Introduction
In the past, political scientists have conducted several studies to determine how political and social systems affect governance and democracy, especially in the United States. One of the areas that the political scientists have been focusing on is corporatism. According to Williamson (2010) , corporatism is a moniker that is used to denote a sociopolitical system that is guided by key interest groups, or organizational groups that are based on similar interests in business, education, farming, culture, labor, military, sponsorship, or scientific orientations. According to Suarez-Villa (2010) , corporatism is ideally founded on the concept of viewing the society as an organic body. Although some people argue that corporatism enhances business and unity, we cannot ignore the fact that the American corporatism has continued to threaten the legitimacy of America’s democracy in various ways. American corporatism has negatively influenced the ideas of free speech, freedom and democracy of the American citizens, and the ability of the government to collect taxes and enhance services that benefit citizens.
How American Corporatism Undermines the Government’s Power and Democracy
One of the areas of democracy that have been affected by corporatism is free speech as protected by the Constitution of the United States. Currently, the Americans are living in what is commonly known as Citizens United period , an era in which the best-selling corporatist ideologies are considered when making national laws. Corporates have already taken over the concept of egalitarianism. In the United States, democracy is defined based on the philosophies that are brought forward by big and powerful companies in the country ( Bell, 2015) . In fact, corporatism has already overhauled the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court. This idea was well experienced in the Rehnquist Court in 2000 when conservative Republicans voted in a manner that changed America’s political system towards the opinions of wealthy corporate owners. As a result, this affected the concept of democracy that the founders of the nation wanted to establish when the United States’ Constitution was endorsed. For a long period, United States has been advocating for democracy in the world by developing foreign policies that influence the political systems of other nations ( Kittelstrom, 2015). However, the citizens of the United States continue to challenge the capacity of their regime to enhance democracy in its internal political system amidst influence from wealthy people in the corporate word. In the Citizens United of 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that the private companies, which do not have a political membership, be accorded the right to enjoy a political free speech just like the American citizens as stated in the First Amendment ( Youn, Century Foundation & Brennan Center for Justice, 2011). In fact, the court stated that the companies have the right to draw unlimited funds from their treasuries and spend such funds disparaging or endorsing their preferred candidates for public office. Although many political leaders felt that this was a great way of enhancing their political careers, many ordinary citizens including civil right authorities felt that this was a great way of destroying democracy in the country ( Dowling & Miller, 2014). Private companies are not political authorities and should not be allowed to participate in the politics of the United States, especially on matters of campaigns and elections.
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In fact, Supreme Court violated the corporate law that emphasizes the need for putting corporate revenues on processes that increase corporate profit. If companies embrace the concept of corporatism and decide to exercise their political free speech rights, the political system is negatively influenced, and the leaders who are elected will act as corporate tools. As a result, this will affect the capacity of the regime to make policies that enhance the lives of the common citizens. If corporatism infiltrates the political system, the laws that will be passed will favor corporate organizations and ignore the wishes of the people in the society. Obama care is one of the important programs that have faced stiff rejection due to corporatism. Despite its value to the low-income families, Koch brothers spend millions of dollars to support Cato Institute, Freedom Works, and Americans for Prosperity, which were all against Obama Care. In fact, Schulman (2014) states that the Koch’s philosophy is based on the strong advocacy for free market and reduction of government spending. The family has been criticizing key government projects by supporting individual responsibility.
Apart from affecting the concept of free speech, corporatism has also influenced the freedom of the citizens by motivating the government to enhance measures that are not friendly to the people. Instead of enhancing freedom, the regime cooperates with local corporations and establishes policies that will benefit these corporations without minding the welfare of the citizens ( Young, 2015) .The influence of the corporatism was well witnessed during Bush administration when the government spent approximately one trillion dollars to ensure that the managers of big corporations remained in the leading position regarding production and marketing. The government has a key role in protecting the small companies and ensuring that all companies adhere to market policies. However, corporatism has influenced this noble role in the past regimes. Instead of supporting the free-market strategy that allows the market to determine leaders and losers, most of the governments believe that large companies such as Bear Stearns, American International Group (AIG), and Citigroup are too big to fail. In fact, the government can take great risks on such companies in the hope that the taxpayers will cover them ( Preston, 2014). Besides, this undermines the power of the government in consumer protection and safeguarding of small companies. Big companies have developed a new idea of lobbying that allows them to avoid harsh corporate measures that are enhanced by the government to protect the welfare of the common citizens. Through corporatism, the American politicians are forced to implement key corporate decisions, and this translates to less attention on matters that satisfy consumer desires. Furthermore, this gives more attention to issues that satisfy the interests of specific groups. Recently, Jonathan Cohn, an American journalist, recommended that the federal government exercises its authority over automobile companies to sack the vice chairman of General Motors for expressing cynicism on the catastrophic impacts of global warming. However, the spirit of corporatism ruled when the congressional Democrats wanted to prohibit the companies from filing litigations against state environmental protocols. In fact, Clements (2014) believes that this is one of the issues that highlighted the concept of corporatism in the United States. Big companies acquire taxpayers’ money as long as any rebellious political view is suppressed. The same trend has been observed in other countries including China and Russia. As a result, the Americans have no any other choice other than to live under the concept of corporatism.
Thirdly, corporatism has affected the power of the federal government to collect taxes that would help improve the lives of the ordinary Americans ( Michelmore, 2012) . Currently, there are many transnational corporations in America that are forcing the federal government to lose untold tax revenues, and this is likely to continue as long as top accounting companies establish rules by substitution. There are over 2900 bilateral investment agreements that are in force and most of them incorporate investor-to-state disagreement resolutions ( Wallock, 2015). This has allowed the transnational corporations to sue the federal government if they believe that the tax actions of the government are forcing them to make less profits or sales. As a result, these tax issues have limited the authority of the federal government. The regime cannot make tax laws that have a direct influence on the corporations, especially big companies that pay huge taxes to the government. The formation of the Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC) acted as the landmark for many corporations to criticize the democracy and power of regimes even in the United States (Freise & Hallmann, 2014). The council was formed with a major purpose of reducing government regulations to empower the private companies. During 2012 environmental symposium that was held in Rio de Janeiro, International chamber of commerce representative was celebrated when she stated that corporations need to take the lead on both local and international issues. According to Boggs (2011) , it is not only the size, great wealth, and strong advocacy that allow corporates to influence democracy in their countries. Professor Ted Wheelwright, a former economics don at the University of Sydney, stated that corporatism is affecting democracy because companies are concentrating on their capability to influence and infiltrate regimes and their capacity to protect their welfares as a genuine global class. As a result, the federal government ought to establish measures that counteract the capacity of the corporations to influence democracy.
Although corporatism has been criticized for undermining the government’s power and democracy, it is also important to note that it has exerted some positive changes in the federal government policies. According to Katz (2015), corporatism has ensured that the federal government establishes measures that support trade in the United States. Through corporatism, several companies have been in a position to unite and advocate for laws that protect the business from negative politics. Corporate lobbying is a concept that was born from the idea of corporatism, and its value at the international scene cannot be underestimated. Through corporatism and corporate lobbying, individual companies and businessmen are seeking a formal mandate in both United States and United Nations climate negotiations. In other words, corporatism allows companies to come together and advocate for their rights at both local and international scene.
Conclusion
Corporatism is one of the important concepts that are affecting many regimes in the current world. As stated above, American corporatism has been undermining the federal government power and democracy in various ways. First, corporatism has influenced the concept of free speech as was witnessed in the case of Citizens United . Secondly, corporatism has influenced the freedom of the Americans by motivating the government to develop measures that are not friendly to the ordinary citizens. Thirdly, corporatism has affected the power of the regime to collect taxes and regulate key corporations. Despite these negative effects, it is important to acknowledge that corporatism has enhanced the business sector by allowing companies to unite and protect themselves from negative political influence.
References
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