Excerpt from: The Global Financial Community, by Prabhat Patnaik

http://www.monthlyreview.org/mrzine/patnaik220409.html


Marxists, when they speak of ''bourgeois democracy'', are often accused of resorting to hyperbole. ''Democracy'' after all is ''democracy''; why talk of ''bourgeois'' democracy and ''peoples''' democracy? True, one must never pooh-pooh bourgeois democracy, since, of all the possible forms of bourgeois rule, it is the one that gives the people the widest possible scope for organizing themselves into a force of resistance. But the limitations of bourgeois democracy, the sham that the bourgeoisie is forever attempting to reduce it to, are equally palpable. This country is at present engaged in a remarkable electoral exercise, but once the results are out, the jockeying to ensure that the economic levers of the country continue to remain in the hands of the members of the global financial community will be equally intense. It is as if after the people have spoken the real game will begin to ensure that their words count for nothing. Winning elections is not enough; defeating this post-election game acquires even greater significance.

Prabhat Patnaik is an economist at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning in the School of Social Sciences of Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. This article was published by the International Development Economics Associates on 21 April 2009; it is reproduced here for educational purposes