C. Wright Mills work was chiefly focused on the power elites and their influence on social environment. He examine the association among business, governmental and military elites. He was interested in this relationship because of its political and historical importance within in democratic state. He said that, we are now stuck up in the system of emerging power elites in the name of realism and rationalization which are leading us closer towards catastrophe.
Mills believed that, human social conduct could not be understood unless we obtain the knowledge of social structure in which individuals interact with one another. Social change is inevitable, structure of societies change with the passage of time. When social institutions within traditional societies become larger, interdependent, centralized, based on high division of labor as well as rational rules and procedures they transform into modern societies. Structure of societies are based on prevailing social norms, values and beliefs. These dominant social norms, values and beliefs regulate the behavior of individuals within a given society. When the structure of particular society change social conduct of individuals is motivated by new prevailing norms, values and beliefs.
Moreover, the bureaucratic structure of modern societies specify positions of individuals (division of labors) in hierarchical order with in social organizations. Those individuals who hold top hierarchical positions obtain more power than those who hold middle and bottom hierarchical level positions within social institutions. The power and authority of Individuals with key leadership positions allow them to control social organizations. According to Mills, the social shift towards modernization effect the social lives of all individuals; those who control large social organizations and those who are subjected to them.
White collar jobs refer to clerical work within offices or organizations. These white collar job are mostly occupied or obtained by middle class people within a society. According to mills, white collar jobs emerged and increased due to advancement of technology, bureaucratic organizational structure and increasing need to market industrial goods within industrial societies or modern societies. Furthermore, he argued that, white collar workers are disorganized, dependent upon formal rules or bureaucracy for their survival and existence and due to the mass existence of white collar workers and their dependence on bureaucracy; changed the social lives of people within America.
Mills believed that, that the characteristics of American society can be analyzed through focusing on white collar job. He says that, white collar jobs are broken into simple functional tasks regulated by formal norms to increase productivity. Moreover, economically viable machines are employed within organizations that parceled out the jobs to unskilled workers. In modern American society routine jobs has been increased due to automation of organizations. Whereas, the authority and power of policy formulation or decision making have been granted to few key position holders. The bureaucratic structure of social institutions have made greater distinction in terms of power, authority, prestige and income between managers and general staff. In such social system routine workers are discouraged or not allowed to use their cognitive abilities because they have not been granted the authority to make decisions. As a result, routine workers become alienated from their intellectual capacities and work.
According to Mills, rise in white collar jobs had significant effect on educational system within modern societies. Due to the advent of industrialization in America schools, colleges and universities shifted towards vocational focus where students are trained to become a part of large bureaucracies. The curriculum to acquire educated intelligence and intellectual abilities has been replaced with the training to follow rules and orders within educational institutions because job performance is evaluated on the basis of following organizational rules and orders of superiors within bureaucratic structure of modern societies. Mills argued that power elites have manipulated the American educational system for their personal gain that they could accumulate more wealth from the labor of people.
Written by; Khushdil Khan Kasi
