Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens

CLAIM CONNECTIONS / 6

Where this source is used

• Evidence about one institution, policy domain, period, or model cannot by itself classify an entire political order as oligarchic.

  • supports · pp. 564–565 and 573–577

• Gilens and Page analyzed 1,779 United States policy proposals from 1981 through 2002 for which preference and outcome data were available.

  • supports · pp. 564 and 568–570

• In their 2014 publication, Gilens and Page reported that affluent Americans' preferences were strongly associated with outcomes in multivariate models of the 1981–2002 proposal sample after accounting for average-citizen preferences and interest-group alignments.

  • supports · pp. 572–575, tables 3–4

• In the same 2014 models of the 1981–2002 proposal sample, average citizens' preferences had little or no independent association with policy outcomes when correlated preferences and organized groups were included.

  • supports · pp. 572–575, tables 3–4

• Gilens and Page's 2014 article tested predictions associated with several theories of political influence using proposals dated 1981–2002; the dataset did not measure every political decision or establish a regime-wide classification.

  • supports · pp. 564–566 and 576–577

• The study and its methodological exchange support scrutiny of unequal policy responsiveness within the sampled federal proposals, not a score or verdict for the United States as a whole.

  • supports · pp. 564–577