C. Wright Mills published his book The Power Elite in 1956, at a time when pluralist theory dominated political science, and equilibrium theories such as systems analysis and structural functionalism had captured the field of sociology in the United States.

Mainstream scholars, as well as liberal and conservative politicians, confidently asserted that Keynesian economics and the expansion of the welfare state had brought universal prosperity to the West and an end to class conflict in the advanced capitalist societies. Political scientists proclaimed that interest group pluralism, while less than perfect, was the best of all possible political systems, and the best approximation to political democracy that could be achieved in a complex modern society.

Everyone recognized that there was still economic, social, and political inequality in the United States, but scholars, corporate executives, and government officials insisted that any remaining inequality was the result of a competitive meritocracy, where men of skill, self-discipline, and intelligence rose to leadership positions, where they wisely managed corporations and the state in the public interest.