplished what he claims to have done, i.e., "traced a living model of United States power.'' Despite his continual reference to the process of policy–making, his analysis is essentially static in character...

...How does one discover first the identity and then the operating methods of the power wielders in a society...

...Although its defects and shortcomings are many, it does represent a fresh approach to the distribution of power in American society...

...The top leaders cannot escape the pervasive pluralism of American politics...

...It is to Hunter's credit that his book falls into neither of these categories...

...In part, also, it is due to the fact that in a liberal society the effectiveness of power often depends upon its being felt but not seen...

...Also, as a result of this approach, his book tends to be concerned more with the origins of policy than with the decisions on policy...

...Starting from private associations, however, Hunter inevitably tends to emphasize the role of private individuals in the formation of national policy...

...And yet the blame may not lie entirely with him and his method...

...C. Wright Mills challenged this view, arguing that only at the middle levels of decision–making is power dispersed in the Riesman manner...

...He started by compiling a list of national associations thought to be powerful in policy–making and he then asked the leaders of these associations to name the men they thought had top influence in national policy–making...

...Professor of Social Work at the University of North Carolina, offers a third approach to the problem...

...Chamber of Commerce and Community Chest secretaries across the country were also asked to identify the most influential men in their communities...

...Although he begins by positing that "a power structure exists in concretely definable terms at the national level of affairs," the evidence he presents hardly supports the "power elite" theory...

...Operating from a secure base in an industry or a community, the "Number One" men extend their activities into Government service, community affairs, advisory boards and political fund–raising...

...In Top Leadership, U.S.A., Floyd Hunter...

...Conceivably...

...At various points, Hunter briefly summarizes the process by which a community plan is developed, a bill put through a state legislature, a national policy evolved...

...In the inner circuit of the nation, as in the inner circuit of the local Parent Teachers Association, decision, or...

...While they share many broad attitudes toward government, they are likely to be divided upon any specific policy issue...

...Almost 10 years ago, in The Lonely Crowd, David Riesman argued that the captains of consumption were replacing the captains of industry as popular leaders and that power was becoming broadly dispersed among a variety of "veto" groups, each able to prevent the adoption of public policies inimical to its interests...

...Hunter's development of his theme is shaped by his effort to approach it in a highly empirical manner...

...at least, agreement, is the product of bargaining and compromise among a variety of conflicting interests...

...He has, however, taken only a first step...

...consequently, they set in motion the mechanism by which changes are brought about...

...Eventually, however, the decisions on these changes, if they are at all significant, have to be made by elected or appointed public officials...

...The difficulty in coming to grips empirically with power has frequently caused writings on this subject to be either abstract, arid, formal analyses or "muck–raking" exposes premised upon a "conspiracy theory" of society, in which the charges and implications outrun the evidence...

...Hunter's method could lead to many insights into the processes of decision–making in American society...

...They must define the issues, arouse support, distract the opposition, locate and isolate potentially favorable loci of decision–making...

...Hunter's analysis makes clear that although elite members interact, they do not cohere...

...Judged by Hunter's roster, the industrial corporation is the principal source of top leadership in American society...

...In the latter case, then, the leaders on either side have to go through the complex and laborious process of what used to be called "politicking" and now is called "consensus building...

...Hunter originally developed his technique in the study of a southern city, the results of which were published in 1953 in Community Power Structure...

...According to Hunter, they are in part differentiated from those on the lower levels simply by the extent to which they know each other...

...Hunter cites examples of how policy proposals originate, but he is considerably less successful in showing how and why a Congressional committee or a Cabinet secretary approved one proposal and vetoed another...

...The job of the social scientist, however, is to make power seen, and behind this scientific concern he very frequently has the political desire to make power less felt...

...Eventually, Hunter came up with a power roster, with the power wielders even segregated into categories of "Number One Man...

...More recently, in The Power Elite...

...He has now attempted to apply the same assumptions and methods to the nation at large...

...The study of power is one of the most difficult tasks confronting the social scientist...

...Even apart from his motivations, however, the social scientist tends to be a somewhat subversive fellow simply because of the results he produces...

...These summaries, however, differ little from those which for years have appeared in elementary textbooks in American government...

...Through these devices a list of top leaders was compiled and double–checked by interviewing the men on the list and asking them to identify the individuals whom they thought most influential...

...Less given to sweeping theories than Mills and less gifted with acute insights than Riesman...

...To be sure, most of his top leaders move in and out of governmental posts, but their primary roles are those of businessman or banker, not politician...