43 4.5 PLURALISM AND ELITE THEORY
- PLURALISM AND ELITE THEORY
The American government was founded on democratic principles that encourage open and accessible participation by all citizens. Pluralism follows the belief that everyone has “equal access to influence policymaking” (Dahl 1961; Rinfret, Scheberle, and Pautz, 2019); thus, anyone has the power to move public problems onto the agenda or, at the very least, attract the attention of policymakers who can. Competition still occurs between groups and individuals in the pluralist model, but many different actors have power; no single group dominates the decision–making process. Individuals and groups can also move freely into and out of the policy process, depending on whether their goals are met.
Contrast pluralist theory with elite theory, which suggests that only a few prominent elites have the power to influence policymaking. Elite theory asserts that regular citizens are uninformed and uninterested in public policy, leaving the elites of society, that is, politicians, businessmen, and the wealthy, in a position to control policy decisions (Mills, 1956). Policy, therefore, reflects not the demands of regular people but the values of elites.
Elite theory implies that policy issues make it on the agenda from “inside” the policy process. For example, every few years, Congress discusses repealing the estate tax. According to the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the estate tax affects only .2% of all Americans, yet any proposed changes attract attention. The estate tax has provided a reliable source of revenue for the federal government for almost a century (Huang and Cho, 2017). For that reason, economists argue that eliminating the tax would cost the public billions, making the current budget deficit even worse. How does this issue nevertheless gain so much traction with policymakers? If elite theory is correct, it is because influential and wealthy individuals would benefit from a repeal of the estate tax. As members of an elite group, these individuals lobby from within the political system, using power and influence to prevent attempts to increase the estate tax from ever reaching the institutional agenda.
