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

A new study from Princeton spells bad news for 

American democracy—namely, that it no longer exists.

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." 

Source:http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/

princeton-experts-say-us-no-longer-democracy 

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Whom does Obama serve? SANANDA:

http://lichtweltverlag.blogspot.co.at/2014/10/whom-does-obama-serve-sananda.html 

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