Can Capitalists Organize Themselves?

Allen Whitt received his degree in sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and teaches sociology at Brown University. A central issue in the debate concerning the relation between the ruling class and the state has been the question of the extent to which capitalists are capable of organizing themselves politica!ly. Power structure research has been criticised by structural Marxists or those influenced by that perspective on a number of bases (Mollenkopf, 1975; Gold, Lo and Wright, 1975; Esping-Anderson, Friedland, and Wright, 1976; Block, 1977). A com-