1040
Jimmy Carter: The U.S. Is an “Oligarchy With Unlimited Political Bribery”
(theintercept.com)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2023
1040 points (97.4% liked)
politics
18074 readers
3169 users here now
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect!
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
And didn't this come from research conducted at a major university, studying what bills are passed/ enacted, and which ones fail?
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B : Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens 18 September 2014
https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746 Study: US is an oligarchy, not a democracy 17 April 2014
https://act.represent.us/sign/usa-oligarchy-research-explained/ : The US is an Oligarchy? The research Explained -
https://www.vox.com/2016/5/9/11502464/gilens-page-oligarchy-study : Remember that study saying America is an oligarchy? 3 rebuttals say it's wrong. 9 May 2016
"There's only one problem: Research published since then has raised serious questions about this paper, both its finding and its analysis. This is, of course, how normal science works; some academics put a finding out there, and their peers pick it apart.
But the study has become a frequently invoked piece of evidence in debates about money in politics, and the public and political debate has not kept up with the scholarly one. And the latest scholarly critiques suggest that while the rich certainly have more political influence than the middle class, ordinary Americans still win a substantial share of the time, even when the affluent oppose them."
I'm glad to see some rebuttals, AND our democracy is definitely flawed.
That Vox article is extremely well done. Count me among those who had heard the hyped original study, but not the rebuttals.
Still a really shitty ratio, and I even loved the original authors' responses to the rebuttals. Makes me hope they do a follow up.
So much nuance behind what is acceptable when the US is a representative democracy (supposed to assume the representative is more educated on a voting topic than we are, so maybe our opinion is not as important a factor anyway).
Yeah... which means the rebuttals can be picked apart, too. I've read one of them... it doesn't actually seem all that solid to me. Can't say much about the other two.