Who Rules America?  By G. William Domhoff, University of California at Santa Cruz

Videos by Bill Domhoff


Who Rules America and Power Structure Research: Legacies of the '60s... or Relics?

California Sociological Association, November 2017

Keynote presentation to CSA's annual meeting in Sacramento.


The Triumph of the Corporate Rich and How They Succeeded

UC Berkeley, April 2015

A talk at UC Berkeley as part of the Institute for the Study of Social Issues' Colloquia Speaker Series. Bill discusses how and why the Corporate Rich decisively defeated the Liberal-Labor Coalition in the 20th century. The talk covers many topics from his 2013 book, The Myth of Liberal Ascendancy, as well as more general themes about the power elite and the rise and fall of labor unions in the United States.


How UC Santa Cruz Became Unique

UC Santa Cruz, September 2015

At the 50-year reunion of UCSC's Pioneer Class, Bill talks about the psychological, sociological, and historical factors that made the university so unique, and how the campus helped transform the City of Santa Cruz into perhaps the leftmost city in the country.


Who Rules America Today? The Triumph of the Corporate Rich

UC Santa Barbara, January 2014

Bill was invited to give a talk at the University of California at Santa Barbara, as part of their Mellichamp Global Studies Lecture Series.


Summer Camp for the Powerful: The Power Elite at Bohemian Grove

Spring 1994

A half-hour video about Bohemian Grove, the Bohemian Club's summer encampment in Monte Rio, California. Bill shares facts, photos, and sociological research — and dispels conspiratorial myths. (As more recent work by Bill and others demonstrates, absolutely nothing has changed at the Boheman Grove since he gave this talk, so it is actually up to date as of 2024.)


Why Are The Corporate Rich So Powerful?

Spring 1994

Presented as the 28th Annual Faculty Research Lecture of the Santa Cruz Division of the Academic Senate of the University of California, April 27, 1994. In this talk, Bill claims that the problem facing the economy was inadequate demand. (Bill still thinks that's the problem, but it was temporarily solved until 2008 in unsustainable ways — a stock market boom, a housing boom, and rising personal debt. Other than his failure to anticipate the gimmicks that created demand, he thinks this talk is as spot-on for 2024 as it was for 1994.)


Retrospective: 30 years of Power Structure Research

Spring 1994

This interview, about Bill's first 30 years of doing power structure research, took place on the UCSC campus in spring of 1994, on the occasion of his "retirement" — i.e., his transition from full-time Professor to a Research Professor who teaches a course or two per year. (For Bill's later thoughts on fifty years of power research, click here.)



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