U.S. is an oligarchy not a democracy

[kilgram]

In a recent report from the academic journal Perspectives on Politics, the United States is not a democracy, but is instead, an oligarchy. For those who aren't up with fancy words, this means that the US government is very, very corrupt.

The study confirms only what we already knew, things like this:

"the nearly total failure of 'median voter' and other Majoritarian Electoral Democracy theories [of America]. 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".

Source (http://www.tweaktown.com/news/37048/scientific-study-concludes-us-is-an-oligarchy-not-a-democracy/index.html)

[Mister D]

I agree but that's true of all western systems.

[kilgram]

I agree but that's true of all western systems.
Yes, it is.

[patrickt]

The U.S. was not established as a democracy. That was never intended. It was established as a democratic republic. It is supposed to have the elected representatives running the country. Of course, the leftists have been shifting more and more power to the executive branch and the bureaucrats but we hope that trend is reversed soon.

But, I'll be really excited to hear about a system where the wants and needs of some average individual is given significant weight.

[Chris]

I agree but that's true of all western systems.


IMO, democracy is the mask that hides the oligarchy. Oligarchy is the end result of democracy. The government of a democracy itself has no stake in the wealth of the nation, unlike say a monarchy. It is merely a redistributive engine that its subjects seek rents from. Corruption ensues inevitably.

[kilgram]

IMO, democracy is the mask that hides the oligarchy. Oligarchy is the end result of democracy. The government of a democracy itself has no stake in the wealth of the nation, unlike say a monarchy. It is merely a redistributive engine that its subjects seek rents from. Corruption ensues inevitably.
Oligarchy is the lack of democracy.

Democracy abolishes tthat oligarchy. Why do you think aristocrats opposed to democracy when USA was being founded? Because they would have lost power. Democracy is the worst that can happen for the oligarchy. The same with anarchy. For this reason anarchism is so detested as it is democracy.

[Mister D]

IMO, democracy is the mask that hides the oligarchy. Oligarchy is the end result of democracy. The government of a democracy itself has no stake in the wealth of the nation, unlike say a monarchy. It is merely a redistributive engine that its subjects seek rents from. Corruption ensues inevitably.

I think that's true of liberal democracy but not that of ancient European democracy be it Greek, Roman, or German. Granted, as we have noted, those democracies were much smaller.