During the last half of the 20th Century, there was a systematic transfer of authority from governments subject to democratic mechanisms to non-governmental or quasi-governmental institutions of private power which are immune to mechanisms of democratic accountability.
Trade agreements, discussed and signed without public participation, and written by corporate lawyers, like the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT), and the drafting of international rules pertaining to the arbitration of trade disputes, have further undermined national democracies and sovereignty.
Institutions like the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization enjoy tremendous authority over state policies, with near dictatorial power; while these institutions are completely insulated from democratic controls.
New governmental institutions were also created, such as the European Parliament, which were designed to circumvent national democracies, marginalizing domestic electorates
Corporations constitute roughly half of the largest economic entities in the world, and they adhere to a strictly totalitarian model of authority, with no democratic participation in decision-making, and no popular accountability. They are increasingly taking over the assets and functions of states.
Authority and power, therefore, is being rapidly transferred into the hands of unaccountable private institutions, populations are being disenfranchised and marginalized; and this trend is symbiotically connected to the elevation o the United States as the world’s only global super power. It is one of the great paradoxes of history that the rise of America has meant the dismantling of democracy wherever it exists in the world, and within the United States itself.