Political scientist Martin Gilens' Affluence and Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America, published by RSF and Princeton University Press, has received excellent reviews for its investigation of representational inequality in America. Hailed by Larry Bartels as the "best book in decades on political inequality," Affluence and Influence analyzes questions from national surveys conducted between 1964 and 2006 to better understand the relationship between public preferences and public policy. In a symposium for the Boston Review, Gilens explains his findings:

If you judge how much say people have—their influence over policy—by the match between their policy preferences and subsequent policy outcomes, then American citizens are vastly unequal in their influence over policymaking, and that inequality is growing. In most circumstances, affluent Americans exert substantial influence over the policies adopted by the federal government, and less well off Americans exert virtually none. Even when Democrats control Congress and the White House, the less well off are no more influential.

The one bright spot in this unhappy tale of unequal influence is that political competition increases the responsiveness of policymakers to the views of the public and generates policies that more equally reflect the preferences of all Americans. When elections are near and when control of the government is divided or uncertain, parties broaden their appeal, and influence becomes more equal. So the core elements of democratic government—electoral competition and partisan rivalry—force policymakers to take public preferences more fully into account.

Gilens, who received funding for his analysis from Russell Sage, discussed his book on The Rachel Maddow Show this week:

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In May and July of this year, Gilens received support from the Foundation to publish the data for his research on his website, and to extend his prior work by exploring the effectiveness of campaign finance regulations as a possible remedy to representational inequality. You can buy a copy of Gilens' book here.