Princeton has released a study verifying what everyone already knew: The government rarely listens to the average citizen when creating legislation and policy. Instead, they listen to special interest groups, think tanks, and the elite. This is not to say that these groups want something wholly different from government than the populace at large. It does, however, mean that these groups possess a powerful trump card when ideas don’t align.
Who governs? Who really rules? To whatextent is the broadbody of U.S. citizenssovereign, semi-sovereign, or largely powerless? These questionshave animated much importantwork in the study of American politics.By contrast, economic elites are estimated tohave a quite substantial, highly significant,independent impact on policy. This does not mean that theories of Economic Elite Dominationare wholly upheld, since our results indicate that individualelites must share their policyinfluence with organized interestgroups. Still, economic elitesstand out as quite influential –more so than any other set of actors studiedhere – in the making of U.S. public policy.
