USA Although the work of leaders in business, law, government, and media profoundly impacts American society and culture, few surveys examine the attitudes and beliefs of these men and women in positions of greatest influence. Reporting data from a new study of elites in the United States, this paper compares recent findings with those from a national study in the 1980s to examine both the continuity and the change in elite demographics and political opinions over the past decades. Although women and minorities are represented in greater numbers in the late 1990s than in previous decades, white men continue to dominate the major leadership groups in the United States. The data, however, reveal that American leaders do not constitute a unified, monolithic 'overclass'. Our results reveal that elites from various leadership sectors come from different backgrounds and differ sharply on a variety of issues, revealing patterns of polarization and differentiation between various elite groups.
Cultural elites remain well to the left of more traditional leadership groups on most issues.