Post-democracy

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The term Post-democracy designates a state conducted by democratic rules, but whose application is progressively limited. The English conservative journalist Peter Oborne presented a documentary of the 2005 general election, arguing that it had become anti-democratic because it targeted a number of floating voters with a narrow agenda.

Basic claim is based on economic and thus also political power of multinational corporations. Corporations and governments are in close relation because states are in need of corporations as great employers which cause enormous cash flow. But a lot of production is outsourced and corporations have almost no difficulties to move to other countries. Therefore as a consequence labor-law is becoming employee unfriendly and tax bites were moved from companies to individuals in order to make better conditions for corporations. Neoliberal doctrine brings state to corporations even closer. To put it in a nutshell neoliberal order is the total rejection of the state as an institution which can service the needs of the people and provide public and social services to the population regardless of wealth, class or creed. Once the state begins to abandon that, these tasks are handed over to private corporations. That allows corporations to influence the decisions of the state like how, where and what to build, what to buy, environmental and labor laws and probably more (that does not premise some word plot, but that certain interest groups influence certain areas).

Definition Tentative

This term appeared to define a running evolution within the democracies during the 21st century.

It is a polemic term because it calls attention to recognised democracies that are losing some of their foundations evolving toward an Aristocratic regime.

A Post-democracy may be characterised with:

• non representative elections
• citizen rights are not respected by the state, or its representatives
• or, impossibility to get balanced debates

Hereby, while thus contradicting pluralist assumptions, it seems to be an accepted presumption, that the common good were something to be determined objectively and that conflicts of interest were not to be handled within democratic processes but instead within administrative proceedings.

See also

Neonormalization

Further reading

• Colin Crouch: Post Democracy, 2004, ISBN 0-7456-3315-3
• Jenny Hocking, Colleen Lewis: Counter-Terrorism and the Post-Democratic State, 2008, ISBN 1-84542-917-6

External links

• (English) On Coping with "Post Democracy"
• (Spanish) La postdemocracia

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