Merriam-Webster defines an "oli ·gar ·chy" as follows:
1 : government by the few
2 : a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes; also : a group exercising such control
3 : an organization under oligarchic control
Does that describe our government? Political scientists Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page found that, "Economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence."
Gilens and Page didn't use the word "oligarchy," but those elites and groups represent only a small percentage of the population, so a number of the journalists who covered their work did.
In a related finding, political scientist Thomas Ferguson and his colleagues found "the relations between money and major party votes in all elections for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives from 1980 to 2014 are well approximated by straight lines."
Money doesn't just talk, it votes. That's oligarchy.
But is Michael Bloomberg an Oligarch?
An "oligarch," according to the Cambridge American Dictionary, is "one of a small group of powerful people who control a country or an industry."
Is Michael Bloomberg such a person? Maybe he's just really rich and doesn't control that much. But let's have some background.
With an estimated net worth of more than $60 billion, Bloomberg is the twelfth-richest person on the planet and the ninth-richest person in the United States. That's a pretty small group of people. But do they control the country? Ferguson et al. found that campaign cash drives election outcomes. That means campaign donors largely control the process.
Gilens and Page found that wealthy people and interests usually get what they want. The rest of us usually don't, unless what we want is also what they want. The fact that progressives like some of Bloomberg's positions doesn't undermine these findings. In fact, it reinforces them.
Bloomberg hasn't just given money to a number of campaigns. He also controls a media empire. In true oligarchical fashion, he decreed years ago that his news outlets would not cover his political career. He said recently that it would not cover his rivals' campaigns, either a move that drew criticism from journalists and an ethics professor. Less than a month later, however, Bloomberg News violated that edict by running a hit piece against Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
That's oligarchical behavior.
Bloomberg's own political history is an exercise in the use of oligarchical wealth to change electoral outcomes. He was unpopular when he first ran for mayor of New York -- a situation he rectified by dramatically outspending his rivals. Even so, Bloomberg only eked out a two-point victory against Democrat Mark Green in his first mayoral race, after outspending him five to one.
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