Title: House of Cards, Season 2, Episode 2
Tags: democracy, power elites, connections, public relations
Author: A. Vogelaar
Date: Feb. 1, 2015
Summary analysis: Netflix wildly powerful, House of Cards, is a dark but poignant drama about the reach, extent and complexity of power in contemporary American politics and society. This analysis applies the thinking of C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite, to the drama such that it may help us ilustrate and better understand Mills' thinking and concepts. At its core, the television drama is a dramatization (and implicit critique/mockery) of Mills assertion that vast concentrations of power had coagulated in three increasingly inter-related organizations in America: the political, corporate and military 'elite'; and that America, as such, was not a 'democracy.' Though the 'players' in House of Cards are different, the 'positions' are not and indeed the show is an excellent illustration of Mills' concern over "the development of a permanent war establishment by a privately incorporated economy inside a political vacuum" (p. 19). In the specific excerpt shown here, the main character, Frank Underwood, is commenting (during his confirmation as Vice President of the United States of America) about the'theater' of American democracy. Through what we are led to believe are not atypical (be they unethical) political maneuvers, Underwood secures a position in the top tier of American political power without ever having to be subjected to a democratic vote. Instead, Underwood uses his political, economic and military connections and debts (and public relations prowess) to maneuver his way to the top.
