World-News

Our Future
by David Sirota

12/05/08

Back in October, I wrote a column about how the economic pressure to compete against foreign autocracies was pushing our political system to subjugate democracy in favor of a kind of czarism — one justified by the need for quick action in international financial markets. That was the theory behind the bailout legislation giving Henry Paulson czar-ish power to spend taxpayer money as he sees fit: … Paulson was arguing that congressional oversight or the incremental appropriations process … would slow decisions down too much in a fast-moving situation. Mix this czarist impulse with our usual religion of presidentialism and a newfound zeal for a kind of Dear Leader-ism and you have all the ingredients of a political system moving to use an emergency situation to crush its own democratic ideals...

http://tinyurl.com/6zxywu


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



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