“You Call This a Democracy? Who Benefits, Who Pays, and Who Really Decides?”
by Paul Kivel
2004 Apex Press
Paul Kivel exposes the ruling class of the United States and how it operates in this short, easy-to-read book. With simple concepts and cute illustrations, a nuanced class analysis is presented in a very clear and accessible format.
If the education system was any good at all, “You Call This a Democracy?” would be one of the textbooks used in all high schools. It explains what the ruling class is (those with a family income above $373,000 and net financial wealth of at least $2 million), how it controls the government, media, and economy, and the negative effects we all suffer, such as poverty, wars, disease, pollution, over-working, stress, and meaningless, isolated lives. Kivel particularly does a great job exposing how the ruling class uses racism, sexism, homophobia and other social divisions to keep itself, a relatively small group of basically white Protestant men, in power. Making the connections between systems of oppression is one of the keys to the freedom of everybody, and this book helps move that analysis forward.
There a couple criticisms I could make about the book, first that it doesn’t inspire enough hope or provide much of a systematic solution to the problem that it systematically critiques. And secondly that the book can be cumbersome to read because of a fair amount of repetition coupled with too many general statements about segments of the population. To a certain extent, this was unavoidable in a book of this nature, but I could have used more examples of particular corporations, politicians, and businesspeople and their ilk, even though the examples given in the book are all great.
Definitely check this out if you want to have any idea about the country you’re living in, and how you and your family and everyone you care about are being screwed over by the super-wealthy elite. The path to a democratic future starts when we become informed.
The End of Capitalism 
5 comments
Comments feed for this article
April 21, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Freedom Thinker
Haven’t read the book. But if it’s talking about the US though it misses the point in the title alone. The United States was never intended to be a democracy. So, if you think we’re living or meant to be living in a democracy somebodies completely missed the point.
The path to democracy is reckless and full of failures. No enduring nation can be a democracy. If the book suggests we need to move towards a true democracy and says we need to open our doors towards the tyranny of the majority then it is ill informed.
Although I think with many of the laws past that are against the Constitution we have basically moved towards a democracy already. And this is the root of the problem. We have ill educated people that believe we should be a democracy which has created many of our problems today. The solution though isn’t to continue down a path towards democracy but return to our roots as a true republic but I digress and perhaps this book isn’t even talking about America.
April 21, 2009 at 9:22 pm
endofcapitalism
What do you have against democracy? You called it the “root of the problem”? Isn’t oppression the root of the problem?
Or what exactly do you think is “the problem”?
I agree with you that “The United States was never intended to be a democracy.” I think THAT’S the problem. This country was founded by wealthy white men for their own benefit, and by founding it they ensured the genocide of hundreds of Native American cultures on the one hand, and the enslavement of millions of Africans on the other.
Also let’s not forget the the majority of whites in America have been oppressed since its founding, for example white men working as wage-slaves without owning land couldn’t vote, and white women couldn’t vote until 1920…
The facade of elections in this country is pretty far from what I would call “democracy”, but at least in that limited sense by giving every adult the right to vote, would you say this is “the wrong direction”?
Not trying to be accusatory, just confused by your comment.
alex
April 22, 2009 at 11:29 am
Freedom Thinker
A true democracy is tyranny and in history is VERY shortlived. The majority can persecute the minority in a true democracy with their vote. The poor can steel from the rich. The white can oppress the black. The straight can perscute the gay. The religous can attack the non-religious. All they have to be is in the majority. A constitutional republic protects the individual from both the individual and the majority.
The reason slavery fell finally, the reason why debtor prisions fell, and more was because of the constitution NOT in spite of the constitution. Slavery, debtors prisions and that type of thing existed before the constitution.
What do you have against the constitution? Just because it was written by white men some of whom were rich (Jefferson) and some of whom were not (Adams) why does that make it bad? At that logic great things like the Bible, Crime and Punishment, Tolstoy’s works, Shakespeare, etc are all worthless and bad. I don’t see how a persons wealth or skin color has to do with the principles of the Constitution? It hurts my feelings that you would judge me because of my skin color or my bank account that type of hate talk on your part is upsetting. Although it is your right.
As for it being in the white richmans “benefit” they had no benefit if you remember they all thought they’d be hung. They had no military (versus the greatest military at the time). They had no plan (versus the greatest minds of the time). They were farmers, lawyers, writers, etc. It’s not like they profited much from signing the constitution. In fact they were attacked and fought bitter battles, traveled over dangerous sees, were seperated from their familes. What benefit did these rich white men think they had???
What is taking place today is that laws are being passed, politicians, and people (both Democrats and Republicans) are successfully attempting to bypass the Constitution on MANY fronts. They are trying to give the MAJORITY their wishes. It’s starting with attacks on the wealthy by Obama raising taxes. After the rich are placed under the yoke who will be next?
I would say that people supporting politicians, right or left, that turn their back on a constitution is wrong. Everybody should have the right to vote indeed/of course. But politicians shouldn’t be allowed to trample our only protection, in order to give to the majority. Which seems to be what is advocated here. As this seemed to be a review of a book for a plan to move us towards a true form of democracy?
What people are oppressed today? I agree that I am oppressed by the 10s of thousands I pay in taxes but I can also choose to move to a different country if it get’s to oppressive. So at this time (maybe not much longer) I tolerate the oppression of taxes that I’m forced to pay for the protection by our military and safety of our police and right to bear arms. When these go the taxes I pay will be to oppressive or when they rise beyond the benefit (i.e. I can get better protection elsewhere then I’m done). Other then this I’m not aware of any other oppression?
April 25, 2009 at 2:13 am
endofcapitalism
thanks for replying. it seems we have very different viewpoints.
on the one hand i pointed out that the US was founded off genocide and slavery, and your response was to ask what i have against the constitution. that’s not what i was criticizing, let’s not get distracted by arguing about law. i’m talking about social realities.
i’m also confused how you equate criticizing oppression with “hate talk.” if racism exists, and i point out that it’s a problem, how is that hateful? it’s honest. what’s hateful is the institution of racism itself, the fact that 1 out of every 3 young black males is either behind bars or otherwise under supervision of the criminal “justice” system, for example, demonstrates a racist reality which can only be based on hate of black people, especially when most of those were convicted of nonviolent crimes. right?
or how about if we look at sexism, or the institution of patriarchy? you spoke fondly of the US military, but did you know that over 1/3 of all female soldiers report being survivors of sexual assault from their fellow (mostly male) soldiers? can you imagine what it would be like to be in a combat situation and have to be able to trust the people next to you, some of whom may have harassed or even raped you?
this is what I and lots of other people would call “oppression”. it’s based on the hatred of women. again, pointing these injustices out is not hateful, it’s honest.
i agree with you however that taxes are also a form of oppression, especially when that money goes to useless waste, bureaucracy and violence (like the horrible and futile wars in the Mid-East). i agree with you completely that both Republican and Democrat are equally culpable in this trampling of our rights. for example both Bush and Obama perpetuated the same swindle when they give $trillions$ of taxpayer’s dollars to bail out the same banks that created the financial crisis, who are in no way accountable to the public. (by the way we saw that a huge part of that money went straight to executive bonuses! talk about the ruling class!) i think we can both agree this is the wrong direction to take the country!
what is the solution? well, here’s where we seem to disagree. for me the solution is to DEMOCRATIZE the country, in other words take decision-maker power OUT of the hands of the government and the corporate and banking executives that got us into this mess, and give average people like you and me the opportunity to set our own agenda for what happens to our money and society. it’s obvious that if the American public had any say at all, numbskulled decisions like giving Wall Street our money for no reason, or invading Afghanistan, would never happen!
it seems clear to me that on these issues, along with a lot of other important issues from education to health care to the economy, the government is constantly caving in to the WEALTHY FEW at the expense of the rest of us.
you seem concerned that if the majority were in control, there would be tyranny. but you seem to be overlooking the fact that we already live under a far worse tyranny, where a tiny MINORITY of rich ruling elites (again, mostly white men), dominate the politics and economy of our country at the expense of you and me.
isn’t this a lack of democracy?
alex
April 25, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Freedom Thinker
You talk about racism and oppression and then say democratize. This is is just another form of tyranny, which I’d stated.
The majority voted has voted for those congressman and women that wrote unconstitutional laws to give money to Wall Street and the like. What you are wishing for is here. The rich are not ruling anything. The banks are in the pockets of the government, the car companies are there, energy companies are there, and next is to be health care. None of this can be found anywhere in our constitution.
You talk about social realties. I talk about laws. George Washington made it very clear that this nation was to be a “respector of laws” not of men. You are flipping that on it’s head for some reason and refusing to talk laws. Without laws what is there to protect us from people.
Racism and sexism though are not allowed or excused under law. In fact we have laws that go against racism. A black man is not in jail because he is black. He is in jail because he broke a law. Their are in fact laws to protect minorities from discrimination (which shouldn’t be) it should be equality but I digress. Just as there are laws to protect from sexual harrassment. I’m not saying the world is perfect.
But like you point out these are social issues. The laws and constitution are already established.
As for what I found hateful is the bigotry in a concept like…
This country was founded by wealthy white men for their own benefit.
This is the very definition of hate talk. Because some men were wealthy and white they did a bad thing. When in fact what they started was the liberation and end of slavery, equality, freedom of religion, and various other concepts and realities. You have judge what these men done as “bad” not because of what actually happened but because of the color of their skin and the size of their bank accounts.
It’s like Obama when he does his talk say, “The successful are lucky and should pay their fair share.” This is plain and simple…bigotry. A person shouldn’t be oppressed because of the money they have, don’t have, the color of their skin, sexual orientation, religion or ethnic background. You talk about racism and sexism when you yourself have judged based on wealth and skin color. This is what I find hurtful.