Obama Answers to Higher Powers
Many of the world’s governments are primarily driven by the interests of the rich and powerful people and corporations that are not concerned with Black people’s interests. While this may sound like a conspiracy theory, an April 9, 2014, study from Princeton and Northwestern universities found that the United States’ government more closely resembles an oligarchy or a corporatocracy than a republic or democracy.
The researchers wrote: “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. Our results provide substantial support for theories of economic elite domination and for theories of biased pluralism, but not for theories of majoritarian electoral democracy or majoritarian pluralism.”
The researchers’ findings also indicate that even when a majority of citizens disagree with the economic elite and call for policy change, they rarely get it.
Therefore, any policies pushed by the Obama administration, including those that would help Black people, only have a good chance of coming into fruition if they are in line with the interests of the elite.
