Page 370 - Essencials of Sociology

Who rules the United States? 343

They hire themselves out to lobbying firms as strategic advisors.
They then lobby—excuse me—“strategically advise” their former
colleagues (“It’s So Much Nicer . . . ” 2008). And they laugh all
the way to the bank.
The Money. Buying votes is what especially bothers people. In
response to publicity, Congress passed laws that limit the amount
that corporations and individuals can give to candidates. To get
around this law, special-interest groups form political action
committees (PACs) to solicit contributions from many, and then
hand over huge sums to politicians. The amounts are mind-bog-
gling. Each year, about 4,500 PACs shell out almost a half billion
dollars to politicians (Statistical Abstract 2013:Tables 430, 431).
A few PACs represent broad social interests such as environmen-
tal protection. Most, however, represent the financial interests
of specific groups, such as the banking, dairy, defense, and oil
industries.
In 2010, the Supreme Court opened the floodgates to bankroll-
ing politicians. In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission,
the Court ruled that laws that limit the amount corporations can
contribute to politicians violate the First Amendment, which guar-
antees the right to political speech (Liptak 2010). This has led to
the creation of Super PACS that raise huge amounts for a single
candidate (Confessore 2011). At this point in the strange history
of politics, corporations have more legal rights to fund candidates
than individuals do.
Read on MySocLab
Document: Campaign Finance
(Super PACs)
Who rules the United States? 11.4 Compare the functionalist

With lobbyists and PACs wielding such influence, just whom do U.S. senators and rep- (pluralist) and conflict (power elite)
resentatives really represent? This question has led to a lively debate among sociologists. perspectives on U.S. power.
Let’s look at the functionalist and conflict perspectives.

The Functionalist Perspective: Pluralism
Functionalists view the state as having arisen out of the basic needs of the social group. political action committee
To protect themselves from oppressors, people formed a government and gave it the (PAC) an organization formed by
monopoly on violence. The risk is that the state can turn that force against its own citi- one or more special-interest groups
zens. To return to the example used earlier, states have a tendency to become muggers. to solicit and spend funds for the
Thus, people must find a balance between having no government—which would lead to purpose of influencing legislation
anarchy, a condition of disorder and violence—and having a government that protects anarchy a condition of lawlessness
them from violence, but that also may turn against them. When functioning well, then, or political disorder caused by the
the state is a balanced system that protects its citizens both from one another and from absence or collapse of governmen-
tal authority
government.
What keeps the U.S. government from turning against its citizens? Functionalists pluralism the diffusion of power
say that pluralism, a diffusion of power among many special-interest groups, prevents among many interest groups that
prevents any single group from
any one group from gaining control of the government and using it to oppress the gaining control of the government
people (Bentley 1908; Dahl 1961, 1982; McKay 2012). To keep the government from
coming under the control of any one group, the founders of the United States set checks and balances the separa-
tion of powers among the three
up three branches of government: the executive branch (the president), the judiciary branches of U.S. government—
branch (the courts), and the legislative branch (the Senate and House of Representa- legislative, executive, and judicial—
tives). Each is sworn to uphold the Constitution, which guarantees rights to citizens, so that each is able to nullify the
and each can nullify the actions of the other two. This system, known as checks and actions of the other two, thus
balances, was designed to ensure that no one branch of government dominates the preventing any single branch from
others. dominating the government