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by Peter A. Belmont / 2013-04-25
© 2013 Peter Belmont
The article Post-Democracy: where states answer only to business makes a powerful case against government by what I call “the BIGs”. This article springs from the book “Post-Democracy” by Colin Crouch (2005) reviewed here.
The analysis of “post-democracy” is essentially true in the USA. Here, the electorate governs only on questions of social interest — abortion, gun control, gay rights, which no BIGs care about — but anything the BIGs do care about (and the major BIGs are BIG-BANKS, BIG-OIL, BIG-ARMAMENTS, BIG-PHARMA, BIG-ZION, BIG-CHEMICAL, BIG-AGRI) is settled between them, by all appearances without much dispute, and the people’s needs and opinions matter not a whit. Hence, for example, America’s wars.
What’s needed in the USA is a constitutional amendment to make it illegal for any entity to perform or pay for political action other than human beings and their political agents (PACs), and a per-person per-annum limit must be set on the amount that may be spent on political action. This would remove both corporations and very wealthy individuals from their director’s chairs in American politics. Overturning “Citizens United” would be far from enough. This would mean an end to large campaign contributions and thus an end to lobbying by the BIGs.
Democracy of the people cannot be expected to be all-wise, but it has at least a chance to respond to the needs of the people, and government by the BIGs prevents that.
Climate change — and the governments’ failure to respond to it — is proof enough of the failure of government by the BIGs.
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