The US: Aristocracy, Plutocracy, Oligarchy, Democracy or what?

Question

I know it's a constitutional republic. Democratic theorist Robert Dahl calls modern so-called democracies a Polyarchy (rule by the many), where such nations have fair elections with universal suffrage. I like this definition, which is pretty practical and definitive. But it leaves out how the rich can pervade politics.

Answer 1

There the lawyers and judges who overrule elections of the people.

Answer 2

It also leaves out how politicians pervade politics, how lobbyists pervade politics, how interest groups pervade politics, how average citizens pervade politics, and so on. Free, legal, voluntary, and transparent influences are typically not factored into the equation when determining a political system.

You already answered your question. The U.S. is a constitutional republic with democratic influences. Polyarchy is a worthless term since democracy means essentially the same thing (rule by the people or the many).

Answer 3

Way to go Mac_Mani! You hit the nail on the head and sunk it with one swing. Bam!

It's a Fascistic Plutocracy, folks, overthrown and conquered by the Central Bankers who issue the fiat, funny money.

And the emblem of Fascism, a pair of them, embellish the wall above and behind the speaker's rostrum in the Chamber of the House of Representatives. They're called FASCES. And I can think of no reason for them to be there other than to declare the the fascistic nature of U.S. republican democracy.

Answer 4

"But it leaves out how the rich can pervade politics."

That is because both your assumptions about constitutional republics and Dahl's definition are based on false propositions.  

The US was a Constitutional Republic until the Civil War, when the legislature disbanded itself.  Then it was a military dictatorship under Lincoln, who ruled by "executive order" until reinstating the legislature after the Civil War.  But in 1871,  a charter for incorporation was filed in London, England, for "THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA," a limited corporation, ostensibly to provide government for the "10 square miles of Washington, D.C." and its "militarily conquered territories."

Since then, the federal government has been a corporate fiction which replaced every office and official of the previous Constitutional republic with corporate analogs, and adopted similar processes to elect corporate members to those offices.  This incorporation now extends to all state and local governments.  Corporate fictions have now replaced the officials and offices of those constitutional republic states that once made up the united States of America.  The government we have now is a de facto government, real in appearance but invalid except by explicit agreement of those corporate members who agree to its legitimacy.  

As the Executive offices and Boards of Directors of corporations have always been staffed by the elite and their agents, it is little wonder that the same has happened to those who tell us they are our government.

It is also worth noting that according to Benito Mussolini, fascist dictator of Italy during the second world war, fascism is more correctly called corporatism.

Answer 5

Capitalistic Oligarchy.