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"democracy of corporations"? Misnomer much? Demos - means people. Corporations are dead entities - corpses. They have a sort of life, even though they are n

"democracy of corporations"? Misnomer much? Demos - means people. Corporations are dead entities - corpses. They have a sort of life, even though they are not alive. Still, perhaps this is closer to the truth. The people who run corporations, get to decide what those corporations do. The corporations are just a buffer to actual individuals. Also, its worth noting that we do not have (and never have had) democracy. Democracy is where people make the decisions. All the decisions. What we have is a system where we vote in people who represent us - or so it is claimed. They politicians we vote in, re-present us (read 'serve us up') and make decisions on your behalf. PS Wikipedia is hardly a bastion of truth. But you can see a section called 'Corporatist economic system' which indicates (lightly) that corporations were a part of the control system. I would say that these apparent distinctions are a show - especially nowadays. The corporations, governance system and the media (that is apparently holding someone to account, but are really about mis-directing the conversation) are all part of the overall governance structure. PPS In the City of London, things work as you say - corporations are able to vote.

pmontra 5y ago
Yes, it was a misnomer because ironically I didn't have the name for that system and couldn't find it. The (direct) democracy where the people make all the decisions was the original Greek one. However only a few people could vote, adult male citizens. It worked because of the relatively small size (a few tenths of thousands) and physical proximity of the people that could vote. What we have now is representative democracy. About the Corporatist economic system I quote the whole section > The Fascist regime created a corporatist economic system in 1925 with creation of the Palazzo Vidoni Pact, in which the Italian employers' association Confindustria and Fascist trade unions agreed to recognize each other as the sole representatives of Italy's employers and employees, excluding non-Fascist trade unions. The Fascist regime first created a Ministry of Corporations that organized the Italian economy into 22 sectoral corporations, banned workers' strikes and lock-outs and in 1927 created the Charter of Labour, which established workers' rights and duties and created labour tribunals to arbitrate employer-employee disputes. In practice, the sectoral corporations exercised little independence and were largely controlled by the regime, and the employee organizations were rarely led by employees themselves, but instead by appointed Fascist party members. This is what one expects any dictatorship would do: have a say on what corporations do and prevent unions from becoming kind of political parties in contrast with the government. By the way, Confindustria still exists with that name in Italy. It's sometimes simplistically defined as the union of corporations and unsurprisingly the interests of big corporations usually prevail on the interests of small ones.
spaetzleesser 5y ago
“PPS In the City of London, things work as you say - corporations are able to vote.” How does this work?
- mrtksn 5y ago
  City of London is fascinating. They are a corporation that acts like a government within a government and in the elections the residents and businesses have voting rights.

pmontra 5y ago

Yes, it was a misnomer because ironically I didn't have the name for that system and couldn't find it. The (direct) democracy where the people make all the decisions was the original Greek one. However only a few people could vote, adult male citizens. It worked because of the relatively small size (a few tenths of thousands) and physical proximity of the people that could vote. What we have now is representative democracy. About the Corporatist economic system I quote the whole section > The Fascist regime created a corporatist economic system in 1925 with creation of the Palazzo Vidoni Pact, in which the Italian employers' association Confindustria and Fascist trade unions agreed to recognize each other as the sole representatives of Italy's employers and employees, excluding non-Fascist trade unions. The Fascist regime first created a Ministry of Corporations that organized the Italian economy into 22 sectoral corporations, banned workers' strikes and lock-outs and in 1927 created the Charter of Labour, which established workers' rights and duties and created labour tribunals to arbitrate employer-employee disputes. In practice, the sectoral corporations exercised little independence and were largely controlled by the regime, and the employee organizations were rarely led by employees themselves, but instead by appointed Fascist party members. This is what one expects any dictatorship would do: have a say on what corporations do and prevent unions from becoming kind of political parties in contrast with the government. By the way, Confindustria still exists with that name in Italy. It's sometimes simplistically defined as the union of corporations and unsurprisingly the interests of big corporations usually prevail on the interests of small ones.

spaetzleesser 5y ago

“PPS In the City of London, things work as you say - corporations are able to vote.” How does this work?

mrtksn 5y ago
City of London is fascinating. They are a corporation that acts like a government within a government and in the elections the residents and businesses have voting rights.