How Corporate Elitism And Greed Are Destroying Democracy

Editor’s Note: Pat Choate has provided EconomyInCrisis with a summary of highlights from his upcoming book “Dangerous Business: The Risks of Globalization for America,” to be released on August 12, 2008. “Dangerous Business” is a wake-up call about the perils of unfettered globalization. It tells how America can remain prosperous, sovereign and secure.

A tiny handful of elites, including many from abroad, control most of the corporations, media, think tanks, law firms, banks, investment groups, courts and other entities that shape U.S. policies. Meanwhile, the United States has become an “unrepresentative democracy,” whose leaders regularly enact laws and regulations opposed by vast majorities of the American people.

The trilateral negotiations among the leaders and governments of Mexico, the United States and Canada work without the people's consent to integrate the economic and political systems of the three nations. Their work is in secret and it is being guided by a handful of business elites. Members of this permanent governing class move effortlessly between public office and these elite organizations.

Many of the elites are lobbyists for the same special interests they regulate while in public office, 331 were presidential appointees from the administrations of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush who left office and registered as domestic or foreign agents as of 2008. Also 120 were former U.S. senators and representatives who left office between 1993-2008 and now work as lobbyists, often for foreign governments and corporations.

President Clinton issued an executive order to impose the toughest federal ethics requirements in U.S. history on his inaugural day in 1993, which he cancelled upon leaving office. In 2001, all of the appointees were freed of those restrictions, continuing the process of political and corporate greed.

Pat Choate is an economist, author of eight books and was the 1996 Vice Presidential running-mate of Ross Perot for the Reform Party. Choate received his PH.D. in economics from the University of Oklahoma. Choate's new book "Dangerous Business: The Risks of Globalization for America" will go on sale August 12, 2008 and pre-orders are available at Amazon.com.

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