Not a democracy, not a republic

A joint study by Martin Gilens of Princeton University and Benjamin I. Page of Northwestern University have confirmed what many of us already know: that the United States is not a democracy nor a republic but an oligarchy. Yes, the United States is a representative democracy but what the study found is that most of the time moneyed interests are represented —not the majority's interests.

From Popular Resistance: Popular Resistance Newsletter - Democracy Rises In A Time Of Oligarchy:

It’s official. The first ever scientific study of democracy in the US finds that we are an oligarchy (ruled by the few). We think it’s more accurate to say plutocracy (ruled by the wealthy). Some correctly say that the US is a representative democracy, but this study shows that the ones being represented are not the people (demos). It brings the legitimacy of our entire government into question.

Maybe plutocracy or corporatocracy is more descriptive but they all apply —see the header of this site.

Gilens and Page took almost 1,800 policies by the Federal government from 1981 to 2002 and found that moneyed interests prevailed over the majority opinion most of the time.

From Popular Resistance: Fighting For A Legitimate Democracy, By And For The People:

Before the occupy movement began we published an article, We Stand With the Majority, that showed super majorities of the American people consistently support the following agenda:

-       Tax the rich and corporations
-       End the wars, bring the troops home, cut military spending
-       Protect the social safety net, strengthen Social Security and provide  improved Medicare to everyone in the United States
-       End corporate welfare for oil companies and other big business interests
-       Transition to a clean energy economy, reverse environmental degradation
-       Protect worker rights including collective bargaining, create jobs and raise wages
-       Get money out of politics

 No surprise here: the Senate is especially beholden to moneyed interests. But what was interesting was:

And, this was not the only study to reach this conclusion this week. Another study published in the Political Research Quarterly found that only the rich get represented in the US senate. The researchers studied the voting records of senators in five Congresses and found the Senators were consistently aligned with their wealthiest constituents and lower-class constituents never appeared to influence the Senators’ voting behavior. This oligarchic tendency was even truer when the senate was controlled by Democrats. —Fighting For A Legitimate Democracy, By And For The People

Check it all out:

• Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups , and Average Citizens
• Study: US Is Not A Democracy
• Popular Resistance Newsletter - Democracy Rises In A Time Of Oligarchy
•  The Rhetoric of Violence
• Fighting For A Legitimate Democracy, By And For The People
• Five Ways The 1% Are Killing Us
• ‘Oligarchic tendencies’: Study finds only the wealthy get represented in the Senate
• America is an oligarchy, not a democracy or republic, university study finds