Democracy Does Not Depend On Consumptive Corporatist Economics

Illustration by Zohar Lazar

We ostensibly live, for the most part today, in democratic societies. That may have been the case in the past, or it may never have truly been the case at all, due to reservations on the part of those holding power at the dawning of the democratic union regarding the ability of mixed populations to actually choose representatives that will uphold the values of the democracy — and of its founders. It is a difficult thing to do — not to desire to steer where one, having the power, wills — and is certainly that for those in the process of relinquishing their power.

This is the fatal flaw in the construction of any democratic system that is organized by a committee, group of founders, or prior reigning monarchs, rather than directly arising organically by the will of the governed.

What we tend to have instead of truly democratic rule, everywhere, is an instantiation of some sort of corporatism. This ensures that the only real power that the general population has is to effectively rubber-stamp the selection of leaders by the leadership itself — even if the leadership is broken into camps in strife with each other. This, in fact, just cements the position of the leadership because the attention of the population is on the drama of the day between the opposing camps of homogeneous policies, rather than being on the…