Princeton Researchers Conclude US Political System Has Been Almost Completely Usurped
Of the
elite, by the elite, for the elite
A
recent scientific study by Princeton and Northwestern universities, which has
gone somewhat under reported in the mainstream media, concludes that the US is
now a fully fledged oligarchy.
The
paper, entitled Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups and
Average Citizens, notes that America is no longer even a Democracy,
which begs the question, how far removed is the country from being the Republic
envisioned and painstakingly established by Benjamin Franklin and the
founding fathers.
“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, while mass-based interest groups and average
citizens have little or no independent influence,” the study notes.
In
other words, powerful elites have taken over the country and effectively run the
government, it is official. Of the people, by the people, for the people is now
a thing of the distant past.
The
research undertaken by the universities included the study of close to two
thousand government policies enacted over a 21 year period between 1981 and
2002.
Using
a framework of political models – Majoritarian Electoral Democracy, Economic
Elite Domination, Majoritarian Pluralism and Biased Pluralism – researchers
found that the majority of those US policies were specifically designed to
benefit wealthy elites.
Policy
outcomes “tend to tilt towards the wishes of corporations and business and
professional associations,” the research states, meaning the US falls into the
category of Biased Pluralism.
Researchers
concluded that the reason for the trend is that policies are made by special
interest groups rather than by politicians acting on behalf of average
Americans.
“When
a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organized
interests, they generally lose.” the study also notes.
“In
the United States, our findings indicate, the majority does not rule — at least
not in the causal sense of actually determining policy outcomes.”
“Moreover,
because of the strong status quo bias built into the U.S. political system, even
when fairly large majorities of Americans favor policy change, they generally do
not get it.” the study also notes.
The
study points toward the conclusion that the US is nothing more than an illusion
of democracy.
“Americans
do enjoy many features central to democratic governance, such as regular
elections, freedom of speech and association” the study notes, while warning “we
believe that if policymaking is dominated by powerful business organizations and
a small number of affluent Americans, then America’s claims to being a
democratic society are seriously threatened.”
The
authors of the study, Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page concur that the
will or opinion of the majority in the US has no effect on the way government is
run.
“The
preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule,
near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.”
“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” they add.
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Steve
Watson is a London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.com, andPrisonplanet.com. He has a
Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The
University of Nottingham, and a Bachelor Of Arts Degree in Literature and
Creative Writing from Nottingham Trent University.
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