Editing Plutocracy (section)

==== Post-World War II ====
In modern times, the term is sometimes used pejoratively to refer to societies rooted in state-corporate capitalism or which prioritize the accumulation of wealth over other interests.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Barker|first=Derek|title=Oligarchy or Elite Democracy? Aristotle and Modern Representative Government|journal=New Political Science|date=2013|volume=35|issue=4|pages=547–566|doi=10.1080/07393148.2013.848701|s2cid=145063601}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Etzioni|first=Amitai|title=Political Corruption in the United States: A Design Draft|journal=Political Science & Politics|date=Jan 2014|volume=47|issue=1|pages=141–144|doi=10.1017/S1049096513001492|doi-broken-date=5 February 2025 |s2cid=155071383}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Westbrook|first=David|title=If Not a Commercial Republic - Political Economy in the United States after Citizens United|journal=Louisville Law Review|date=2011|volume=50|issue=1|pages=35–86|url=http://www.louisvillelawreview.org/sites/louisvillelawreview.org/files/pdfs/printcontent/50/1/Westbrook.pdf|access-date=30 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502000423/http://www.louisvillelawreview.org/sites/louisvillelawreview.org/files/pdfs/printcontent/50/1/Westbrook.pdf|archive-date=2 May 2014|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref>[http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-long-dark-shadows-plutocracy/ Full Show: The Long, Dark Shadows of Plutocracy]. ''[[Moyers & Company]]'', 28 November 2014.</ref> According to [[Kevin Phillips (political commentator)|Kevin Phillips]], author and political strategist to [[Richard Nixon]], the United States is a plutocracy in which there is a "fusion of money and government."<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_phillips.html Transcript. Bill Moyers Interviews Kevin Phillips]. ''[[NOW with Bill Moyers]]'' 4.09.04 | PBS</ref>

[[Chrystia Freeland]], author of ''[[Plutocrats (book)|Plutocrats]]'',<ref>{{cite book|first=Chrystia|last=Freeland|author-link=Chrystia Freeland|title=Plutocrats: the rise of the new global super-rich and the fall of everyone else|date=2012|publisher=Penguin|location=New York|isbn=9781594204098|oclc=780480424|url=https://archive.org/details/plutocratsriseof00free}}</ref> says that the present trend towards plutocracy occurs because the rich feel that their interests are shared by society:<ref>{{cite interview |first=Chrystia|last=Freeland |date=15 October 2012 |url=https://www.npr.org/2012/10/15/162799512/a-startling-gap-between-us-and-them-in-plutocrats |title=A Startling Gap Between Us And Them In 'Plutocrats' |publisher=[[National Public Radio]] |access-date=12 April 2023}}</ref><ref>See also the Chrystia Freeland interview for the Moyers Book Club (12 October 2012) [http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-plutocracy-rising/ ''Moyers & Company'' Full Show: Plutocracy Rising]</ref>

{{blockquote
|You don't do this in a kind of chortling, smoking your cigar, conspiratorial thinking way. You do it by persuading yourself that what is in your own personal self-interest is in the interests of everybody else. So you persuade yourself that, actually, government services, things like spending on education, which is what created that social mobility in the first place, need to be cut so that the deficit will shrink, so that your tax bill doesn't go up. And what I really worry about is, there is so much money and so much power at the very top, and the gap between those people at the very top and everybody else is so great, that we are going to see social mobility choked off and society transformed.
}}

When the Nobel Prize–winning economist [[Joseph Stiglitz]] wrote the 2011 ''[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'' magazine article entitled "Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%", the title and content supported Stiglitz's claim that the U.S. is increasingly ruled by the wealthiest 1%.<ref>Stiglitz Joseph E. [http://www.vanityfair.com/society/features/2011/05/top-one-percent-201105# "Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%"]. ''[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'', May 2011; see also the ''[[Democracy Now!]]'' interview with Joseph Stiglitz: [http://www.democracynow.org/2011/4/7/nobel_economist_joseph_stiglitz_assault_on "Assault on Social Spending, Pro-Rich Tax Cuts Turning U.S. into Nation 'Of the 1 Percent, by the 1 Percent, for the 1 Percent{{'"}}], ''[[Democracy Now!]]'' Archive, Thursday, 7 April 2011</ref> Some researchers have said [[Oligarchy#United States|the U.S. may be drifting towards a form of oligarchy]], as individual citizens have less impact than economic elites and organized interest groups upon public policy.<ref>[[Thomas Piketty|Piketty, Thomas]] (2014). ''[[Capital in the Twenty-First Century]]''. Belknap Press. {{ISBN|067443000X}} p. 514: "the risk of a drift towards oligarchy is real and gives little reason for optimism about where the United States is headed."</ref> In the [[United States Congress|U.S. Congress]] itself, more than half of all members are millionaires.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Evers-Hillstrom |first=Karl |date=2020-04-23 |title=Majority of lawmakers in 116th Congress are millionaires |url=https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/04/majority-of-lawmakers-millionaires/ |access-date=2024-07-10 |website=OpenSecrets}}</ref>

A study conducted by political scientists Martin Gilens of [[Princeton University]] and Benjamin Page of [[Northwestern University]], which was released in April 2014,<ref>{{cite journal |title=Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens |author1=Martin Gilens |author2=Benjamin I. Page |name-list-style=amp |journal=[[Perspectives on Politics]] |date=2014 |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=564–581 |doi=10.1017/S1537592714001595 |url=http://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/files/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf|doi-access=free }}</ref> stated that their "analyses suggest that majorities of the American public actually have little influence over the policies our government adopts". Gilens and Page do not characterize the U.S. as an "oligarchy" or "plutocracy" per se; however, they do apply the concept of "civil oligarchy" as used by [[Jeffrey A. Winters]]<ref>Winters, Jeffrey A. "[https://archive.org/details/oligarchy0000wint Oligarchy]" Cambridge University Press, 2011, pp. 208-254</ref> with respect to the U.S.

The investor, [[billionaire]], and [[philanthropist]] [[Warren Buffett]], one of the wealthiest people in the world,<ref>{{cite web |title=The World's Billionaires |url=https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/list/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130403013841/http://www.forbes.com/billionaires/list/ |archive-date=3 April 2013 |access-date=1 May 2018 |website=forbes.com}}</ref> voiced in 2005 and once more in 2006 his view that his class, the "rich class", is waging class warfare on the rest of society. In 2005 Buffet said to CNN: "It's class warfare, my class is winning, but they shouldn't be."<ref>[http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/05/10/buffett/index.html Buffett: 'There are lots of loose nukes around the world'] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160430104340/http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/05/10/buffett/index.html|date=30 April 2016}} CNN.com</ref> In a November 2006 interview in ''[[The New York Times]]'', Buffett stated that "[t]here's class warfare all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning."<ref name="Buffett_warfare">{{cite news |last=Buffett |first=Warren |date=26 November 2006 |title=In Class Warfare, Guess Which Class is Winning |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/business/yourmoney/26every.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170103165340/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/business/yourmoney/26every.html |archive-date=3 January 2017 |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref>