Democracy and Crony Capitalism

The story about the crackdown on the Occupy Wall Street is interesting. Of what I had read these demands were made first by Michael Moore.

The story seems a bit exaggerated, but then it can also be the truth. But there is an interesting point to study in terms of democracy. 'Does democracy exist or is it crony capitalism all the way?'

There would be about 3 steps to see it.  

Step one: Choose 10 countries which have functioning democracy for last 2-3 decades. (This will remove rogue states)

Step two: Establish which of the countries have placed maximum information online regarding level of transparency.

Make a grid column and check how each country fares

(1) On bio and financial info of its elected leaders available to the public

(2) Access to voting patterns of each representative at the democratic forum (Senate, Parliament etc.)

(3) Publicly if it’s possible to establish if the close relatives such as spouse, child, father, mother are related to which companies/conglomerates. Listed companies in India/US have to declare who all are on the board of the company and also about individuals/companies that hold more than 1 per cent of the company. 

Step three: The five countries with highest score on democratic transparency can be studied.

(1) Mark what questions were raised by a peoples representative?
(2) Was the question positive or negative for the company/sector/ business
(3) Establishing if the individual has financial interest to the company/sector/business
(4) Also, how a representative vote on laws affecting sectors of an economy against the individual's financial interest in that sector or on a specific company.

P.S.

1. A friend of mine had done a story in 2008 for Economic Times where he sifted through the question hours of Lok Sabha and came out as which national/regional party had questioned for which company/conglomerate. I don't remember if the questions were marked as positive and negative to check the biasness or not.

2. It seems like a lot of work and there will still be scope for error. (Perhaps using the capabilities of the software written in this article -- Palantir -- should make the work relatively possible.)

3. If you have ideas to improve the way in which one should do the story then feel free to share the ideas or if you come across a similar story do share that as well or if you plan to take up the study then feel free to ask for any assistance 




Continued to 

Rebuttal on Swaminathan A. Aiyar's recent column

Swaminathan Aiyar's latest column was "Gulf Oil: Declining US oil imports could push up Indian expenditure on Navy".

I am too lazy to summarize his points so you wil have to put in the effort of reading there. Sorry.

India's navy expense will go up but it will not be because of US shifting out of Gulf. I don't agree to his reasons. It will go up because of ambitions.

1. Its still a decade to 2020. For the simple idea just open any of such studies that were published in 2001 stating how the world would be in 2011. And check the original figures of 2011. You will get a clear idea of why such studies shouldn't be taken too seriously. One should read them but not make a hypothesis based on them.

2. Aiyer's argument that US will shift out of gulf and make ways for China is also not quite correct. US will muddle in the middle east for two reasons. First it will be there because the 'Israel Lobby' will make sure that US remain in close proximity of the country for emergency support. Second, US had no business in Vietnam and yet it fought the communist. The USofA is too used to playing police and making sure it has strike capabilities all over the world within few hours. And for this goal it will maintain its hold in middle east.

Recently to counter the growing presence of China in South China sea, the USofA decided that it will station marines in Australia. (Link).