Jeffrey and US non-existent democracy

July 24, 2026

I have enormous respect for Jeffrey Sachs as he has put his whole career on the line to fight the current White House insanity, but I think his hopes for the future of US democracy may be optimistic. The landmark study of the influence of ordinary Americans on public policy on crucial issues was the classic 2014 article by Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page, “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens,” published in Perspectives on Politics.

Their conclusion was stark. Economic elites and business interest groups exerted a “substantial, independent impact” on US government policy. Average citizens and mass-based interest groups had only “minimal or no independent influence.” The authors went on to say publicly that average citizens had “little or no independent influence” on policymaking.

The US was not founded as a democracy but as a republic with major limitations built in to the Constitution to prevent full democracy. The US financial, business and political elites have used that preference for a country run by the people who own it, to further limit as much as possible the “bewildered herd” from having any significant say in vital public policy issues.