The Distance Between Power and the People

In 1989, President Ronald Reagan was on the way out of the White House, and delivered a lofty farewell address in which he famously referred to the USA as the "Shining City on a Hill". In essence, the USA he portrayed was a beacon of good hope and prosperity to all who looked at it with envy from the outside. Of course, in the course of over two decades, with Reagonomics having run its logical course and the economy in tatters, the country no longer projects the same level of awe as it used to.  Still, many cling to the gold-tinted vision of America of old, as the final refuge for democratic and egalitarian values in a world of turmoil.

A recent study should be a wake-up call for those still holding such a view. Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page look at public policy decisions on a national level in the US from 1981-2002 and found that public opinion has almost zero effect on decision-making. Instead, the levers of power are firmly in the hands of the elite business section of society who are able to pay off politicians to the extent that the views of a majority of citizens are near negligible. How negligible? Well, this graph shows that regardless of the percentage of support by the public on an issue, from  0% to 100%, the chances that the policy will be enacted stay the same.

In summation, the entire structure of the political system can rightly be described not as a democracy but as an oligarchy, a dirty word usually reserved for the Russian state of the 90s. For any political observer with a modicum of insight, this is hardly a groundbreaking revelation. The fact that special interests dominate the political scene is demonstrably obvious. The effect has only been more acute in the past several decades when campaign finance laws have been relaxed and businesses can fill in the coffers of government. While this study is merely a confirmation of that fact, it is still striking to the extent to which public opinion matters so little.

One wonders when this hard fact will sink into the collective consciousness of the American public. And when that happens, what will be the response? Will there be a call to reform? Or a collective disillusionment?