It's Official: We Really Don't Count In Washington
Posted
Gary Gerard-ggerard@timesuniononline.com
Anyone who has read my column over the years knows I tend to rant about how elected officials – especially at the federal level – don’t really give a hoot about the views of their constituents. If they did, they wouldn’t pass laws that the vast majority of Americans would oppose. Like laws that give corporations huge tax breaks, allow them to park profits overseas to avoid taxes and incentivize them to move jobs and headquarters overseas. Like campaign finance laws that keep pushing more and more money into politics. I could go on, but you get the picture. I see it all the time. A law gets passed. I read about it and I wonder to myself, “How many Americans would have supported that law?” This was always something that I just noticed. It was anecdotal – intuitive. I never ran across any actual data to back up my observations. Comes now Martin Gilens, of Princeton University, and Benjamin I. Page, of Northwestern University, and their study, “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens.” Their study, to be published this fall, confirms what I’ve always suspected – average citizens and even mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence on U.S. government policy. Gilens and Page follow four theoretical traditions in the study of American politics and study how much influence each has on government policy. The traditions are majoritarian electoral democracy (citizens), economic elite domination (economic elites,) majoritarian pluralism (mass-based interest groups) and biased pluralism (business-oriented interest groups). From the study: “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. This paper reports on an effort to do so, using a unique data set that includes measures of the key variables for 1,779 policy issues.” The study runs some 42 pages and examines each of the four theories to determine how policy is crafted in the U.S. The bottom line: “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. Our 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.” So basically, the people – you and I – have very little influence on the policies that govern us. But economic elites and business-based interest groups – read that, corporate America – do. At least, according to this study. And frankly, with recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings that corporations are people and money is speech, I see little hope of turning things around. Each presidential candidate will likely spend a billion dollars during the next election cycle. With all that money pouring in, you just know there will plenty of debts to repay. Sad, really. Especially when you consider that our founders were very particular about crafting a government that was beholden to the will of the people. So much for Abraham Lincoln and his notion of government “of the people, by the people and for the people.” Just like so many other things the founders intended, the notion of average citizens controlling the levers of power has become arcane. Like the establishment clause being interpreted to mean you can’t have a nativity scene on the courthouse lawn. Or the commerce clause being interpreted to mean the federal government can regulate virtually everything bought and sold. But I guess that’s just the new normal. Welcome to today’s America. The land of government of the elites, by the elites and for the elites.
