[Peace-discuss] Study: US Is Not A Democracy

[David Johnson via Peace-discuss]

  Study: US Is Not A Democracy

shutterstock_126271541-638x425
Educate! <http://www.popularresistance.org/category/educate/> 
Corporatism <http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/corporatism/>, Money 
As Speech <http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/money-as-speech/>
By Eric Zuesse, www.commondreams.org 
<https://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/04/14>

/In America, money talks... and democracy dies under its crushing 
weight. (Photo: Shutterstock)/

A study 
<http://www.princeton.edu/%7Emgilens/Gilens%20homepage%20materials/Gilens%20and%20Page/Gilens%20and%20Page%202014-Testing%20Theories%203-7-14.pdf>, 
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".

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." 
<http://www.princeton.edu/%7Emgilens/Gilens%20homepage%20materials/Gilens%20and%20Page/Gilens%20and%20Page%202014-Testing%20Theories%203-7-14.pdf> The 
authors clarify that the data available are probably under-representing 
the actual extent of control of the U.S. by the super-rich:

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.

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