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submitted 11 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

More than 11% of the world’s more than 2,000 billionaires have run for election or become politicians, according to a study highlighting the growing power and influence of the super-wealthy.

While billionaires have had mixed success at the ballot box in the U.S., billionaires around the world have a “strong track record” of winning elections and “lean to the Right ideologically,” said the study, which is by three professors at Northwestern University.

“Billionaire politicians are a shockingly common phenomenon,” the study said. “The concentration of massive wealth in the hands of a tiny elite has understandably caused many observers to worry that the ‘super-rich have super-sized political influence.’”

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[-] JoBo@feddit.uk 8 points 11 months ago

Yes, I'm glad they added this (on why there are more billionaire politicians in authoritarian countries):

‘We surmise that this is due to stronger wealth-protection motives for political entry in autocracies and the wide array of ‘stealth’ pathways to informal political influence in democracies,” the study said.

Billionaires in (so-called) democracies don't need to get their hands dirty. They can control the whole polity via well-paid lackeys.

this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2023
767 points (99.2% liked)

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