America The Voiceless: Voters Cant Compete With Big Campaign Cash by Wilson Dizard | Al Jazeera It’s not just your imagination: The influence of money in politics has indeed drowned out the voices of American voters, a new analysis shows, with runaway corporate lobbying and a lack of campaign finance reform to blame for giving much more political weight to the wealthy. Researchers at Princeton University and Northwestern University compared the public’s influence on 1,779 policy issues between 1981 and 2002, finding that more often than not, the interests of wealthy groups and individuals won out over the demands of the general public. For instance, when 80 percent of the public asked for a change of some sort, they got their way only about 43 percent of the time. The study, its authors say, points to the overwhelming power of wealthy lobbying groups and individuals backing certain interests in American politics, and the marginalization of voters and public advocacy groups. Read the full story here: america.aljazeera/articles/2014/4/16/oligarchy-politicsus.html
Posted on: Thu, 17 Apr 2014 18:40:19 +0000
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