Billionaires who become politicians tend to "lean to the right ideologically," according to the research.

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.’”

    • JoBoEnglish
      9·
      1 year 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.