Wright Mills argues that the fundamental decisions governing people"s lives in our society are made and controlled by a power elite. He describes this elite as composed of people who share basic economic interests, and who occupy overlapping positions of authority in the highest reaches of the corporate, military, and executive sectors of our system. The average person is excluded from participation in, and control over, the major decision-making processes, the ones which shape the society"s political direction and priorities. The United States, he suggests, is slowly taking on the contours of a mass society. In order for the nation to realize its democratic promise, he continues, a community of publics must emerge.

             To understand and be able to compare Mills" concept of the mass society with the notion of the community of publics first one must be able to understand the term mass society. In Mills" concept of mass society the common person feels distant from the government. The common person feels that they do not make any decision that will affect they lives. The average person wonders why should he or she vote if their voice will not be heard. They feel powerless in the society which they live in and wonder who is the one making the laws and rules of society . .

             Mills feels that traditional democratic society has transformed in to a society in which people no longer care about the government, or are upset at the government. The average person feels that the government does not acknowledge their existence. They feels that they are people behind the scene controlling the political life surrounding them. The government does not try to stop the society transforming to a mass society but instead they are helping the problem of mass society.

             People running in political parties distance themselves from the voters. In the past people running for political office would try their hardest to make the voters feel close to them.