Princeton Experts Say: "We're No Longer Living In a Democracy"

A new Princeton University study has some bad news: Our democracy has slowly transformed into an oligarchy.

Using data measuring 1,779 policy issues between 1981 and 2002, researchers asked, "Who governs?" and "Who really rules?" And they discovered the nation's top 1 percent and corporations wield the most power.

"The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence," they wrote.

CWA and our partners in the Democracy Initiative have pledged to work together to attack the blocks to our democracy.

We do know what democracy should look like. That's why we're determined, with our partners, to get big money out of politics, change the broken Senate rules, ensure voting rights so all citizens can turn out on Election Day, and gain a path to citizenship for immigrants.