| Curiously, the interests which literally bankroll the making of laws and electing of legislators do get to define what words mean. "U.S. Policies Favor The Wealthy, Interest Groups, Study Shows" Gilens and Page analyzed 1,779 policy issues from 1981 to 2002 and compared changes to the preferences of median-income Americans, the top-earning 10 percent, and organized interest groups and industries. "Not only do ordinary citizens not have uniquely substantial power over policy decisions; they have little or no independent influence on policy at all," the researchers write in the article titled, "Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens." Affluent Americans, however, "have a quite substantial, highly significant, independent impact on policy," Gilens and Page write. Organized interest groups also "have a large, positive, highly significant impact upon public policy." https://www.huffpost.com/entry/government-wealthy-study_n_51... Though this particular study is specific to the US, the relationship doubtless exists elsewhere. See also: "Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens" (2014) https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-poli... Alphabet Inc. (Google LLC's parent corporation) spent $27.4 million in contributions and $12.8 million in lobbying (2019) according to OpenSecrets. That's slightly more than I've managed, personally. https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/alphabet-inc/summary?id=d00... Alphabet (Google), Facebook, and Microsoft are the three top spenders in EU lobbying: https://www.reuters.com/technology/google-facebook-microsoft... |