WHEN GLOBAL COMPANIES CALL THE SHOTS, WHAT'S LEFT OF DEMOCRACY?

A single global economy and a properly functioning democracy cannot exist together, Dr Bryan Gould told a Wellington audience last night.

Speaking at the annual presentation of the Roger Awards*, Dr Gould - the author of The Democracy Sham and the former Vice-Chancellor of Waikato University - said that a global economy is by definition one in which there is no room for government intervention.

"If governments were able to intervene to create different conditions in different countries, there would no longer be a single global market," Dr Gould said. "Instead, the major transnational companies dictate to elected governments the policies they must pursue. If they do not get their way, international investors simply threaten to take their investment elsewhere."

"If the huge transnational companies are able to call the shots, as they do, there is no room for democracy. The whole point of democracy is that it guarantees the diffusion of power throughout society, to offset what would otherwise be the overwhelming economic power of the hundred or so major conglomerates that dominate the world economy."

"If elected governments can no longer do this, the democracy we think we enjoy is a sham. There is no point in electing governments to protect our interests if the reality is that they must do the bidding of the big players in the global economy."

"Those who proclaim that the market is always right and must never be gainsaid should acknowledge that that position is incompatible with democracy. You can proclaim the infallibility of the market or you can opt for a functioning democracy. You cannot have both."

Dr Gould said that a major political effort would be needed, in conjunction with other countries, if the power of the major transnationals was to be rolled back and democracy was to be re-established in countries like New Zealand and around the globe.

* The Roger Awards are made annually to recognise New Zealand's worst-performing transnational companies.

Bryan Gould
20 March 2007