It is not viable to argue that capitalist
globalization is an anti-democratic force because true democracy, “understood
to prevail when the members of a polity determine collectively, equally and
without arbitrarily imposed constraints”, is a rare element around the globe,
while what is portrayed and accepted as democracy is actually parliamentary, or
representative, democracy and is a mechanical component of capitalism because
it is the most easily manipulated form of government in existence (Scholte,
262). While true democracy is “participatory,
consultative, transparent and publicly accountable”, representative democracy
is a form of governance in which capital influence places voting representatives
and influences policy votes (Scholte. 262).
Since the most industrialized, capital heavy states are not true
democracies, the international organizations which weave the structure of capitalist
globalization in “agencies such as the EU, MERCOSUR, the IMF and the UN” are equivalently
open to the manipulation of capital and political influence and bribery. No other so-called democratic international
organization is more notable for this type of elitist democracy than the United
Nations, which allows the permanent members of the Security Council to cast
vetoes above all other members. How many
times has the U.S. cast their veto to defend human rights violations committed
by Israel against the Palestinians?
There is certainly little democracy in the capital-heavy “Bretton Woods
institutions” where “quota-based weightings have given one quarter of the
member-states control of three-quarters of the votes” (Scholte, 269). The World Bank issues so-called developing
states ‘conditional loans’ to encourage foreign private sector exploitation of
natural resources while the “IMF has developed considerable links with business
groups” (Scholte, 270).
As true democracy would be detrimental
to internal state capitalism and the representative democracy steered by
capital, “a future electronic democracy” where each citizen has a vote on
legislation and policy within the most politically powerful states will never
be voluntarily implemented unless the methods of that democracy are “in private
hands and highly concentrated ownership” (Scholte, 276). As true democracy has never existed within
the most powerful of capitalist states, and these states hold the greatest economic,
technological and military power within the international organizations that solidify
globalization and embrace international representative democracy, the result
will continue to be international inequality guised as smiley-faced democracy.
Scholte, Jan. 2000. Globalization: a
Critical Introduction. London, England: MacMillan.
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