Breaking It Down: ‘The Political One Percent of the One Percent’ | | United RepublicUnited Republic

Breaking It Down: ‘The Political One Percent of the One Percent’ | | United RepublicUnited Republic

Sunlight Foundation report shows how power is held by extremely few hands

Report finds only 0.01 percent of Americans make most political contributions. Credit: Shutterstock

Making waves all over the web recently was the Sunlight Foundation’s excellent analysis of political contributions, showing how a tiny portion (0.01 percent!) of Americans – mainly wealthy elites, who Sunlight dubs The One Percent of the One Percent– provided the large majority of funding for 2010 election campaigns:

In the 2010 election cycle, the average One Percent of One Percent spent $28,913, more [on campaign contributions] than the [entire] median individual income of $26,364.

Lots of news outlets have picked up on the analysis.

The Washington Post noted how the report found many of the richest donors supported Democrats.

NPR’s All Things Considered interviewed Lee Drutman, a data fellow with the Sunlight Foundation who provided more insight into the report.

The Nation was also surprised by the findings:

To put this in somewhat more dramatic terms, almost a quarter of the total donations from individuals to nearly every actor in the political system came from a group that’s slightly larger than the undergraduate class at a state university like Virginia Tech.

The report is reader-friendly and features endlessly interesting graphs and statistics. It’s worth a read, especially if you’re in the 99.99 percent.

Read more:

The Sunlight Foundation: The Political One Percent of the One Percent

The Washington Post: The politics of the top 0.1 percent

NPR: Report: Wealthy ‘Elite Donors’ Fueling U.S. Politics

The Nation: Who Are the One Percent?