Questioning Democracy

["James Alexander Cunningham" <0203734C@student.gla.ac.uk>]

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Matthew, I think you are mistaken in the way you apply the analogy of meritocracy to business. True, workers are responsible to middle managers who are in turn responsible to senior managers. Senior managers are then responsible to the board of directors. Their members do not have personal bosses. The board is responsible to its shareholders (members of the board also have certain responsibilities to the state, as governed by law). Now if we extend this analogy to the government (or at least the executive) the workers, up to senior managers become civil servants, the armed forces, police and so on. The directors become ministers. Who then are the shareholders? Whoever holds a stake in the state. Pretty much everyone (although you may wish to argue for some kind of property qualification). The responsibilities of the directors to the state could be analogous to treaty obligations international bodies and the constitution of the state. 

So the arguing from the business model leads us to arguing for a directly elected executive (something that we do not have in this country. In theory the executive is appointed by the monarch, in practice they are elected by the legislature.)

X

James    






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