This is a true study folks. - I presented it earlier in a witty and sarcastic fashion and put a humorous ST for Snark Tolerant readers only label on it, which unfortunately led most to mistakenly think this was a fake piece like onion and only received 12 responses.
This is an honest to goodness real study. The original Princeton Press publication is here: Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens, by Martin Gilens Princeton University mgilens@princeton.edu
Please give his a read. Next time you are in a mixed group and assert that the wealthy and corporate lobbyists have more influence in Washington, and some one accuses you of being one of those CT nuts who makes baseless assertions, this is the documentation you can used to say you are fact-based. I've taken out the funny graphics, most of he attempts at witty writing, and everything else that might be distracting. Please give this one a chance.
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Bryce Covert, of Think Progress publishes this poignant study showing that even in the United States, a country founded on the ideals of egalitarian democracy, the wealthy and lobbyists for corporations have far more influence over Washington policy makers than do average citizens. These shocking and discouraging results are reported in The Government Listens To Lobbyists And The Wealthy, Not You And Me.
That’s according to a forthcoming article in Perspectives on Politics by Martin Gilens of Princeton University and Benjamin I. Page of Northwestern University. The two looked at a data set of 1,779 policy issues between 1981 and 2002 and matched them up against surveys of public opinion broken down by income as well as support from interest groups.
They estimate that the impact of what an average citizen prefers put up against what the elites and interest groups want is next to nothing, or “a non-significant, near-zero level.” They note that their findings show “ordinary citizens…have little or no independent influence on policy at all.” The affluent, on the other hand, have “a quite substantial, highly significant, independent impact on policy,” they find, “more so than any other set of actors” that they studied. Organized interest groups similarly fare well, with “a large, positive, highly significant impact on public policy.”
When they hold constant the preferences of interest groups and the rich, “it makes very little difference what the general public thinks,” they note. The probability that policy change occurs is basically the same whether a small group or a large majority of average citizens are in favor. On the other hand, all else being the same, opposition from the wealthy means that a particular policy is only adopted about 18 percent of the time, but when they support it it gets adopted 45 percent of the time. Similar patterns are true for interest groups. The impact could also be even higher than their findings, as there may be policy differences among those they count as wealthy, which means that the imprecision in their measure “is likely to produce underestimates of the impact of economic elites on policy making,” they write.
The news is not entirely discouraging, Kossacks. Covert reports "one mitigating" factor," or silver lining. When the "interests of the average citizen ... align with what the wealthy want" we are more likely to get "our" way.
What a breakthrough, Kossacks! Why didn't we think of this before? We've been getting all discouraged trying to figure out how we can win this sisyphean class struggle against the vastly better funded billionaire Koch Brothers network, when if we had just thought to switch over and instead, identified with, and "wanted" to be ruled by "benevolent oligarchs" we would have discovered that Washington policy makers were truly responsive to our voices after all.
In addition to the finding that "our government is far more responsive to the needs of the wealthy than those of the poor," this research predicts this problem will become worse as income inequality becomes more extreme.
Covert offers the example of Congress responding immediately to address the needs of business-class travelers who were inconvenienced by long lines at airports during the FAA furloughs, contrasted to the gutting of funds for Head Start, and Meals on Wheels due to automatic sequestration spending cuts.
Kossacks, I am shocked, truly shocked, to discover favoritism to the wealthy, and corporate lobbyists in Washington politics. This just is not right. We live in America after all! We should all review our social networks, and perhaps, college and high school chums for wealthy or well connected corporate people and ask them to contact our political leaders on our behalf.
