The Civic Involvement of Bankers: An Analysis of the Influence of Economic Power and Social Prominence in the Command of Civic Policy Positions

Abstract

This paper examines the distribution of positions of authority in important civic policy organizations among a broad range of business leaders who are directors of commercial banks in a major metropolitan area. The civic organizations studied work in three different substantive areas: social welfare and social service; culture and education; and the formulation and communication of business policy. The bankers are distinguished in terms of two dimensions of centrality within the capitalist class: their closeness to dominant centers of economic power, as defined by corporate and bank interlocking directorates, and their upper class social prominence, as defined by membership in the most exclusive local clubs and related social organizations. The research reveals a pattern of concentration in the command of civic policy positions at the metropolitan level and indicates that the “inner group” of leading capitalists is best defined in terms of networks of both economic power and upper class prominence. This concentration of power within a core group of capitalists is discussed in relation to the struggle for social hegemony in a declining industrial metropolis.