Inequality Has Become The Achilles Heel Of Democracy
http://www.businessinsider.com/inequality-has-become-the-achilles-heel-of-democracy-2014-6
***SNIP
Break-up of the peaceful co-existence
During the past 40 years the relationship between democracy and capitalism has radically changed. What Karl Polanyi called socially embedded capitalism became neoliberalism, deregulation, globalisation and financialisation.
The increasing denationalisation of the economy and of political decision-making has progressively weakened the power of democratic elected parliaments in favour of governments and deregulated globalised markets.
MPs play second fiddle to powerful financial CEOs and more often than not to only scarcely legitimated and monitored supranational bodies such as the World Trade Organisation, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank. This power shift accelerated the increase of socioeconomic inequalities within OECD countries.
The absent voters
Alongside this trend, established democracies have witnessed a steady worrying decline of electoral participation. In the US, on average, less than 50% of voters turn out on election day. Only countries with obligatory voting such as Australia have proven to be more resilient against this trend.
The problem, however, is not so much low turnout, but the social selectivity that it implies. The lower the turnout is, the higher the social exclusion. Evidences show that the voters at the lower economic end of the social spectrum are the ones deserting the polls.
Read more:
http://www.businessinsider.com/inequality-has-become-the-achilles-heel-of-democracy-2014-6#ixzz33TyjN9RS