Is there still a Ruling Class ?sx Britain does still have a capitalist business class , rooted in industrial , commercial and landed property and occupying a position of high status .sx The privileges of this class are legitimated through a frame - work of 'traditional' norms and values , and the practices and processes of this status system are central to the mechanisms of class reproduction .sx But is the capitalist class still a ruling class ?sx The concept of a ruling class , I have argued , is far from straightforward .sx In Chapter 2 I introduced a number of ideas which can help to evaluate the meaning and relevance of this concept .sx Before it is possible to answer the question 'Is there still a ruling class ?sx ' , those ideas must be reviewed and elaborated .sx Power Elites and the Ruling Class .sx The state elite comprises the positions of authority at the head of the leading institutions of the state .sx From this standpoint , all societies with a state have , by definition , a state elite and a political elite .sx It is for this reason that , for many commentators , the claims of classical elite theory have been seen as trivial .sx To claim that all societies have a political elite is not to claim very much at all .sx But there is far more to be learned from the elite theorists than this .sx While all societies with a state do , indeed , have a political elite , not all societies will have a power elite .sx The assertion that a particular society has a power elite is far from trivial , as it involves definite and contestable claims about the actual exercise of power .sx The occupants of positions of authority within the state elite comprise a power elite only where they are recruited from a power bloc .sx A power bloc , it will be recalled , is an alignment of social groups having some similarity in social background and experience and which is able to monopolize positions of authority within the state elite over a sustained period .sx But to demonstrate the existence of a power elite is still only half the task , as power elites vary according to the cohesion and the class basis of the power bloc which dominates the state elite .sx In figure 6.1 is a typology of power elites , defined by the dimensions in terms of which they may vary .sx The first dimension in this typology measures the degree of cohesion and integration which the power bloc is able to achieve .sx This may vary from the situation where all sectors of the state elite are filled by those from a similar background to that where distinct clusters of positions are recruited from particular sections of the power bloc .sx The second dimension measures the class basis of the power bloc , and this may vary from the extreme of a highly restricted bloc , in which one particular class is dominant , to those situations involving more extended recruitment and where there is a broader balance of classes .sx The social character and class base of the power elite varies in each of the situations defined in the typology .sx Rule by an exclusive power elite exists where the power bloc is drawn from a restricted and highly uniform social background and so is able to achieve a high level of solidarity .sx Rule by an inclusive power elite , on the other hand , exists where a solidaristic power bloc is not dominated by any particular class .sx While both cases involve the identification of a power elite with a high degree of solidarity and self-consciousness , they differ in terms of the restrictions which exist on membership of the power elite .sx Rule by segmented power elite exists where the power bloc is divided into a number of separate and distinct fractions and has a relatively low level of overall cohesion , despite the fact that all fractions are drawn from the same restricted pool .sx In such a situation , competition between elements within the power elite will be strong .sx Rule by a fragmentary power elite , on the other hand , occurs where the power bloc has very little solidarity and cohesion , and where the basis of recruitment is somewhat wider .sx The relatively broad base of recruitment means that the various sections within the power elite constitute a pluralistic diversity of competing groups .sx In this situation , the concept of power elite becomes an almost abstract category to describe the competing , countervailing groups that participate in the exercise of power .sx To describe a society as having a power elite , therefore , leads to the further stage of describing the particular form which is taken by this power elite .sx While each of these forms may be compatible with the existence of a ruling class , the nature of class rule and the extent to which the state may be expected to operate in the interests of the capitalist class will differ from case to case .sx The classical Marxian view of the ruling class assumed the existence of a highly exclusive power elite :sx the state machinery was supposed to be dominated by a single class with a high level of class consciousness and solidarity .sx Pluralistic critics of this view , however , have rejected both aspects of this view .sx They have argued that the basis of recruitment to the political elite is far wider than the Marxists assume , and that its cohesion is also far less .sx Miliband , I have shown , adopts an unorthodox Marxist position mid-way between these two extremes .sx While recognizing that positions within the state elite are not monopolized exclusively by the capitalist class and that there are certain important lines of division and conflict contained within the political elite , Miliband argues that these differences are contained within an overall similarity of outlook and background .sx Underlying the dimension of the restricted or extended class basis of recruitment are the strategies of closure and incorporation through which the power bloc defines itself .sx Closure is a process though which a social group is able to secure the backing of the state and of the overall framework of law to establish certain privileges from which others are excluded and through which they are able to ensure that the enjoyment of these privileges is closed to outsiders .sx Parkin has argued that the formal criteria of access and entry to positions of privilege which are adopted in various societies - criteria such as the 'rights' and 'obligations' attached to lineage , property , or education - involve powerful processes of collective exclusion .sx Whole groups are excluded from such positions because their members are held to possess or to lack particular attributes .sx Positions within the state elite , for example , may be restricted to those who were born into recognized aristocratic families .sx Collective exclusion can also occur when positions are formally 'open' to all through competitive entry , examinations , and educational credentials .sx This is the case , for example , where the members of a particular class monopolize the 'cultural capital' which enables them to be more successful than others in the educational race .sx Through their families of birth , they acquire the cultural qualities , attributes and skills - for example , those of language , literacy , and aesthetic enjoyment - which are embodied in and reinforced by the educational system .sx Classes which lack these inherited cultural assets are disadvantaged in the educational system , and so a formal system of competitive entry to elite positions will actually result in the exclusion of these classes in favour of the other .sx As I have shown in the previous chapter , the public school system has , for a long time , operated in just such a way to privilege the classes of the power bloc .sx A successful monopoly of power may also depend upon the continuing efforts of the members of the power bloc to maintain a degree of closure while adopting a strategy of incorporation .sx In these circumstances , the power bloc or its dominant group seeks to maintain its dominance by enlarging the power bloc through the co - optation of the leading elements of a rival group .sx In this way , it is hoped that the opposition of the incorporated group will be defused .sx Incorporation of wider social groups need not undermine the monopoly of the dominant class if those who are incorporated can be relied upon to acquiesce in or to actively support the dominance of those who have co-opted them .sx Indeed , a strategy of incorporation will generally be followed because the dangers from continuing to exclude a group are greater than those which would arise from their incorporation in the existing power bloc .sx It is in this context that a distinction between a power bloc and an electoral bloc must be made .sx While the power bloc consists of an alignment of social groups which actively participate in the exercise of state power , an electoral bloc comprises the wider alignment of social groups which supports and sustains the power bloc in electoral competition .sx An electoral bloc gives continued long - term support to the political party or parties of the power bloc in parliamentary and local elections , though its members are themselves outside the power bloc .sx Thus , challenging groups can be incorporated into either the power bloc or the electoral bloc .sx Leading elements within the power bloc may , for example , seek to incorporate potentially threatening social groups into an electoral bloc , while continuing to exclude them from real participation in state power .sx Of particular importance in building an electoral bloc are the values and ideas which can be encouraged among those within the electoral bloc .sx Deferential attitudes among the working class , for example , allow a stable electoral bloc to be built by members of the dominant classes without there being any danger that those who are incorporated will seek to gain entry to the power bloc .sx Practices of closure and incorporation maximize the cohesion of the power bloc itself by emphasizing its separation from subordinate groups outside the bloc .sx But this is not to say that relations within the power bloc are egalitarian .sx I have emphasized that a power bloc is an alignment of groups with differing life chances and conflicting interests .sx These groups stand in relations of dominance and subordination to one another and , except in those rather unusual situations where it is recruited exclusively from a single social group , a power bloc will be organized around the balance of power and interests among its constituent forces .sx If a power bloc is to persist for any time , it must attain what has sometimes been described as the three C's of consciousness , coherence , and 'conspiracy' .sx That is to say , the power bloc must evolve some awareness of common interests and concerns , it must achieve some degree of solidarity and cohesion , and its leading members must be capable of pursuing some kind of coordinated policy of action to further these interests .sx Those who are the occupants of similarly structured positions will , indeed , share certain interests , but the achievement of a degree of coordination in their actions in pursuit of these interests depends upon their becoming conscious of these interests .sx It is only on this basis that the members of the power bloc can achieve any consensus over policy goals and , thereby , seek to influence successfully the direction of policy-making in their interests .sx Insights into the processes involved in this area can be gained from the work of C. Wright Mills on the power elite in the contemporary United States .sx This power elite , he argued , was recruited from the 'higher circles' of American society - it came from the privileged upper circles of those who " know one another , see one another socially and at business , and so , in making decisions , take one another into account " .sx They are , Mills argued , " involved in a set of overlapping 'crowds' and intricately connected 'cliques' " .sx Their shared background and community of interaction among the upper circles is the basis of their shared understandings and their recognition of common interests , and it is the basis on which they are able to formulate a self-conscious awareness of what they have in common with one another :sx In so far as the power elite is composed of men [ sic] of similar origin and education , in so far as their careers and their styles of life are similar , there are psychological and social bases for their unity , resting upon the fact that they are of similar social type and leading to the fact of their easy intermingling .sx .sx