Major Study Finds The US Is An Oligarchy

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Date: October 18, 2018 20:04:58 JST
> To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Major Study Finds The US Is An Oligarchy
> Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com
>
> [Note:  This article is from 2014.  I thought that given the upcoming midterm elections, that it would be a good 
> thing to post it as a reminder as to what is at stake.  Also, if you haven’t seen this classic rant by the late 
> George Carlin on the ‘American Dream', then take three minutes to give it a look: <https://youtu.be/rsL6mKxtOlQ>  DLH]
>
> Major Study Finds The US Is An Oligarchy
> By Zachary Davies Boren, The Telegraph
> Apr 16 2014
> <https://www.businessinsider.com/major-study-finds-that-the-us-is-an-oligarchy-2014-4>
>
> The U.S. government does not represent the interests of the majority of the country's citizens, but is instead ruled 
> by those of the rich and powerful, a new study from Princeton and Northwestern universities has concluded. 
> The report, "Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens" (PDF), used 
> extensive policy data collected between 1981 and 2002 to empirically determine the state of the U.S. political 
> system. 
>
> After sifting through nearly 1,800 U.S. policies enacted in that period and comparing them to the expressed 
> preferences of average Americans (50th percentile of income), affluent Americans (90th percentile), and large special 
> interests groups, researchers concluded that the U.S. is dominated by its economic elite. 
>
> The peer-reviewed study, which will be taught at these universities in September, says: "The central point that 
> emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have 
> substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have 
> little or no independent influence." 
>
> Researchers concluded that U.S. government policies rarely align with the preferences of the majority of Americans, 
> but do favour special interests and lobbying organizations: "When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic 
> elites and/or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built 
> into the US political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favour policy change, they generally do 
> not get it." 
>
> The positions of powerful interest groups are "not substantially correlated with the preferences of average 
> citizens," but the politics of average Americans and affluent Americans sometimes does overlap. This is merely a 
> coincidence, the report says, with the interests of the average American being served almost exclusively when it also 
> serves those of the richest 10%. 
>
> The theory of "biased pluralism" that the Princeton and Northwestern researchers believe the U.S. system fits holds 
> that policy outcomes "tend to tilt towards the wishes of corporations and business and professional associations." 
>
> The study comes after McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, a controversial piece of legislation passed in the 
> Supreme Court that abolished campaign-contribution limits, and record low approval ratings for the U.S. Congress.



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