Princeton Study Concludes United States Of America Is An Oligarchy

"The US is an oligarchy, study concludes"

"Report by researchers from Princeton and Northwestern universities suggests that US political system serves special interest organisations, instead of voters"

[link to www.telegraph.co.uk]

[link to www.princeton.edu]

"The US government does not represent the interests of the majority of the country's citizens, but is instead ruled by those of the rich and powerful, a new study from Princeton and Northwestern Universities has concluded."

"After sifting through nearly 1,800 US policies enacted in that period and comparing them to the expressed preferences of average Americans (50th percentile of income), affluent Americans (90th percentile) and large special interests groups, researchers concluded that the United States is dominated by its economic elite."

"The peer-reviewed study, which will be taught at these universities in September, says: 'The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organised groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence.' "

Now, while I completely agree the values and interests of the average American citizen are hardly represented by politicians in Washington (or even at the state level more often than not), and I'm grateful a reasonably-mainstream media outlet would pick this up, I'm also very suspicious that there's a bit of mercenary motive here. The universities involved intend to teach this peer-reviewed study? To what end? In support of our intended democratic republic or in support a different form of democracy altogether?