Affluence and Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America

348 Pages·2012·1.609 MB·English

by  Martin Gilens

Affluence and Influence
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Affluence and Influence
Economic Inequality and Political
Power in America
Martin Gilens
R u s s e l l S ag e F o u n dat i o n
New York
P r i n c e to n U n i v e rs i t y P r e s s
Princeton and Oxford
Copyright © 2012 by Princeton University Press and the Russell Sage Foundation
Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to
Permissions, Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock,
Oxfordshire OX20 1TW
press.princeton.edu
Russell Sage Foundation, 112 East 64th Street, New York, New York 10065
russellsage.org
Jacket illustration: Hands/Money/Hat created by Jim Cherry. Courtesy of
Images.com/Corbis
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gilens, Martin.
Affluence and influence : economic inequality and political power in America /
Martin Gilens.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-691-15397-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Political planning—United
States. 2. Decision making—United States. 3. Equality—United States. 4. Representative
government and representation—United States. 5. Pressure groups—United States.
I. Title.
JK468.P64G55 2012
320.60973—dc23 2012002445
British Library Cataloging-i n- Publication Data is available
This book has been composed in Sabon
Printed on acid- free paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of America
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Chapter 1 was previously published as “Two-thirds full? Citizen Competence and
Democratic Governance.” Copyright 2011. From New Directions in Public Opinion
by Martin Gilens, edited by Adam J. Berinsky. Reproduced by permission of Taylor
and Frances Group, LLC, a division of Informa plc.
Chapter 4 was previously published in Gilens, Martin. “Policy and Consequences
of Representational Inequality.” In Who Gets Represented? © 2011 Russell Sage
Foundation, 112 East 64th Street, New York, NY 10065. Reprinted with Permission.
To Janet, and to Naomi and Josh
Who brighten my life every day
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Contents
List of Tables ix
List of Figures xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
Chapter 1
Citizen Competence and Democratic Decision Making 12
Chapter 2
Data and Methods 50
Chapter 3
The Preference/Policy Link 70
Chapter 4
Policy Domains and Democratic Responsiveness 97
Chapter 5
Interest Groups and Democratic Responsiveness 124
Chapter 6
Parties, Elections, and Democratic Responsiveness 162
Chapter 7
Democratic Responsiveness across Time 193
Chapter 8
Money and American Politics 234
Appendix 253
Notes 279
References 305
Index 323
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List of Tables
2.1 Observed and Imputed Percent Favoring Policy Change 62
2.2 Alternative Question Wordings for Reliability Estimates 64
2.3 Consistency vs. Correlation as Measures of Policy
Responsiveness 68
3.1 Policy Responsiveness by Income Percentile 76
3.2 Policy Responsiveness by Size of Preference Gap across Income
Percentiles 79
3.3 Policy Responsiveness When Middle-I ncome Preferences Align
with Those of the Affluent or the Poor 84
3.4 Alternative Estimates of Policy Responsiveness by Income
Percentile 87
4.1 Policy Responsiveness by Policy Domain 98
4.2 Characteristics of Proposed Policy Changes by Policy
Domain 99
4.3 Decline in Policy Responsiveness as Preferences across Income
Groups Diverge 102
4.4 Foreign Policy and National Security Preferences 106
4.5 Religious/Moral Values Issue Preferences 110
4.6 Economic Issue Preferences 114
4.7 Social Welfare Issue Preferences 118
5.1 Distribution of Interest Group Alignments 131
5.2 Interest Group Alignment and Public Preferences as Predictors of
Policy Outcomes 137
5.3 Interest Group Engagement and Public Preferences as Predictors
of Policy Outcomes 139
5.4 Interest Group Alignment, Public Preferences, and Their
Interaction as Predictors of Policy Outcomes 141
5.5 Correlations between Public Preferences and the Net Interest
Group Alignment Index 144
5.6 Interest Group Alignment and Public Preferences as Predictors of
Policy Outcomes by Policy Domain 148
5.7 Correlations between Public Preferences and Interest Group
Positions 156
6.1 Restructuring the Dataset to Create Two Annual Observations
from Each Policy Question 169
6.2 Policy Responsiveness and the Federal Election Cycle 171
6.3 Policy Responsiveness and the Length of the Presidential Partisan
Regime 176
6.4 Party Control Score 179