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Friday March 29, 2024

The disconnect

By Khalid Bhatti
January 03, 2020

Abraham Lincoln on November 19, 1863 described democratic government as: “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth”. It envisaged a government which protects the interests of the people. Such a government takes care of its people.

This ideal of democracy caught the imagination of millions of people across the globe. It became the popular ideal of a democratic government. People fought and sacrificed to achieve economic, democratic and political rights. The social democratic welfare states in Europe were the result of this struggle.

The elite classes shared their wealth and power with the working masses as they were afraid of losing complete power in the face of the rising strength and power of working class movements. They conceded many concessions to working people to stop the increased influence of the Soviet Union and socialist ideas.

The elite launched a vicious onslaught against the welfare state and the power of the organised working class. They attacked trade unions and reduced their role at the work place. They launched massive privatisation, deregulation and liberalisation of the economy. In the last 30 years, the elite classes have taken back much that they conceded in the 1950s and 1960s.

The neoliberal economic policies of free market, liberalisation and globalisation have increased the economic and political power of the ruling elites internationally in the last three decades. Concentration of wealth and means of production in fewer hands not only created more inequality and class divide but also strengthened the position of the ruling elite in society.

The elite have successfully the ideal of Abraham Lincoln and replaced it with ‘government of the elite, by the people and for the elite’. The ruling classes still go to voters after every four or five years to get a fresh mandate but that changes little for the people. There is a consensus among the elite that austerity cuts and attacks on the welfare state and democratic rights of workers will continue. It has become increasingly difficult to distinguish between different mainstream political parties on the basis of their economic programmes. They use different slogans but with the same meanings.

Their increased power emboldens them to pursue their economic and political interests more aggressively without fear of mass backlash and resistance. The gap between the interests of the ruling elite and the needs and wants of the poor working masses has increased.

The elite have been disconnected from the people and are more interested in their class interests than in the real issues of the working people. A tiny elite controls the mainstream political parties and media through the power of money.

The concentration of wealth and means of production in the hands of this tiny elite has also hampered the use of advancement and innovation in science and technology for the benefit of society. Scientific and technological advancement and innovation has for the first time in human history made it possible to provide basic needs and services to the people.

But the elite are using this innovation and advancement to increase their profits instead of for the benefit of humanity. Their short-sightedness, indifference and lust for money and power has deprived people of basic needs and services.

Many diseases can be cured and wiped out. But people continue to die of them. The reason for that is expensive medical care as well as lack of medical facilities. Modern technologies and techniques in agriculture have made it possible to provide food to every person but millions of people are still hungry. The elite are not interested in public research and services.

This tiny elite controls our lives. It decides our wages and our living and working conditions. And yet they are not ready to accept the simple fact that the flawed policies and exploitative and repressive nature of their economic and social system has created the conditions in which poverty, inequality, exploitation and deprivation have flourished.

For example, in the process of globalisation, capitalist elites outsourced jobs, lowered wages, introduced contract or casual labour, ended job security, weakened trade unions. The result is that profits soared and wealth increased for the elite. But, on the other hand, wages stagnated, real incomes fell and living and working conditions worsened for workers. So it is not surprising that the gap between the rich and the poor widened to unprecedented levels. The elite turned their backs on the people, lost touch with them and lost their trust.

We are seeing increased resistance and anger against elitist policies and politics. The people have shown their discontent and opposition. In response we got Trump, Modi, Johnson and Bolsonaro. This shows the disconnect between the elite and the people.

The writer is a freelance journalist.