The political scientists, Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page, make a bold attempt to demonstrate political reality rather than simply provide their personal opinions as to various political policies. They do so by analyzing 1,779 policy outcomes over a period of more than 20 years. Their conclusion: “economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence.”
Their statistical analysis found that “economic elites” had as much as fifteen times more influence on policies than did ordinary citizens. When we united into an interest group our influence increased, but business interest groups had twice as much influence.
No comments:
Post a Comment