Martin Gilens
Professor of Public Policy, Political Science, and Social Welfare, University of California-Los Angeles
Chapter Member: Los Angeles Unified SSN
Areas of Expertise:
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About Martin
Martin Gilens is Chair of the Department of Public Policy and Professor of Public Policy, Political Science, and Social Welfare at UCLA. His research examines representation, public opinion, and mass media, especially in relation to inequality and public policy. Professor Gilens is the author of Affluence & Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America, and Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media and the Politics of Antipoverty Policy, and coauthor (with Benjamin I. Page) of Democracy in America?: What Has Gone Wrong and What We Can Do about It.
Contributions
Who Gets What They Want from Government?
Key Findings Brief,
In the News
Research discussed by , in "The ‘Values,’ ‘Vision,’ and ‘Democracy’ of an Inauthentic Opposition," Consortium News, May 3, 2018.
Quoted by Sergio Alejandro Gómez in "The United States is an Oligarchy, Not a Democracy," Granma, April 4, 2018.
Quoted by Michaela Collord in "Critiques of Elite Power aren’t Antisemitic or Conspiratorial – They are Necessary," Red Pepper, April 3, 2018.
Quoted by Dylan Matthews in "Studies: Democratic Politicians Represent Middle-Class Voters. GOP Politicians Don’t.," Vox, April 2, 2018.
Quoted by Alessandro Bruno in "The Erosion of the Middle Class Marks the End of the American Dream," Lombardi Letter, March 20, 2018.
Opinion: "Critics Argued with Our Analysis of U.S. Political Inequality. Here are 5 Ways They’re Wrong.," Martin Gilens (with ), The Washington Post, May 23, 2016.
Quoted by Joe Magruder in "My Turn: The Candidate Who Really Scares the Establishment," Concord Monitor, October 20, 2015.
Quoted by Michael Tomasky in "The Hard-Right Swerve of the Super Rich," Daily Beast, October 13, 2015.
Quoted by Thomas B. Edsall in "How Did the Democrats Become Favorites of the Rich?," New York Times, October 7, 2015.
Quoted by in "New Research Shows Just How Much Presidents Try to Manipulate Public Opinion," The Washington Post, August 9, 2015.
Guest on Slate's The Gist, June 17, 2015.
Interviewed in "Scholar behind Viral 'Oligarchy' Study Tells You What It Means," (with ) Talking Points Memo, April 22, 2014.
Opinion: "Taxes and the Tyranny of the Minority," Martin Gilens, New York Times, September 20, 2011.
Publications
"Descriptive Representation, Money, and Political Inequality in the United States" Swiss Political Science Review 21, no. 2 (2015): 222-228.
Argues that the primary reason that policymakers in the U.S. cater to the preferences and interests of the well-to-do is the outsize role of money in American politics.
"Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens" (with ). Perspectives on Politics 12, no. 3 (2014): 564-581.
Discusses four theoretical traditions in the study of American politics—which can be characterized as theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy, Economic-Elite Domination, and two types of interest-group pluralism, Majoritarian Pluralism and Biased Pluralism— that offers different predictions about which sets of actors have how much influence over public policy: average citizens; economic elites; and organized interest groups, mass-based or business-oriented.
"Affluence and Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America" (Princeton University Press and the Russell Sage Foundation, 2012).
Examines the disproportionate influence of affluent Americans over government policy, showing that the ability of the well-off to influence political decision-making has grown over time, but that impending elections and strong partisan competition in Congress can help produce policies that are more broadly responsive to the public as a whole.
"Inequality and Democratic Responsiveness" Public Opinion Quarterly 69, no. 5 (2005): 778-796.
Reports the core findings of the Affluence & Influence project.
"Corporate Ownership and News Bias: Newspaper Coverage of the 1996 Telecommunications Bill" (with ). Journal of Politics 62, no. 2 (2000): 369-386.
Finds that newspapers owned by corporations that stood to gain most from this landmark legislation provided much more positive coverage of the legislation and neglected critical concerns that were contained in coverage by other newspapers.
"Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media, and the Politics of Anti-Poverty Policy" (University of Chicago Press, 1999).
Explores the racialization of poverty in America, and role of the media in perpetuating stereotypes of African Americans as the “undeserving poor.” Also shows that news coverage of poverty during hard times is both more sympathetic to the poor and less likely portray the poor as black.