Martin Gilens & Benjamin I. Page: Near Zero

Posted by admin on Thursday, December 10, 2015

Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page Money Quotation saying in their Princeton Study that wealthy are true rulers of U.S. policy matters. Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page said:
 
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 Quote
 

“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” — Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page

 

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In this quote, Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page are presenting a key finding from their extensive research on the influence of public opinion versus economic elites on public policy outcomes in the United States.

Specifically, they are saying that when you account for (control for) the policy preferences of wealthy individuals and large interest groups, the views of average Americans appear to have almost no real influence on decisions made by policymakers.

This suggests that rather than a democratic system where elected representatives respond to public interests, America may have an “economic elite democracy” where the standpoints of the very rich and powerful special interests largely drive the policy agenda, while most citizens have little ability to impact the policies their government adopts.

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