The authors defined four possible systems we might have: (1) democracy, (2) oligarchy, or semi-democratic systems dominated by (3) interest groups generally or (4) business groups especially. The final piece of the puzzle is to look at the pattern of influence we have, and see what category that fits into. Okay, so that’s bad: the wealthy get the laws they want. What about those other times? The sad fact is that, statistically speaking, the government doesn’t care what 90% of Americans think. In several instance, public opinion data matched up with things Congress actually did, but the vast majority were also outcomes favored by the wealthy and business interests. None of this means that ordinary people never get what they want from Congress. Business groups, like trade associations, have a moderate amount, likely because they can afford to spend more on lobbying and political donations. “Mass” interest groups, which represent large groups of organized citizens, have a small amount of power.

The researchers divided them into two types. Special interest groups also have sway over public policy.

Low influence means you’re ignored - Congress passes laws that have no relationship to what you want. To have “political influence” in this case means that Congress responds to you by passing the laws and policies you like. Not only do the wealthy have the most influence ordinary voters have basically none. The chart here shows how much political influence different groups have in America today. Finding 1: The Wealthy Have More Influence Then, they checked this against some technical definitions of democracy, oligarchy, and other forms of government. The research was done by two political scientists, Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page, and had two parts: First, they measured the amount of political influence various groups have in America. Let’s look behind the headline to see what the research really says.

If we want to have an informed debate about issues of money and influence, those things “everyone knows” have to be backed up with real data. That’s what makes this study so important. After all, everyone knows economic elites run the show in the United States, right?Īs it turns out, there are surprisingly few studies out there on this topic. is an oligarchy: a system of government where a small number of elites rule. government policy,” while average citizens “have little or no independent influence.” The analysis of 1,779 recent policy outcomes found that “economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. A word usually associated with deranged Russian oil tycoons is suddenly front and center in many American’s minds thanks to a new study by researchers at Princeton and Northwestern.

Oligarchic plutocracy