One of my lasting lessons from political science is that every major society has a pyramid structure of wealth and power. The United States is no exception. However, the United States is also supposed to be a democratic society—which seems inconsistent with the pyramid.
While the United States has the mechanisms of democracy, such as voting, it might be wondered whether it is democratic or oligarchic (or plutocratic) in nature. While people might consider how they feel about this, feelings and anecdotes are not proof. So, for example, a leftist who thinks the rich rule the country and who feels oppressed by the plutocracy does not prove their belief by appealing to their feelings or anecdotes about the rich. Likewise, a conservative who thinks that America is a great democracy and feels good about the rich does not prove their belief by appealing to their feelings or anecdotes about the rich.
What is needed is a study to determine how the system works. One obvious way to determine the degree of democracy is to compare the expressed preferences of citizens with the political results. If the political results generally correspond to the preferences of the majority, then this is a reasonable (but not infallible) indicator the system is democratic. If the political results generally favor the rich and powerful while going against the preferences of the less wealthy majority, then this would be a reasonable (but not infallible) indicator that the system is oligarchic (or plutocratic). After all, to the degree that a system is democratic, the majority should have their preferences enacted into law and policy—even when this goes against the wishes of the rich. To the degree that the system is oligarchic, then the minority of elites should get their way—even when this goes against the preferences of the majority.
Some years ago, researchers at Princeton and Northwestern conducted just such a study: “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens” using data gathered from 1981 to 2002. The researchers examined about 1,800 polices from that time and matched them against the preferences expressed by three classes: the average American (50th income percentile), the affluent American (the 90th percentile of income) and the large special interest groups.
The results were not surprising: “The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence.”
As noted above, a democratic system should result in the preferences of the majority being expressed in policies and laws more often than not. However, “When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the US political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favor policy change, they generally do not get it.” As such, this study provided evidence that the United States was already an oligarchy before Trump, rather than a democratic state.
It might be contended that this system is fine since, to use a misquote, what is the preference for General Motors is the preference for Americans. That is, it could be claimed that the elites and most Americans have the same or similar preferences. However, the study found that the interests of the wealthy are not substantially correlated with the preferences of average citizens. The preferences of most Americans do not match the interests of the wealthy, but the wealthy generally get what they want.
One objection is that the preferences of the majority are mistaken—that is, the majority wants things that are not in their best interest and what the elites want is what is best. For example, while most Americans might prefer stronger consumer protection laws, it could be claimed that they are in error because what is good for GM is good for the country, even if the many think otherwise. What is in their best interest is less consumer protection, which is what the financial elites want.
The obvious reply is that even if the majority is mistaken and the oligarchs know best, this would be arguing that oligarchy is better than democracy, not that America is not an oligarchy.
Another objection is that the system is democratic in that people vote for elected officials who then pass laws and enact policies. As citizens can vote them out of office, they must be expressing the preferences of the citizens—even though policy and law consistently goes against the expressed preferences of the majority. This is to say that we have democratically created an oligarchy, so it is still a democracy (or at least a republic).
This objection is interesting and raises a question about why people consistently re-elect those who consistently act contrary to their expressed preferences. One possibility is that the choices are very limited—you can vote for anyone you want, but a Democrat or Republican will almost certainly be elected. As such, the voters get to vote, but do not get real choices.
Another possibility is ignorance—people might not realize that what they get does not match what they claim to want. Such ignorance would put the moral blame partially on the citizens—they should be better informed. Then again, given the abysmal approval rating for congress and President Trump, it seems that people do realize this. This creates an odd scenario: people really dislike them yet re-elect them.
A third possibility is the power of propaganda engines devoted to convincing people that the laws and policies are good. So, while people prefer one thing, they are persuaded to believe that what is in the interest of the oligarchy is what they should like. People might also be distracted by other matters—for example, people who have been convinced they should fear transgender people and hate DEI will support politicians who appeal to their hate and fear, even if the politician also supports policies contrary to most other things the voter wants. In this case, the moral failing is on the part of the deceivers—they are tricking citizens and corrupting democracy.
Another approach to objecting to the study is to raise questions about the methodology. One question would be whether the 1,800 policies are properly representative of the political system. After all, if the researchers picked ones that favored the wealthy and ignored others that matched public preferences, then the study would be biased. As such, a key question is whether the sample used in the study is large enough and representative enough to adequately support the conclusion. Another question would be whether the study had the preferences of the people correct. After all, to properly claim that the laws and policies do not generally match the preferences of the majority, the claimed preferences would need to be the actual preferences of the majority. These concerns can be addressed by examining the study carefully and objectively, rather than merely dismissing or accepting it based on how one feels about the matter.
Looking back on the study from the perspective of 2026, it is evident that Trump and Congress are simply openly engaging in an oligarchy that has long existed in the United States.
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