Relationship between Corporate Rise in Power and Democracy - Essay Example

Introduction Democracy is the right retained by citizens to make decisions concerning matters that affect their lives. This can be done either directly or through representation. In a true democracy, the people should posses the highest form of power. Laws should be passed by approval from the majority. Leaders should be elected by the people through a fair election. These elections should be conducted by a neutral party that will ensure equality for all. Those in power must not continue ruling without approval from the citizens of the land and laws should be passed only when they represent the people's point of view. A true democracy must acknowledge and respect the fact that every citizen has a basic human right. In this respect, the government must respect a citizen's right to associate freely, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of expression and the freedom to criticize their leaders. Members of a democratic society have the right to know the goings on in their country; they ought to be able to stand for any civic or parliamentary post within their country or vote for a leader of their choice. Such governments must not discriminate women or other groups from participating in government. Citizens have a right to choose whatever political party they prefer and to involve themselves in campaigns .Lastly, the rule of law must apply in a democratic state. This means that no one can take away another's right and be left unpunished. The law keeps powers of government under check and no one should think they are above the law including the head of state. Citizens in a democratic state should not use their powers within their offices to infringe others. Imprisonment, torture or other unfair treatments have no place in democracy (Anderson, 2000) . Corporate power is not a new issue in the world today. There are numerous ways in which corporations demonstrate their far reaching political abilities. Corporations have dominated economies of the world and have the ability to surpass common law to the detriment of the common man. Consequently, the process of democracy has been affected by the influence exerted by these corporations. The relationship between these two aspects is what shall be examined in detail in the next section of the essay. Unlimited power on the part of corporations also causes a huge impact on the social and environmental aspects of people's lives. (Anderson, 2000) Democracy and the rise of corporate power Decision making ability The rise of corporate power has transferred the right to make decisions from citizen's lives to big time corporations thus demeaning the major principles of a true democracy. This type of influence enables corporations to make decisions about what technology a country should adopt and what kind of production should be adopted within a certain country. Corporations use their power to determine the kind of methods used for production. Because these large corporations market, employ and deal with majority of the country's population, they cause a large effect on them. Corporate influence surpasses the law because corporations are regarded as private entities in most countries of the world. In this sense therefore, they cannot be questioned when they make their choices. Corporations also participate in politics. They do so by lobbying and giving politicians treats such as a dinner or luncheons. In such cases, they have direct influence in the way things are done Political contributions Corporations have been known to participate in political processes through the monetary contributions which they have made. A research done by the Institute for Policy Studies in the year 2000 showed that there are about eighty two companies that made contributions in the United States during their last election. The sum total of money contributed by these corporations was about thirty three million dollars. This was the largest contribution made by any entity in the election. Compared to the next highest contributor in the elections; Labor Unions, Corporations exceeded the first runners up by a ratio of fifteen to one. This is a large determinant on who governs the country. The shape of politics in the US favors candidates who are financially stable. This is because they will have the ability to do campaigns, advertisements and other activities related to their election pledge. This was supported by the fact that research done by this same company showed that senators and other representatives who secured contributions from corporations qualified to parliament. It was found that ninety four percent of those individuals were elected. In light of the latter mentioned facts, corporations can impose a ruler who they want by contributing to their campaigns thus demeaning the definition of democracy. (Anderson, 2000) Lobbying Corporations affect the way political systems are directed by engaging in lobbying activities. They do so by establishing relationships with government groups. It was found that there are close to ninety four companies in the United States that have offices dealing with government relations and are located in Washington DC near other political entities of the country. (Anderson, 2000) International trade and agreements In the United States, negotiations for trade agreements are made by the United States Trade Representative Inc. (USTR). Its decisions are supposed to represent the interests and views of the general American population. Unfortunately, this has not been happening. The body considers trade agreements that affect only industries in the US and not its people. Its decisions are strongly influenced by corporations. This largely due to the fact that the body has an advisory committee whose membership is mostly from the corporate world. There are a number of corporations that have participated in talks involving the USTR. For example, in the year 2001, IBM and AT & T participated in talks concerning e-commerce in the Americas. It is obvious that these corporations only safeguard their interests in these meetings and forget the needs of the common man. From this, we can deduce that corporate power impedes democracy. Lack of transparency Corporate influence is exhibited by corporation's lack of transparency. Most firms do not display information about themselves to the public. This is largely due to the fact that they may have some things to hide. Countries like France have tried their best to cause corporations to become transparent but this has not been achieved. Instead, the public is left second guessing on a number of issues that affect them directly. These include: Wage rates in their facilities Amount of toxic emissions Number of layoffs and reasons for those layoffs Employees found in their locations Locations of all facilities including those found outside the country. It is very difficult to analyze or even to obtain information about companies yet these companies affect how the public goes about its daily life. Employment and sales Corporations in the US and in France have lobbied for a number of reductions in trade barriers. In return, these corporations must be socially responsible by giving back to the communities that made them what they are today. However, this has not been the case. The numbers of employments do not relate to sales received by these large corporations. Thus putting power and control in the hands of a few and infringing the rights of the majority-this hampers democracy. In the year 1999, some of the biggest corporations in the world employed about 0.78% of workers in the world. Yet these same companies had increases in sale by close to thirty percent. There is an increasing slit between what companies are making and how many people they are employing. There are a number of reasons that can be used to explain this phenomenon. (Anderson, 2000) The first is the fact that there are technological advancements all the time. Corporations now require fewer workers, meaning that less people can involve themselves in activities that contribute to their economy. In addition, there are a number of corporations that engage in outsourcing. This means that these firms leave their production needs to contractors. In so doing, they will not have to be answerable for engaging in unlawful behavior and abuse of labor rights. Besides this, companies are also able to minimize the amount of money spent on labor costs. Corporations in the United States have been at the front position of this development. They have been known for dismissing and recruiting different contractors depending on their shifting system. Examples of these corporations include: Hewlett Packard that contracts ten different companies, IBM also delegates its production process to eight other contractors. These are all corporations located in the United States. The result of such activities is that numerous workers are unemployed. The problem with this is that it lowers their purchasing power and can cause social instability. These are all qualities of a retarded democracy. (Anderson, 2000) Lastly, there are a number of corporations that employ hordes of workers but these same corporations do not cater for their employees in the proper way. A good example of such a corporation is Wal-Mart found in the US. This is the largest retail chain in the country and has close to one and a half million workers under its name. But the problem with them is that they employ most of their workers on a part time basis. This means that they can avoid payments of benefits since they are not full time employees. Also, most of their workers do not belong to Unions thus making it quite hard for them to fight for their rights. The company was once accused of dismissing a whole department after a store had announced its intentions of joining a Union. This heavily undermined the rights of these workers yet they had not done anything unlawful. They took away their jobs without sound explanation. Because democracy means giving citizens the rights to make decisions that affect their lives, these corporations have undermined these rights thus demeaning democracy. (Anderson, 2000) Conclusion Corporations are becoming more and more powerful as days go by. Policies within countries tend to favor these corporations and leave out the common man. There are a number of economic impacts that have come about as a result of rising corporate power. These economic impacts have now been transformed by corporations to give them political influence. In doing so, democracy is diluted. This threat needs to be addressed by countries involved. Reference: Anderson, S. et al (2000): the rise of global corporate power; a journal by the Institute of Policy Studies Read More