<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards . The specific problem is: the article has no coherent discussion of the subject, just a bunch of expert utterances in separate microsections Please help improve this article if you can . (January 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards . The specific problem is: the article has no coherent discussion of the subject, just a bunch of expert utterances in separate microsections Please help improve this article if you can . (January 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> In political science and sociology, elite theory is a theory of the state that seeks to describe and explain power relationships in contemporary society . The theory posits that a small minority, consisting of members of the economic elite and policy - planning networks, holds the most power--and this power is independent of democratic elections . Through positions in corporations or on corporate boards, and influence over policy - planning networks through financial support of foundations or positions with think tanks or policy - discussion groups, members of the "elite" exert significant power over corporate and government decisions . An example of this belief is in the Forbes magazine article (published in December 2009) entitled The World's Most Powerful People, in which Forbes purported to list the 67 most powerful people in the world (assigning one "slot" for each 100,000,000 of human population). The basic characteristics of this theory are that power is concentrated, the elites are unified, the non-elites are diverse and powerless, elites' interests are unified due to common backgrounds and positions and the defining characteristic of power is institutional position . </P> <P> Even when entire groups are ostensibly completely excluded from the state's traditional networks of power (historically, on the basis of arbitrary criteria such as nobility, race, gender, or religion), elite theory recognizes that "counter-elites" frequently develop within such excluded groups . Negotiations between such disenfranchised groups and the state can be analyzed as negotiations between elites and counter-elites . A major problem, in turn, is the ability of elites to co-opt counter-elites . </P>

The elite (or class) theory of american democracy holds that
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