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130 | THe Puttosopuy or Eco-Potitics
the above, however, one could also hold the view that selfish growth
that destroys its natural and social environment is but one of the
possible alternatives. It does not arise from the essence of market
economy, but is rather due to a newer development: the concentration
of capital that puts civil society and democracy under strain; the
impenetrable and uncontrollable system of global corporate empires
and financial networks. Globalisation means that the negative feedback
limiting the business interests related to unconditional growth has
effectively vanished from the system. Hitherto the state represented
natural, social and cultural interests (“cost factors”), on the basis of a
mandate from its citizens. Now the roles have changed. The
disintegration of communities and the increased control exercised by
the mass media over publicity leads to the citizens’ inability to influence
or control the actions of the state. The political enterprises (the so-called
parties) that specialised in the appropriation and mining of the
instruments of public power fall under the control of the multinational
corporate interests that finance them or they themselves build up their
own economic empire. But the success or failure of the latter, the
anticapitalist regimes that took control in the post-communist
countries, also depends, like any other enterprise, on the results of the
competition (economic in name, but concerning power in reality) in
the global sphere. Thus, the roles are reversed: the corporate world
dictates to the states and the states ensure that the majority of their
subjects cooperate and even approve of the social, cultural,
environmental and security policy measures in line with “economic”
interests.
However, as previously indicated, these developments liquidate the
market economy itself, in the strict sense of the word — if the market is
taken to mean the spontaneous competition and negotiations of
independent participants with an equal chance in theory, acting
according to rules transparent for all of them. The corporate empires
masquerading as companies behave much more like political
organisations and wield political power. They do not levy tax, but instead
rake in the spoils in the form of profit. In the majority of cases, they do
not take care of the destruction of their opponents themselves, but
instead use the assistance of the state to do so.
Unfortunately, the political left and right have both failed to provide
a faithful description of the changes that have occurred in late modern
industrial society. The left was perhaps hindered in doing so by its
irresistible attraction towards simple answers and the right by its