The Rise of Illegitimate Authority and the Threat to Democracy
2013; Issue: 72 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1839-3675
Autores Tópico(s)Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism
ResumoLet me first present my warm thanks to the University of Sydney, the Political Economy Department and especially to Frank Stilwell for inviting me to present this year's Ted Wheelwright Memorial Lecture. It's a great honour for me to speak in homage to such a great scholar and professor. Ted Wheelwright specialised in the study of Transnational Corporations, particularly the impact on Australia of TNCs as I'll call them from now on. During his career in this University I am sorry to say that he was passed over six times for promotion. Yet he never compromised nor ceased to tell the truth as he saw it and as his research showed it to be. I knew Ted a little; we met many years ago when I was working on agribusiness and this evening I shall try to follow his example and tell the truth as I see it, as best I can and according to the facts. I'd like to divide my talk into three parts: First, since the title is 'The Rise of Illegitimate Authority', it seems useful to make some distinctions concerning what is legitimate and democratic on the one hand and, on the other, illegitimate and undemocratic in government, now often called 'governance'. Second, I'll state my hypothesis: I believe the evidence shows that illegitimate authority is on the rise and that democracy is in serious danger of succumbing to the disease of neoliberal ideology. We can identify the forces that are imposing this ideology throughout the world and demonstrate that more and functions of legitimate government are being assumed by illegitimate, unelected, opaque agents and organisations. In the third part, I want to supply elements of proof and provide several examples that support my argument. The list of examples is ever-growing and could be longer than mine here but I hope to show nonetheless that illegitimate, corporate rule now occupies greater and greater space at every level of government including the international sphere, that it is gravely damaging democracy and that it has an impact on all our countries and all our lives. But first a caveat: I can't give you the full picture for Australia as Ted would have done. Most of my examples will necessarily come from the places where the neoliberal disease has progressed furthest and fastest, which also happen to be the parts of the world I know best: the United States where I was born and raised and the European Union where I've lived for half a century and become a French citizen. Some examples will also come from the international sphere. But I know there are many excellent professors, students and researchers here who are well able to fill in the gaps concerning your country and, on that encouraging note, let's get to the heart of the matter. What is Required for Authority to be Legitimate? This may sound like the introduction to a course called Political Science 101 but we need to agree on definitions. Europeans, Americans and Australians would all, I believe, say that the hallmarks of legitimate authority are free and fair elections, constitutional government, the rule of law and equality before the law; separation of executive, legislative and judicial powers and checks and balances to prevent any one part of government from becoming too powerful. Separation of church and state is an important component coupled with individual freedom of religion. Then we have the never-completed, always expanding list of individual and collective rights and freedoms as first set out in the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen of 1789 and the Bill of Rights of 1791 made up of the first ten Amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America. Freedom of opinion, speech, worship, the press and so on ... all these ideas were once considered revolutionary, as indeed they were. Yet they were far from complete: slavery still existed, women and minorities could not vote or exercise many rights and so on. But the notions of individual rights and governments that guarantee them are part of the movement of the Enlightenment. …
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