>> 34% of adults in America did not exercise their right to vote. Why?
I think that Gilens 2005[1] and Gilens 2014[2] are the references that people usually cite to argue that America is an oligarchy. The 2nd paper made a splash at the time, see for example this summary[3]. There were some attempts at rebuttals that seemed silly even back then, but regardless of what you think about the argument 1 or 2 decades ago, wealth concentration has accelerated, so.. hmm.
If voting has little chance of winning you your policy preferences even when you do get your preferred candidate, there is little good that may come of it but many potential negatives such as: junk mail, jury duty, the smoldering eternal hatred of your differently aligned friends/family, drafted into the coming great space war, etc
I think that Gilens 2005[1] and Gilens 2014[2] are the references that people usually cite to argue that America is an oligarchy. The 2nd paper made a splash at the time, see for example this summary[3]. There were some attempts at rebuttals that seemed silly even back then, but regardless of what you think about the argument 1 or 2 decades ago, wealth concentration has accelerated, so.. hmm.
If voting has little chance of winning you your policy preferences even when you do get your preferred candidate, there is little good that may come of it but many potential negatives such as: junk mail, jury duty, the smoldering eternal hatred of your differently aligned friends/family, drafted into the coming great space war, etc
[1] https://www.jstor.org/stable/3521574 [2] https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-poli... [3] https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746