Ideology of the U.S. financial and industrial oligarchy of the late XIX – early XX century

Abstract

At the end of the XIX – beginning of the XX century, a new social layer of the financial and industrial oligarchy was formed in the United States, which needed ideological support. Darwin's theory, which appeared in the middle of the 19th century, also gave an impetus to the formation of the theory of social Darwinism, which was founded by the British sociologists G. Spencer and W. Sumner. The emergence of a class of corporate business elite, owners of super-profits, was explained by natural selection, the product of which was a new layer of American society. Under the pressure of mass protest movements, it was replaced by the theory of "social responsibility of business", which was heralded by the nouveau riches themselves – first E. Carnegie, and then G. Ford. It spread the thesis of charity as a means of public "service" of business to society and encouraged it in every possible way. Thus, changing under the influence of social factors, the corporate business elite has largely managed to form the ideological base of its top position in American society.