We in the United States like to think that we live in a representative democracy. We are attracted to Lincoln’s optimistic idea that America stands for “government of the people, by the people, and for the people” We have been taught that, despite the wrangling that occurs, our political processes eventually result in government policies that generally reflect the preferences of the average voter.
In September 2014, the American Political Science Association published a paper by Martin Gilens of Princeton and Benjamin Page of Northwestern that summarizes their peer-reviewed study of nearly 1800 US polices enacted between 1981 and 2002. The study compared actual US policies that were adopted with the expressed preferences of three groups: average Americans, affluent Americans, and large special interest organizations. They concluded that the average citizen in the United States has almost no influence on public policy.
The central point that emerges from our research is that 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.
Gilens and Page
Of course, on some policy issues the interests of the average citizen and the affluent citizen may coincide. In those cases (which may be “roughly two-thirds” of the time) the general public will get the policy they prefer. But the authors analyzed those cases where the average citizen disagreed with the affluent citizen and found that the average citizen’s influence on policy was “near-zero.”
Not only do ordinary citizens not have uniquely substantial power over policy decisions; they have little or no independent influence on policy at all.
Gilens and Page
Clearly, this conclusion does not support the ideals that the United States was founded on. Our government is supposed to be responsive to, and answerable to, we the people. Something has gone terribly wrong with our country.
The 2018 Democratic take-back of the US House of Representatives was a crucial step in trying to restore democracy to the country. They have already passed several bills that would help. But the Republican-controlled Senate has refuse to even consider those bills. And it must be said that even some Democrats appear to be in the pocket of various business interests.
In the United States, our findings indicate, the majority does not rule—at least not in the causal sense of actually determining policy outcomes. When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the U.S. political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favor policy change, they generally do not get it.
Gilens and Page
The Book of Mormon warns against allowing a wealthy minority to gain control of the government. The consequence of doing so is “great destruction.”
Now it is not common that the voice of the people desireth anything contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the people to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law—to do your business by the voice of the people.
Mosiah 29:26-27
And if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land.
The United States still has the appearance of democracy. People still organize, speak out, write letters to the editor, and vote. But none of those efforts are currently strong enough to override the interests of affluent Americans and powerful business organizations when it comes to actual policymaking.
Our analyses suggest that majorities of the American public actually have little influence over the policies our government adopts. Americans do enjoy many features central to democratic governance, such as regular elections, freedom of speech and association, and a widespread (if still contested) franchise. But we believe that if policymaking is dominated by powerful business organizations and a small number of affluent Americans, then America’s claims to being a democratic society are seriously threatened.
Gilens and Page
Though they do not use the word, the research by Gilens and Page reveals that the US is, and has been for years, an oligarchy, not a democratic republic.
Definition of oligarchy
www.merriam-webster.com
1 : government by the few
2 : a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes
It is interesting to note that this study was conducted in the pre-Trump era. Certainly the elite haven’t gotten less powerful since this research was done. Even with the serious concerns about our current authoritarian regime, we must admit that the American egalitarian ideal has actually been dead for some time.
Sources: Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page, “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens,” Perspectives on Politics, Volume 12, Issue 14, pp.546-581. Published online: September 2014,
Zachary Davies Boren, “The US is an oligarchy, study concludes,” The Telegraph, April 16, 2014.
John Cassidy, “Is America an Oligarchy?” The New Yorker, April 18, 2014.
The Book of Mormon gives a very short warning just like you mentioned. I read a book by Jared Diamond, “Collapse” that gives many examples from Easter Island, the Maya’s, and Greenland where societies indeed did collapse because of them going from an egalitarian to a society dominated by a very small group of wealthy individuals. Of course the societies he talked about were relatively small but some were very isolated and in that way represented the entire world to themselves and yet still did not change from an obvious road to self destruction. Sometimes the societies saw their problems and changed a bit but other times they continued on until they basically were destroyed, which may have been a process that took years but nevertheless happened. Will it happen to us since we are a much bigger society? Do we really want to find out?