It has been 20 years since Naomi Klein wrote “No Logo”; one of the most important, and influential books on the impact of corporations on society. But over the past two decades, whatever movements could have potentially addressed this issue, have become distracted and fractured. Until now, no one is talking about democratizing corporate influence; and we need to.
As I have written again and again, corporations are not going away. They have an unparalleled impact on societies, on countries and on communities – and they are ultimately, totalitarian institutions with no public accountability. They do not require the consent of the people whose lives they dominate, and we have no mechanisms for “voting” them out of power.
The emphasis, whenever these issues are discussed, is on trying to reduce or eliminate corporate political influence; but this is a non-starter. The power of corporations is not a new phenomenon, it is just a new manifestation of an age-old phenomenon; the rich have always had power, and the powerful have always been rich; and that is not likely to change.
The advent of political democracy was supposed to mitigate the power of the rich; but they have successfully circumvented that system. Political democracy has little meaning when corporations control the economy, and determine the conditions of the daily lives of the population.
Corporate influence is here to stay; just as power has largely been transferred to the private sector, democracy needs to be transferred – or rather, expanded – to the private sector as well.