Systemic Corruption

This important book on political and constitutional philosophy addresses the issue that the majority of modern liberal democracies have become systemically oligarchic or even plutocratic whereby money buys power and influence over the political process. Election campaigns are hugely expensive, especially in the US, requiring millions of dollars ($20 million on average for a Senate seat), much of which comes from corporate sources that expect accommodating policies in return - and even political honours as in the UK. So, as the author points out, 'political power is today de facto oligarchic' and representatives form part of the richest 2% - in the US, the richest 1% currently owns 40% of the country's wealth.

Corruption is a form of political decay whereby liberal democracy can degenerate into liberal oligarchy and then potentially into illiberal oligarchy, which I think reflects our current situation given the predominant metaphors of machines and control. The top people are also sometimes beyond the law; the few dominate the many, who then seek to emancipate themselves. Correspondingly, there are both elitist and plebeian interpretations of constitutional structures from Roman times on. The author explains the systems of Polybius and Cicero, and throughout the book there are diagrams representing various distributions of power and authority. The comparative discussion ranges through the constitutional proposals of Montesquieu, Machiavelli, Condorcet, Rosa Luxemburg and Hannah Arendt, moving in the direction of articulating a democratic counterweight to the power of the executive, the legislators and the judiciary in a mixed constitution that addresses the issue of inequality.

Many of these thinkers encountered huge opposition from the establishment with their emancipatory agenda. For the author, plebeianism is 'an experience of self-emancipation through political action that challenges the established hierarchal order in which plebeians are subordinate subjects.' Her answer is to develop the idea of the 'Tribunate' as an independent and democratic networked body that calls rulers to account in an enforceable fashion – the assembled many as guardians of liberty. She sets out her proposal in detail, addressing the current crisis of political legitimacy within the context of increasing oligarchisation of political power. In order for this to come about, her proposal would have to be espoused by social democratic parties as a constructive way forward. For me, a major omission is the systemic corruption embodied in the operating procedures of the CIA, and which never comes properly to light due to secrecy and its hold on traditional media – see the next review.