Apr 19, 2014

Relabel America: No Longer a "Democracy"


 

A new scientific study from Princeton researchers Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page has finally put some science behind the recently popular argument that the United States isn't a democracy any more. And they've found that in fact, America is basically an oligarchy.

 An oligarchy is a system where power is effectively wielded by a small number of individuals defined by their status called oligarchs. Members of the oligarchy are the rich, the well connected and the politically powerful, as well as particularly well placed individuals in institutions like banking and finance or the military.

 
The researchers compiled data from roughly 1,800 different policy initiatives in the years between 1981 and 2002. Then, they compared those policy changes with the expressed opinion of the United States public. Gilens and Page found that government policies followed the directives of major lobbying groups and business groups while disregarding the expressed opinion of the American public. In case you missed it, their data says that your opinion and what you think does not matter.

Big corporations, the ultra-wealthy and special interests with a lot of money and power essentially make all of the decisions. You may be alarmed, but this problem has been steadily escalating for four decades. Economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez constructed income statistics based on IRS data that go back to 1913. The gap between the ultra-wealthy and the rest of us is much bigger than you would think. The top 1% of earners had captured 95% of all income gains since the Great Recession ended. The other 99% saw a net 12% drop to their income. So not only is oligarchy making the rich richer, it's driving policy that's made everyone else poorer.
 
Case in point, That might explain why mandatory background checks on gun sales supported by 83% to 91% of Americans aren't in place, or why Congress has taken no action on greenhouse gas emissions even when such legislation is supported by the vast majority of citizens.

"Perhaps economic elites and interest group leaders enjoy greater policy expertise than the average citizen does," Gilens and Page write. "Perhaps they know better which policies will benefit everyone, and perhaps they seek the common good, rather than selfish ends, when deciding which policies to support.

 "But we tend to doubt it."
Source: Princeton Concludes What Kind of Government America Really Has, and It's Not a Democracy, Tom Mc Kay
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