Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Hard evidence of what we suspected: We don't affect public policy.

So my friends, is it still a free country if law makers pay ZERO attention to the population?

A startling new political science study concludes that corporate interests and mega wealthy individuals control U.S. policy to such a degree that "the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy."
The startling study, titled "Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens," is slated to appear in an upcoming issue of Perspectives on Politics and was authored by Princeton University Professor Martin Gilens and Northwestern University Professor Benjamin Page. An early draft can be found here.


Just off the cuff, I'd have to say no, it ain't. They take half your money and you have zero input on where it goes, that's a kingdom not a democracy.

What was the Revolution of 1776 about? "No taxation without representation!"

The Phantom

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great find! I downloaded the paper and will refer to it every ti,e a prog talks about democracy.

The Phantom said...

I always like to see things get measured, you know? Its one thing to feeeeel disenfranchised, its another thing entirely to see that your vote means absolutely nothing in cold hard numbers.