Poll Says 90% of Americans Believe Big Business Has Too Much Power. Will Change Follow?

A whopping 90% of Americans surveyed by a new Harris Interactive poll believe big business has too much power and influence in Washington D.C. That percentage is the highest ever, up 4% from last year.

The telephone poll of 1,011 adults also found an overwhelming majority believes political action committees, lobbyists, and the media have excessive influence in the Capitol.

So who has too little power? Small businesses was cited most often (among thirteen options offered up on the poll menu) -- 92% of respondents thought small business had too little power.

So What?
Clearly, these results indicate conditions are ripe for change, but what kind of change will citizens get? Will we lead a charge to strip away illegitimate political power from corporations (by revoking "corporate personhood," or their power to dominate ballot initiatives, for example)? Or will we allow ourselves to be pacified by superficial reform -- or by big business voluntarily being more restrained in their exercise of raw power until public anger cools and the corporate regime again presents a Democrat (or less-brazen Republican) as its figurehead?

Be prepared. You can be sure heads of the institutions of corporate power will read the poll results and recognize the need to preempt meaningful change with diversionary rhetoric and small concessions.

The poll also reinforces a long-standing belief of ours that small business owners are among those most harmed by the political dominance of giant corporations and why new coalitions like Independent Business Alliances bring hope for positive change. (See the Independent Business section of our website for much more in this realm).

 

"Do you think ____ have / has too much or too little power and influence in Washington?"

	Too Much	Too Little	About Right	Not Sure/ Refused
Big companies	90%	5%	3%	2%
Political action committees which give money to political candidates	85	10	1	3
Political lobbyists	74	17	2	7
The news media	68	23	5	4
Trade Associations	61	22	3	14
TV and radio talk shows	51	34	8	6
Labor unions	43	46	4	7
Churches & religious groups	35	55	5	4
Opinion polls	33	53	5	9
Racial minorities	28	58	7	6
Nonprofit organizations	23	67	5	6
Public opinion	16	78	3	3
Small business	4	92	2	3

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100 percent due to rounding.

Percent saying "Too Much " over time

	1994	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	Change Since 1994
Big companies	86%	82%	84%	86%	87%	80%	83%	90%	+4%
Political action committees ...	88	83	83	83	83	78	81	85	-3
Political lobbyists	79	75	74	71	70	69	72	74	-5
The news media	79	81	77	77	72	72	71	68	-11
TV and radio talk shows	51	54	54	57	47	54	54	51	-
Labor unions	46	42	39	44	46	45	48	43	-3
Churches & religious groups	n/a	n/a	27	28	31	27	32	35	n/a
Opinion polls	37	36	35	38	33	33	36	33	-4
Racial minorities	38	31	32	30	27	20	31	28	-10
Public opinion	14	21	15	14	15	19	18	16	+2
Small business	4	3	5	5	5	4	5	4	-

 

Percent saying "Too Little" over time

	1994	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	Change Since 1994
Big companies	9%	8%	6%	6%	5%	10%	9%	5%	-4%
Political action committees which give money to political candidates	8	8	7	6	7	12	11	10	+2
Political lobbyists	13	12	12	13	11	15	16	17	+4
The news media	13	9	8	10	14	17	18	23	+10
TV and radio talk shows	37	29	24	23	29	29	28	34	-3
Labor unions	43	41	40	37	35	37	37	46	+3
Opinion polls	52	49	44	41	49	48	47	53	+1
Churches & religious groups	n/a	n/a	52	56	51	53	53	55	n/a
Racial minorities	51	52	50	51	51	59	54	58	+7
Public opinion	82	74	74	73	75	69	72	78	-4
Small business	92	85	85	88	87	88	88	92	-

 

Percent saying "Too Much" by declared party identification (only the duopoly parties were offered as options)

	All Adults	Party ID			Difference between Republicans and Democrats
		Republican	Democrat	Independent
Big companies	90%	86%	96%	86%	-10%
Political action committees...	85	86	85	85	+1
Political lobbyists	74	80	69	79	+11
The news media	68	87	57	66	+30
Trade Associations	61	61	60	61	+1
TV and radio talk shows	51	60	50	48	+10
Labor unions	43	64	22	49	+42
Churches and religious groups	35	18	44	44	-26
Opinion polls	33	44	24	36	+20
Racial minorities	28	38	16	33	+22
Nonprofit organizations	23	27	17	28	+10
Public opinion	16	20	12	21	+8
Small business	4	3	6	3	-3

 

Methodology: This survey was conducted by telephone in the U.S., Nov. 8-13, 2005, among a nationwide cross sections of 1,011 adults. Figures for age, sex, race, education, number of adults, number of voice/telephone lines in the household, region and size of place were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. In theory, with probability samples of these sizes, one could say with 95% certainty that the results have a statistical precision of +/-3 percentage points of what they would be if the entire U.S. population had been polled with complete accuracy. Sampling error for the sub-samples of Republicans (335), Democrats (311), and Independents (254) is higher and varies.

Poll data © 2005 Harris Interactive

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