Study: US is an oligarchy, not a democracy

LateX'Dog

LateX'Dog

LateX'Dog

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A review of the best commentary on and around the world...

Today's must-read

The US is dominated by a rich and powerful elite.

So concludes a recent study by Princeton University Prof Martin Gilens and Northwestern University Prof Benjamin I Page.

This is not news, you say.

Perhaps, but the two professors have conducted exhaustive research to try to present data-driven support for this conclusion. Here's how they explain it:

Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organised groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.

In English: the wealthy few move policy, while the average American has little power.

The two professors came to this conclusion after reviewing answers to 1,779 survey questions asked between 1981 and 2002 on public policy issues. They broke the responses down by income level, and then determined how often certain income levels and organised interest groups saw their policy preferences enacted.
Click to expand...

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746

Something I had always known, but its glad we have it official now.
 
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Hardly surprising but still an interesting study.

Any political system which allows the purchasing of influence will tend to align to meet the needs of those with the greatest purchasing power.
 
does the pope crap in the woods ???

Who cares you cant do anything about it. Class war or gtfo.
 
The average person doesn't want power and wouldn't know what to do with it if they had it...they just want to be left alone to live their lives in peace. For the most part that is what we enjoy in developed democracies..even if they are ultimately an illusion.
 
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