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Billionaire Democracy: The Hijacking of the American Political System
This isn’t your America. No matter who the president is.
We’re told that when we vote, when we elect representatives, we’re gaining a voice in government and the policies it implements. But if that’s true, why don’t American politics actually translate our preferences into higher-living standards for the majority of us?
The answer is that, in America, the wealthy few have built a system that works in their favor, while maintaining the illusion of democracy. The reality is that the quality of democracy in the United States is lower than in any other rich democracy, on a par with nations such as Brazil or Turkey.
In the US, voters have little influence on eventual policy outcomes engineered by lawmakers. Political scientists call it the income bias and attribute it to the power of wealthy donors who favor wage suppression and cuts to important government programs such as public education and consumer protection. It causes American lawmakers to compete to satisfy preferences of donors from the top one percent instead of the middle class.
It’s also why our economy has been misfiring for most Americans for a generation, wages stagnating and opportunity dwindling. The election of Donald Trump shocked the world, but for many Americans, it came as a stark reflection of mounting frustrations with our current system and anger at the status quo. We need to find a way to fix the way our government serves us.
The only realistic pathway to improve middle-class economics is for Congress and the Supreme Court to raise the quality of American democracy. In Billionaire The Hijacking of the American Political System , economist George R. Tyler lays out the fundamental problems plaguing our democracy. He explains how the American democratic system is rigged and how it has eroded the middle class, providing an unflinching and honest comparison of the US government to peer democracies abroad. He also breaks down where we fall short and how other rich democracies avoid the income bias created by the overwhelming role of money in US politics. Finally, Tyler outlines practical campaign finance reforms we can adopt when we finally focus on improving the political responsiveness of our government.
It’s time for the people of this nation to demand a government that properly serves us, the American people.
We’re told that when we vote, when we elect representatives, we’re gaining a voice in government and the policies it implements. But if that’s true, why don’t American politics actually translate our preferences into higher-living standards for the majority of us?
The answer is that, in America, the wealthy few have built a system that works in their favor, while maintaining the illusion of democracy. The reality is that the quality of democracy in the United States is lower than in any other rich democracy, on a par with nations such as Brazil or Turkey.
In the US, voters have little influence on eventual policy outcomes engineered by lawmakers. Political scientists call it the income bias and attribute it to the power of wealthy donors who favor wage suppression and cuts to important government programs such as public education and consumer protection. It causes American lawmakers to compete to satisfy preferences of donors from the top one percent instead of the middle class.
It’s also why our economy has been misfiring for most Americans for a generation, wages stagnating and opportunity dwindling. The election of Donald Trump shocked the world, but for many Americans, it came as a stark reflection of mounting frustrations with our current system and anger at the status quo. We need to find a way to fix the way our government serves us.
The only realistic pathway to improve middle-class economics is for Congress and the Supreme Court to raise the quality of American democracy. In Billionaire The Hijacking of the American Political System , economist George R. Tyler lays out the fundamental problems plaguing our democracy. He explains how the American democratic system is rigged and how it has eroded the middle class, providing an unflinching and honest comparison of the US government to peer democracies abroad. He also breaks down where we fall short and how other rich democracies avoid the income bias created by the overwhelming role of money in US politics. Finally, Tyler outlines practical campaign finance reforms we can adopt when we finally focus on improving the political responsiveness of our government.
It’s time for the people of this nation to demand a government that properly serves us, the American people.
- GenresNonfictionPolitics
242 pages, Paperback
Published January 30, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 4, 2018
An excellent compendium of reasons America has become a low-quality democracy, and what we can do to fix it. Very interesting discussion of what other, more truly democratic nations are doing to enhance their long-term economic growth. Codetermination, following German legislation to ensure that workers comprise half of the participants on boards of directors, has resulted in overall growth, increased profits, and additional jobs. Discusses corruption of media into propaganda outlets supporting wealthy owners of "pay-to-play" legislators. Although reading this book was a bit like taking a physical beating because it unequivocally describes the methods and the wrongness of the sale of our democracy to self-interested ultra-rich interests, I would rather take my punches awake and fight back than continue to sleep through it and never wake up at all.
March 1, 2018
Billionaire Democracy is filled with statistics, footnotes, and research quotes that back up George R. Tyler's points of views. I found the book to primarily discuss the demise of the Republican party and its agenda, but it also does at a fewer stance the Democratic Party as well. I wish this book had more opinion and less quotes and statistics driving his points across. The book to me came across more like a collegiate graduate paper and less of a nonfiction novel - in my opinion.
George R. Tyler has plenty of views that come across in Billionaire Democracy that helps us understand what in the world is going on in our political turmoil in Washington DC. Tyler also compares large corporations and how they are spewing American low wages in Europe along with fueling their profits for executives and Washington Politicians to keep control of the government as a silent partner. Great quick read to remind you we need CHANGE and FAST in American Democracy!
George R. Tyler has plenty of views that come across in Billionaire Democracy that helps us understand what in the world is going on in our political turmoil in Washington DC. Tyler also compares large corporations and how they are spewing American low wages in Europe along with fueling their profits for executives and Washington Politicians to keep control of the government as a silent partner. Great quick read to remind you we need CHANGE and FAST in American Democracy!
August 5, 2025
This book is 20% 5 stars and 80% 1-2 stars. The intro and defining of the problem are both excellent. The path forward outlined at the end was also pretty good. Unfortunately the author uses most of the book blaming the politically conservatives where the time should have been spent condemning the actions and in-actions of the system as a whole. 70% of this book is "can you believe all the bad the GOP has done?" Only in passing does the author mention that the Democrats failed to repeal these evils they are supposedly against.
February 24, 2018
Interesting read. Probably didn’t understand all of the concepts in here, but the author did a bang up job of trying to explain things to the layman. There was info about fake news, politics, economics, democracy, proportional representation....etc with examples from all sorts of countries to show comparisons between America and other higher level democracies (his term, not mine). Good stuff. Probably deserves a second reading to get more understanding.
March 24, 2019
I learned a a lot from this book Turns out you don’t need to buy votes if you can control the news people watch and slant it in favor of your candidate. You don’t need to buy votes if you have the power ie the money to gerrymander districts. If you belong to the .1 percent that contributes 55 % of all campaign donations, you know that your voice is more powerful than most.
Citizens United said corporations could not be limited in their political contributions because as “ a person” they had first amendment rights and money was a form of speech. Kind of turns one man one vote on its head.
For each of its insightful categories, it gave clear examples but perhaps too many examples. I found my self thinking “okay, I get the point” And that is the only reason I rated it 4 and not 5. Nonetheless, I am telling all my friends to read it. I wish there was way to tell my fellow citizens to read it.
Citizens United said corporations could not be limited in their political contributions because as “ a person” they had first amendment rights and money was a form of speech. Kind of turns one man one vote on its head.
For each of its insightful categories, it gave clear examples but perhaps too many examples. I found my self thinking “okay, I get the point” And that is the only reason I rated it 4 and not 5. Nonetheless, I am telling all my friends to read it. I wish there was way to tell my fellow citizens to read it.
January 26, 2018
This book couldn't be more timely or more on target. Tyler dissects America's unresponsive democracy in which the popularity of government policies simply doesn't matter if moneyed interests don't want them. With thorough scholarship and comprehensive historical background, Tyler shows how our system of government no longer functions as a true democracy and how it got that way. The contrast with well functioning democracies in other countries is especially instructive.
June 23, 2019
THE USA IS THE 32nd BEST DEMOCRACY. SAD. NEED TO FIX THIS AND MADA!!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews