American Oligarchy?

Out of interest, how many people actually read the paper referenced in the OP?

http://www.princeton.edu/~mgilens/Gilens%20homepage%20materials/Gilens%20and%20Page/Gilens%20and%20Page%202014-Testing%20Theories%203-7-14.pdf

cordially,
Scofflaw

An interesting article that contends that the US is indeed no longer a democracy and is in fact an Oligarchy.






A study, to appear in the Fall 2014 issue of the academic journal Perspectives on Politics, finds that the U.S. is no democracy, but instead an oligarchy, meaning profoundly corrupt, so that the answer to the study’s opening question, "Who governs? Who really rules?" in this country, is:

"Despite the seemingly strong empirical support in previous studies for theories of majoritarian democracy, our analyses suggest that majorities of the American public actually have little influence over the policies our government adopts. Americans do enjoy many features central to democratic governance, such as regular elections, freedom of speech and association, and a widespread (if still contested) franchise. But, ..." and then they go on to say, it's not true, and that, "America's claims to being a democratic society are seriously threatened" by the findings in this, the first-ever comprehensive scientific study of the subject, which shows that there is instead "the nearly total failure of 'median voter' and other Majoritarian Electoral Democracy theories [of America]. When the preferences of economic elites and the stands of organized interest groups are controlled for, the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy."

To put it short: The United States is no democracy, but actually an oligarchy.

The authors of this historically important study are Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page, and their article is titled "Testing Theories of American Politics." The authors clarify that the data available are probably under-representing the actual extent of control of the U.S. by the super-rich: Nonetheless, this is the first-ever scientific study of the question of whether the U.S. is a democracy. "Until recently it has not been possible to test these contrasting theoretical predictions [that U.S. policymaking operates as a democracy, versus as an oligarchy, versus as some mixture of the two] against each other within a single statistical model. This paper reports on an effort to do so, using a unique data set that includes measures of the key variables for 1,779 policy issues." That’s an enormous number of policy-issues studied.


What the authors are able to find, despite the deficiencies of the data, is important: the first-ever scientific analysis of whether the U.S. is a democracy, or is instead an oligarchy, or some combination of the two. The clear finding is that the U.S. is an oligarchy, no democratic country, at all. American democracy is a sham, no matter how much it's pumped by the oligarchs who run the country (and who control the nation's "news" media). The U.S., in other words, is basically similar to Russia or most other dubious "electoral" "democratic" countries. We weren't formerly, but we clearly are now. Today, after this exhaustive analysis of the data, “the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.” That's it, in a nutshell.

FISMA wrote: »

When was it supposed to be a democracy?

Can you elaborate on the point your trying to make there? I am genuinely not sure exactly where your going with that.

FISMA wrote: »

Surely, you understand that the United States of America is a republic and not a democracy and the differences therein.

I am merely interested in the points your looking to make and was looking for you to elaborate.

FISMA wrote: »

The premise of your statement is wrong. Generally speaking, that does not bode well for the conclusion.

Personally speaking, I would not continue to read a paper in which the author was so fundamentally wrong. When an author is that ignorant of the fundamentals, how likely are their conclusions to be valid?

Would you not agree?

If you picked up a paper that started with a statement saying that "the moon in fact is not made up a cheese, but matter called lmnop's..." Aside from wanting a good laugh, would you continue reading?

That was my opinion of the source you cited and your original quote. If you fundamentally do not understand that the US is a republic, that went out of its way to avoid democracy, I would question the ability to draw a valid conclusion.



Like the People's Democratic Public of Korea or the Democratic Republic of the Congo?

You are fundamentally mistaken here Brian?. This topic is well covered in American history and the founding fathers clearly were against a democracy and in favor of a republic.

A good basic book of American history would help. If you do not have time you should read the Federalist papers (#10 and 63). They will give you good insight in to what the founding fathers were thinking at the time of the ratification of the Constitution.

Hope I did not come off to harsh lads, not my intention. The two systems may appear close, however, in reality, are very different.

I do indeed understand that the USA is not designed to be a pure Democracy where the people decide everything directly or a complete representative democracy where those elected by the people make the decisions. The USA is in fact a constitutional federal republic. As the CIA says though the US has a strong democratic tradition. This is what I was focusing on. Those aspects of the US system of government are indeed being eroded in my opinion as the country seems to be controlled more and more by a powerful elite in otherwords becoming if not already an Oligarchy.


Do you think the founding fathers were in favour of the government becoming an Oligarchy?



I would not say you came over as harsh no, more like pedantic.