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in other words, democracy. The members of the new elite, as many have
pointed out since Christopher Lasch’s book The Revolt of the Elites,
depend only on each other and move within their own communicative
network, which is independent of physical distance and any local
environment. They represent no-one and feel solidarity with no-one.
‘The arenas of their life and the stages of their career develop according
to the inner laws of a world limitlessly broad but carefully concealed
from outsiders.
These changes are concealed by the processes taking place in the
particular local societies. The great losers of these are the middle classes.
The small and mid-size enterprises are destroyed by the unequal
competition and bought up by the international networks that rule the
market. Similar processes occur within the sphere of intellectual as well.
A tiny fraction of scientists, artists, doctors, lawyers, engineers and
media experts acquire a previously unimaginable fame, standing and
wealth and become part of the local and global elite. Meanwhile, the
majority of white-collar occupations lose the majority of their
independence and prestige and become ever more vulnerable to the
business ventures and business attitude (suffice it to mention the well¬
documented changes in the mass media) which swallow up the
intellectual career-paths as well — or less commonly to the aggressively
centralising state bureaucracy, perhaps both. This change does not
necessarily affect their income, but instead the independence, creativity
and social standing of their work and, above all, their social status. But
the middle class or bourgeoisie is not usually defined primarily in
financial terms. The groups that belong here possess sufficient
intellectual and financial independence to influence and exercise control
over the operation of the government. In this respect, globalisation
means not only the decline of the privileged position, independence and
influence of the middle classes, but also that something similar is
happening to governments and even to nation states themselves. As we
have seen, their political room for manoeuvre has in reality become even
more restricted than could be supposed from the limitation of their
sovereignty.
‘The paradox of globalisation is that while the civilisational patterns
that have risen to dominance originate from Western democracy, it is
exactly these changed political conditions which have placed seemingly
insurmountable obstacles in the path of democratic governance. In
economic terms, democracy has actually become a comparative
disadvantage. For a dictatorship does not have to concern itself with the