The US is not a democracy but an oligarchy, study concludes (2014)

A 2014 study from Princeton and Northwestern Universities analyzing nearly 1,800 U.S. policies enacted between 1981 and 2002 concludes that the U.S. functions as an oligarchy rather than a democracy, with economic elites and organized business interests having substantial influence over policy while average citizens have little to no independent impact. The research found that when the majority of citizens disagree with economic elites and organized interests, they generally lose, and even large majorities favoring policy change rarely achieve it due to the political system's status quo bias.