Study: US is an oligarchy, not a democracy
The US is not a democracy but an oligarchy, study concludes (2014)
A Princeton and Northwestern study analyzing nearly 1,800 policies from 1981 to 2002 found that economic elites and business interest groups have substantial influence over US government policy, while average citizens have little or none. The peer-reviewed study concludes that the US is an oligarchy, not a democracy.
When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organized interests, they generally lose.
- flr03
It doesn't look like it got any better since 2014.
- mertbio
How can a country be democratic with only two parties?
- Havoc
And starting to smell like a kleptocracy given the rampant insider trading and leveraging military to influence market outcomes
- t-3
Representative democracy is by nature oligachic. Practically, there was no other way to organize a large state until modern communications technology, so that's very understandable, the critical issue is that the US is becoming less and less democratic and more oligarchic over time while we are more and more capable of democracy (instantaneous communication across the world, very fast travel, universal education, etc). The end of proportional representation in favor of a fixed-size Congress was the beginning of the end, IMO.
- NiceWayToDoIT
Hm, so study discovered hot water, what is new ?