Princeton Study: U.S. No Longer An Actual Democracy

Princeton Study: U.S. No Longer An Actual Democracy

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AP Photo / Patrick Semansky

Brendan James – April 18, 2014, 10:43 AM EDT139476

Asking "[w]ho really rules?" researchers Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page argue that over the past few decades America's political system has slowly transformed from a democracy into an oligarchy, where wealthy elites wield most power.

Using data drawn from over 1,800 different policy initiatives from 1981 to 2002, the two conclude that rich, well-connected individuals on the political scene now steer the direction of the country, regardless of or even against the will of the majority of voters.

"The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy," they write, "while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence."

As one illustration, Gilens and Page compare the political preferences of Americans at the 50th income percentile to preferences of Americans at the 90th percentile as well as major lobbying or business groups. They find that the government—whether Republican or Democratic—more often follows the preferences of the latter group rather than the first.

The researches note that this is not a new development caused by, say, recent Supreme Court decisions allowing more money in politics, such as Citizens United or this month's ruling on McCutcheon v. FEC. As the data stretching back to the 1980s suggests, this has been a long term trend, and is therefore harder for most people to perceive, let alone reverse.

"Ordinary citizens," they write, "might often be observed to 'win' (that is, to get their preferred policy outcomes) even if they had no independent effect whatsoever on policy making, if elites (with whom they often agree) actually prevail."

Noa's picture

Many of us are aware that America hasn't been a Democracy for some time.  (Actually, it was originally intended to be a Republic rather than a Democracy, which is essentially mob rule.)  These days, however,  the US government doesn't represent the will of the majority as much as it fulfills the needs of the powerful few.

It succeeds in part by cleverly conditionally us to believe that the desires of the few are also the desires of the many.  That's why we continue to support ideas like drilling and fracking for oil, using Smart meters, and eating GMO foods.  We continue to trust our government as if they have our best interests at heart.

Maybe academic reports like this one will wake more people up.

Wendy's picture

This is quite the comment on higher education today when a top school makes a comment like this that shows their ignorance of history and the way that our government was intended to work.

But I guess if the headline had read that we no longer have a republic that would be true as well.

Noa's picture

Yes, Wendy, it's gotten so that we can't believe even what textbooks tell us... especially in the medical profession.  But maybe it's not so much ignorance as it is propaganda. Remember that education, like other institutions, are Rockefeller-funded and controlled.

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