Is America really the most free country on the plant? Despite what patriots may tell themselves, several new studies say ‘no.’ A shocking new report from Princeton University Professor Martin Gilens and Northwestern University Professor Benjamin Page found that the average American has a “near-zero” impact on U.S. policy, both domestic and foreign.
“Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impact on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little to no independent influence,” reads the study which is slated to appear in the fall edition of Perspectives on Politics.
For the paper, researchers examined over 1,800 separate policy issues and the public attitude towards them. Of these 1,800 issues, the study determined that public opinion was almost categorically ignored by legislators.
This study comes only months after a similarly harrowing study by the same researchers that determined the U.S. government in not a democracy or a republic, but is in fact an oligarchy.
“I’d say that contrary to what decades of political science research might lead you to believe, ordinary citizens have virtually no influence over what their government does in the United States… Government policy-making over the last few decades reflects the preferences of those groups — of economic elites and of organized interests,” said Gilens in an interview.
Breitbart reporter Wynton Hall notes that while this research is controversial, one needs only to look at the news to see this phenomena in action. Hall claims that despite a Reuters poll showing 70% of Americans are starkly opposed to illegal immigration, special interest groups help keep the possibility of amnesty alive in Washington.
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