A new scientific study from Princeton researchers Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page has finally put some science behind the recently popular argument that the United States isn’t a democracy any more. And they’ve found that in fact, America is basically an oligarchy.
Members of the oligarchy are the rich, the well connected and the politically powerful, as well as particularly well placed individuals in institutions like banking and finance or the military.
It’s beyond alarming. As Gilens and Page write:
“The preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.”
In other words, their statistics say your opinion literally does not matter.
Princeton Concludes What Kind of Government America Really Has, and It’s Not a Democracy
