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Can a country be a democracy if its government only responds to the preferences of the rich? In an ideal democracy, all citizens should have equal influence on government policy--but as this book demonstrates, America's policymakers respond almost exclusively to the preferences of the economically advantaged. Affluence and Influence definitively explores how political inequality in the United States has evolved over the last several decades and how this growing disparity has been shaped by interest groups, parties, and elections.
With sharp analysis and an impressive range of data, Martin Gilens looks at thousands of proposed policy changes, and the degree of support for each among poor, middle-class, and affluent Americans. His findings are staggering: when preferences of low- or middle-income Americans diverge from those of the affluent, there is virtually no relationship between policy outcomes and the desires of less advantaged groups. In contrast, affluent Americans' preferences exhibit a substantial relationship with policy outcomes whether their preferences are shared by lower-income groups or not. Gilens shows that representational inequality is spread widely across different policy domains and time periods. Yet Gilens also shows that under specific circumstances the preferences of the middle class and, to a lesser extent, the poor, do seem to matter. In particular, impending elections--especially presidential elections--and an even partisan division in Congress mitigate representational inequality and boost responsiveness to the preferences of the broader public.
At a time when economic and political inequality in the United States only continues to rise, Affluence and Influence raises important questions about whether American democracy is truly responding to the needs of all its citizens.
- Sales Rank: #538437 in eBooks
- Published on: 2012-07-22
- Released on: 2012-07-22
- Format: Kindle eBook
Review
Winner of the 2013 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award, American Political Science Association
One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles Top 25 Academic Books for 2013
"The best book in decades on political inequality. . . . Gilens's years of careful empirical research and his impressively fair and clear presentation of evidence mark a major step forward in the scientific study of political inequality in America."--Larry Bartels, Monkey Cage blog
"[T]he findings in [Martin Gilens's book] are important, timely, and, at times, surprising."--Glenn C. Altschuler, Huffington Post
"[F]ascinating."--Pacific Standard Magazine
"This book is already being hailed as a landmark study of American political representation."--Thomas Ferguson, Perspectives on Politics
"[I] was simply unaware of the facts presented in Martin Gilens's new Affluence and Influence. Gilens compiles a massive data set of public opinion surveys and subsequent policy outcomes, and reaches a shocking conclusion: Democracy has a strong tendency to simply supply the policies favored by the rich. When the poor, the middle class, and the rich disagree, American democracy largely ignores the poor and the middle class. . . . [I]ntellectually satisfying."--Bryan Caplan, Econlog
"This nuanced, carefully constructed volume evaluates the relationship between growing economic inequality and political power in the U.S., finding that policy outcomes are biased overwhelmingly in favour of the affluent. . . . Especially impressive are his successful efforts at separating the influence of interest groups and political parties on policy outcomes from the influence of public opinion by economic class. His opening chapter on citizen competence and democratic decision making should be required reading for those who doubt the feasibility and value of a truly representative government."--Choice
"Martin Gilens makes an important empirical contribution to the discussions about the effects of inequality on policymaking in the United States."--Nolan McCarty, American Interest
"Gilens' book, as with all good political science scholarship, provides the cold, hard data to prove a crucial hypothesis of our times, in this case that American politics responds only to the preferences of the affluent. . . . [I]t is certainly well-written by academic standards; it is clinical and precise, with a table of logistic regressions to back up every claim. So if you are looking for a rigorous study of the relationship between affluence and influence, then look no further. This book is a vital weapon in the armoury for anyone who suspects that American democracy might not be all it seems."--Maeve McKeown, New Left Project
"At a time when economic and political inequality in the United States only continues to rise, Affluence and Influence raises important questions about whether American democracy is truly responding to the needs of all its citizens."--World Book Industry
"This is an important book, representing an excellent piece of scholarship that will shape the debate about public opinion and American democracy for years to come. . . . [T]his is an outstanding book that answers many questions and raises countless others. This is exactly what a quality piece of social science ought to do."--Nathan Kelly, Public Opinion Quarterly
From the Back Cover
"Inequality in America is steadily worsening, and nowhere is that more worrying than in our politics. This deservedly prize-winning book offers compelling new evidence that affluent Americans have much more influence than their fellow citizens and that this disparity is growing."--Robert Putnam, Harvard University
"Our democracy isn't: That's the inescapable conclusion of this incredibly powerful and beautifully written book. Too important for academics alone, this is required reading for any citizen, or anyone anywhere trying to understand how history's most important democracy has lost its way."--Lawrence Lessig, Harvard University
"Democracy is based on the ideal that every citizen has an equal potential to shape what government does. With care and without cant, Gilens shows that we are very far from this ideal in contemporary American politics. The economically privileged don't always get what they want. But, according to Gilen's pioneering analysis, they are much more influential than those below them on the economic ladder. Affluence and Influence is a landmark in the study of representation."--Jacob Hacker, coauthor of Winner-Take-All Politics
"When the U.S. government makes policies on critical issues, it responds to the preferences of the affluent, but often ignores the poor and middle class. Using public opinion and policy data in innovative ways, this eye-opening book explores the reasons for unequal government responsiveness to citizen preferences. For anyone who cares about inequality and democracy in America, this book goes at the top of the reading list. A home run."--Theda Skocpol, Harvard University
"Affluence and Influence is social science at its best, melding sophisticated scholarship with moral purpose. The book shows how better-off Americans sway elections and get the laws they want. If other citizens feel unrepresented, Gilens's analysis could be a first step toward redress."--Andrew Hacker, Queens College
"This is an important book, destined to be a classic. It is the definitive statement to date on a big topic: how general public opinion, the opinions of affluent citizens, and the views of organized interest groups affect the making of U.S. public policy. Containing scrupulous analysis and well-supported claims, Affluence and Influence will have great scholarly impact and reach broad audiences concerned with American politics, public policy, and democratic theory."--Benjamin I. Page, Northwestern University
"This book addresses fundamental questions about equality and democratic responsiveness in the United States, and concludes that government policies are more responsive to affluent citizens than to others less well off. Part of the novelty and richness of the book comes from its description of specific policy issues and cases, which provides a detailed and important picture of real-world American politics."--Robert Y. Shapiro, Columbia University
About the Author
Martin Gilens is professor of politics at Princeton University. He is the author of "Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media, and the Politics of Antipoverty Policy".
Most helpful customer reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
Are we in a Neo-Gilded Age?
By Raghu Nathan
I chanced to come across this book while watching an interview with the author on TV. The subject matter and the interview were interesting and it made me want to read the book. Soon after starting to read it, I realized that it is actually aimed more at academics than lay readers like me. The book contains extensive use of Regression Analysis, concepts like Net Interest Group Alignment Index and measurement of many variables related to this subject. Though it is not an easy read, one can still look at the data, read the analysis and grasp the conclusions that the author arrives at. When I finished the book, I thought that the author has covered the gist of his arguments in the title itself, namely 'Economic Inequality and Political Power in America'.
Now, what is the book's thesis? In the author's own words, it is as follows:
"If you judge how much say people have--their influence over policy--by the match between their policy preferences and subsequent policy outcomes, then American citizens are vastly unequal in their influence over policymaking, and that inequality is growing. In most circumstances, affluent Americans exert substantial influence over the policies adopted by the federal government, and less well off Americans exert virtually none. Even when Democrats control Congress and the White House, the less well off are no more influential.
The one bright spot in this unhappy tale of unequal influence is that political competition increases the responsiveness of policymakers to the views of the public and generates policies that more equally reflect the preferences of all Americans. When elections are near and when control of the government is divided or uncertain, parties broaden their appeal, and influence becomes more equal. So the core elements of democratic government--electoral competition and partisan rivalry--force policymakers to take public preferences more fully into account."
In some ways, these pronouncements may seem obvious and one can ask why we need a Princeton Professor to validate something that most people feel instinctively to be true. But, there is much more to it in the book. Through a vast amount of data and analysis, the author reaches conclusions that run counter to our common-sensical understanding of issues apart from findings which are timely today in the context of increasing inequality in income levels between the top 20% and bottom 20% of income earners. It is an exhaustive study and is based on as many as 1779 public policy cases -- stemming from national surveys collected between 1961 and 2002. The methodology employed in the analysis of this data is too technical for me to understand fully or discuss critically and so I won't even venture into it. The ultimate inference of the findings are captured in the following stunning statement: ".. Modern state of U.S. "democracy" is best described as an amalgamation of competing economic elitist and organized business-based interests. Meanwhile, the overall impact of median voters has dropped to almost zero when considered as an independent public policy factor. The chief predictions of pure theories of majoritarian electoral democracy can be decisively rejected. Not only do ordinary citizens not have uniquely substantial power over policy decisions; they have little or no independent influence on policy at all".
One might think that the book is only about criticism and damning conclusions alone, but that would be wrong. The author deals with the question of what can be done to redress this imbalance and suggests the following measures for increasing responsiveness to public concerns : campaign finance reform, competition-enhancing reforms such as nonpartisan districting and nonpartisan get-out-the-vote drives, focussing on those policies that are supported by both the poor and the affluent alike such as, increases in the minimum wage, spending for education, means-tested job training and childcare, Social Security, and Medicare.
The book also has a humbling lesson for people like me who believe that the Democratic Party is a party of the less-privileged and the working class whereas the Republican Party is that of the well-to-do. The book finds that both parties tend to engage in policymaking that are immune to the preferences of the public. This is demonstrated well through a substantive look at the Lyndon Johnson administration in the 1960s and expressed through the following results:
a) The Democrats had a strong majority in both the House and the Senate during LBJ's time, but policymaking had little relationship to any income group's preferences.
b) Programs like the Great Society, War on Poverty, relaxation of immigration laws and increased government spending on welfare did not have much public support but the govt went ahead with them anyway.
The other lesson from the book is that low and middle income groups aren't necessarily at odds with many Republican positions. The author concedes that increases in minimum wage does correlate with Democrats being in power and reduction in Estate taxes with the Republicans. However, he cautions us with the caveat that Americans who are in the lower strata of income are in sync with Republicans when it comes to gay rights, estate tax repeal, income tax cuts or abortion or school prayer related issues. This group sees itself in sync with the Democrats mostly in certain economic and social welfare issues only. Even here, they were opposed to free-trade agreements like NAFTA and GATT (General Agreement on Tariff and Trade) whereas the affluent on the other hand, have supported Medicare and federal aid to education.
Overall, the author says that it is not an easy task to augment what he calls `representational equality'. However, electoral competition and partisan rivalry can force policymakers to take public preferences more into account. Since certain policies have wide support among Americans, including the 90th income percentile, focussing on these policies will automatically result in greater representational equality. Raising the minimum wage, more generous unemployment benefits, stricter corporate regulation (on the oil and gas industries in particular), and a more progressive tax regime are some of the policies which have such support.
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful.
Economic Inequality and Political Power in America is a very important book that is not very fun to read
By Billie Pritchett
Martin Gilens's book Affluence and Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America is a very important book that is not very fun to read. It is sort of an extended version of a paper that Gilens coauthored with Benjamin Page. Gilens and Page released a study titled "Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Privilege," which created quite a controversy with its findings. The study's finding concluded that verifiably only the interests of American citizen's top 10% are accounted for in American politics, and the only way other American citizens get the policies they want is when the top 10% supports those policies as well. This book of Gilens' is essentially an elaboration of those research findings as well as others he and other people have conducted. That's the good news.
The bad news is that the book is not very fun to read because it's not really written for popular consumption--even though it's marketed that way. Gilens writes as if his audience is an academic audience, and he frequently refers to studies and debates that take place that I imagine the ordinary intelligent reader is going to have no idea about. The book could have been better written and not been so esoteric in the way it addresses the reader.
Even though it's no fun, I'm glad the book was written and think it will be a good resource.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
OK,the rich have more influence. But previous reviewers (predictably?) missed the most important conclusions from the book
By Frank T. Manheim
Previous reviewers' observations: "American citizens are vastly unequal in their influence over policymaking"; "proof of what you suspected";"Only the interests of American citizens' top 10% are accounted for in American politics"; "the book is not very fun to read"; "The book I ordered was in great condition"; "The author states that policy is skewed towards the affluent. Sounds good".
I don't give this book five stars because I am upset about income inequality (which I am), or because the author offers statistical proof for practically all of his conclusions (which he does). I find the book unusual and important because unlike most academics Gilens does not present data confirming preconceived concepts or ideas. He wanted to find out how influential rich or poor people were on public policymaking and designed his research to let the facts rather than his opinions speak. So beyond the unsurprising result that the rich exercise a vastly disproportionate influence he came up with many independent and sometimes counterintuitive results.
He recognizes that if influence on government were more representative it would be more democratic. This is the justification for the call that comes up regularly to get rid of the electoral college and elect the President by pure popular vote. But would letting New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Chicago and Houston elect our Presidents guarantee good government? Should the concerns of Alaska, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, North and South Dakota (with large areas but small populations) be ignored? Gilens recognizes that more democratic doesn't guarantee better. The founding fathers were well aware of observations since Plato and Aristotle that if the opinions of average people run the political show the results are likely to be bad. Average people tend to have shallow knowledge, put their immediate interests first, and may make impulsive decisions that lead to disaster.
Gilens recognizes that the often-cited measurements of legislators based on their voting record may be too crude a measure. He points out that many decisions that lead to roll-call votes are made behind closed doors and are influenced by factors very different from what people think.
Next, while the Democratic party has come to be identified more with immigrants and poor people, and the Republican party identified with business and the rich, he shows that in power the Democratic party has had narrower representation of public opinion than the Republican Party. This was especially true of the Lyndon Johnson Administration. Because of Democratic Party dominance after the Kennedy assassination the Johnson policies were minimally responsive to public opinion from any source.
In his final analysis, Gilens's conclusions confirm earlier studies by Page and Shapiro that while average citizen opinion is shallow and unstable, aggregate citizen opinion is a better guide to public policy than the views of either party's leaders. This is because in their own areas of activity and knowledge citizens do recognize reality and facts, and when the many areas are put together, the extremes cancel out and fairly sensible policy emerges. Further, citizens are responsive to changing conditions.
A big omission in the book, in my opinion, is mention of the brilliant French student of American Democracy, Alexis De Tocqueville, who came to a similar conclusions in a famous book of 1835, "Democracy in America". De Tocqueville was astonished by the lack of vision in American politicians - attributing this to the fact that voters were drawn to men who served their short-range interests and told them what they wanted to hear. But he also noted that random groups of citizens would offer better insights into political affairs than political leaders. What this means is that America really hasn't changed political character in 170 years.
aggregate their views are a better guide to policy than those of either party's leaders - especially when they are polarized as they are now.
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