Perkin's (1996) views on society are interesting and I can see some truth in what he describes. Modern industries are consolidating into larger companies through Mergers and Acquisitions (Baldwin et al, 2001), which will obviously lead to Executives and professionals gaining more power, with industries having a wide range of influence on government policy and society as a whole. For example, the current influence of the oil industry (Baker Institute Energy Forum, 2007) and drugs companies (Smith, 2005).
As Perkin highlights this will require greater demand for expertise, which is demonstrated clearly in the UK with the government's push to get more young people through higher education (Labour Party, n.d.).
Although professionals play a large role in shaping modern society, modern information technology and social networking also play a key role as proposed in the Information Society and Networking Society models (Wikipedia, n.d.). Perkin does take these into account to an extent by discussing the need for professionals to develop these technologies, but clearly does not consider them to the extent they have grown in the 12 years since the paper was written.
References
Baker Institute Energy Forum (2007), Strategies and Influence of Emerging National Oil Companies on World Energy Markets, Available from http://www.rice.edu/energy/research/nationaloil/docs/PECNOCstudyprotocolfinal.pdf (accessed 25 November 2008)
Baldwin L, Camm F, Morre N, Appendix C: Industry Consolidation Trends in Federal Contract Bundling, Rand Corporation, Available from http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1224/MR1224.appc.pdf (accessed 25 November 2008)
Perkin, H. (1996) Chapter 1 of The Third Revolution: Professional Elites in the Modern World, London: Routledge.
Labour Party Website, http://www.labour.org.uk/ (accessed 25 November 2008)
Smith R (2005) Curbing the Influence of the Drug Industry: A British View. PLoS Med 2(9): e241, Available from http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020241&ct=1 (accessed 25 November 2008)
Wikipedia (n.d.), Information Society, Available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_society (accessed 25 November 2008)
Wikipedia (n.d.), Network Society, Available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_society (accessed 25 November 2008)