And all of this inconsistency is what you would expect if America was not a constitutional republic, not even a democracy but an oligarchy instead. Once again, the web site that posted something huge - that a Cambridge study concluded the U.S. is an oligarchy and that "the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.'" the web site that posted this went down also, but that might be temporary.
I have cached it here and linked to the web site that broke this READ IT AND WEEP:
Princeton study concludes: America is an oligarchy
Study Finds US Is an Oligarchy, Not a Democracy
"Researchers from Princeton University and Northwestern University have concluded, after extensive analysis of 1,779 policy issues, that the U.S. is in fact an oligarchy and not a democracy. What this means is that, although 'Americans do enjoy many features central to democratic governance,' 'majorities of the American public actually have little influence over the policies our government adopts.' Their study (PDF), to be published in Perspectives on Politics, found that 'When the preferences of economic elites and the stands of organized interest groups are controlled for, the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.'"
My insert:
CommonDreams went down when they published this, maybe they will be back up later, here is the link:http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/04/14/us-oligarchy-not-democracy-says-scientific-study Here is the text from the abstract page, the study itself is behind a paywall and costs $30 to read:
Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens
Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page
Abstract
Each of four theoretical traditions in the study of American politics—which can be characterized as theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy, Economic-Elite Domination, and two types of interest-group pluralism, Majoritarian Pluralism and Biased Pluralism—offers different predictions about which sets of actors have how much influence over public policy: average citizens; economic elites; and organized interest groups, mass-based or business-oriented.
A great deal of empirical research speaks to the policy influence of one or another set of actors, but until recently it has not been possible to test these contrasting theoretical predictions against each other within a single statistical model. We report on an effort to do so, using a unique data set that includes measures of the key variables for 1,779 policy issues.
Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. The results provide substantial support for theories of Economic-Elite Domination and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism.
To read more, you have to click this link and pay:
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9354310# Dec 16 2015
MEXICAN ANONYMOUS
I have cached it here and linked to the web site that broke this READ IT AND WEEP:
Princeton study concludes: America is an oligarchy
Study Finds US Is an Oligarchy, Not a Democracy
"Researchers from Princeton University and Northwestern University have concluded, after extensive analysis of 1,779 policy issues, that the U.S. is in fact an oligarchy and not a democracy. What this means is that, although 'Americans do enjoy many features central to democratic governance,' 'majorities of the American public actually have little influence over the policies our government adopts.' Their study (PDF), to be published in Perspectives on Politics, found that 'When the preferences of economic elites and the stands of organized interest groups are controlled for, the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.'"
My insert:
CommonDreams went down when they published this, maybe they will be back up later, here is the link:http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/04/14/us-oligarchy-not-democracy-says-scientific-study Here is the text from the abstract page, the study itself is behind a paywall and costs $30 to read:
Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens
Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page
Abstract
Each of four theoretical traditions in the study of American politics—which can be characterized as theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy, Economic-Elite Domination, and two types of interest-group pluralism, Majoritarian Pluralism and Biased Pluralism—offers different predictions about which sets of actors have how much influence over public policy: average citizens; economic elites; and organized interest groups, mass-based or business-oriented.
A great deal of empirical research speaks to the policy influence of one or another set of actors, but until recently it has not been possible to test these contrasting theoretical predictions against each other within a single statistical model. We report on an effort to do so, using a unique data set that includes measures of the key variables for 1,779 policy issues.
Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. The results provide substantial support for theories of Economic-Elite Domination and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism.
To read more, you have to click this link and pay:
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9354310# Dec 16 2015
MEXICAN ANONYMOUS