US Is an Oligarchy Not a Democracy, says Scientific Study

https://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/04/14

by Shivetya • 12 years ago

15 4 12 years ago

bfrog• 12 years ago

Way to point out the obvious

notme_• 12 years ago

Lessig and others have pointed out the US needs a constitutional amendment to fix the problems with campaign finance that are the root cause of the problem.

This isn't hacker news unless you mention someone like Lessig in relation to this.

dragonwriter• 12 years ago

There's considerable empirical evidence from cross-country studies of democracy that limited input and poorly representative government are a product of electoral structures that support duopoly, like the ones that US has had since its founding.

The domination by elites is a result of an electoral process that prevents effective choices (and thus, meaningful input) from coming through the electoral process and drives most meaningful political input through processes other than the formal electoral process.

Constitutional changes focussed on campaign financing rather than fundamental government and elctoral structure are unlikely to seriously change that, though they may redirect the form through which elite influences are directed outside of the electoral process.

jon_black• 12 years ago

Given how often democracy is raved about in the US, you'd expect this to be taken seriously. Of course, the "raving" is really polispeak used to manipulate the electorate.

I'm such a cynic.

US Is an Oligarchy Not a Democracy, says Scientific Study

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