Naomi Klein on how corporate branding has taken over America | Books | The Guardian

Naomi Klein on how corporate branding has taken over America | Books | The Guardian

Great stuff.

Read it all.

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Post Democracy: a Review

Colin Crouch's short and provocative work Post-democracy asks why and then suggests reasons for the departure of historic left-of-centre political parties across Europe from their traditional role of being political voices for those disadvantaged by unrestrained capitalism.

His analysis is rooted in 1) the rise of the global firm 2) the decline in the size of the manual working classes 3) the loss of confidence in the idea of a separate public sector distinct from the interests of business.

The analysis is broad in its scope - Professor Crouch's academic focus includes Europe-wide political behaviour - as well as memorable in its style. Good points are well made throughout the book, a work which has its roots in a number of papers produced for the Fabian Society and The Political Quarterly.

The book's central thesis is persuasively argued: that western nations have passed the historic high point of mass democratic action (which he locates in the mid-twentieth century) and have entered a phase in which many of the outward activities of democracy remain (universal suffrage, elected government, etc.) but in which direct political activity by large numbers of citizens has been replaced with government by elected elites.

This thesis stands in opposition to the idea that democracy in the Internet age is as strong as ever. While the proliferation of special interest groups is a fact of modern political life, Crouch argues that this atomising of the activity of citizens, at the expense of concerted party political action, actually confirms the reality of post-democracy. These individual groups are insufficient in their breadth of focus to achieve significant structural and legal changes to restrain the hegemony of global firms, with their well-resourced access through lobbies to the handles of governmental influence and power.

Commenting on the rise of global businesses run by elite professionals with limited loyalty (and tax obligations) to any specific nation state, Professor Crouch notes that,

"In many respects this resembles the situation in pre-Revolutionary France, where the monarchy and aristocracy were exempt from taxation but monopolized political power, while the middle classes and peasantry paid taxes but had no political rights."

The author's portrayal of the role of central government in the post-democratic age is as frightening as it is recognisable. The "ellipse" of government, which now includes lobby groups allied to large firms as well as public-private partnerships has, says Crouch, resulted in governments which are similar in their structure and nature to the business with which they allied, though paradoxically weaker as they have handed over large areas of activity and expertise to private firms.

Such governments increasingly outsource many of their traditional functions (education, health care, transport) and increasingly see their role as facilitating the operations of businesses within the economy.

Based at the European University Institute in Florence, Crouch cites the Belisconi regime as emblematic of the post-democratic government:

"In the early 1990s....Silvio Berlusconi...rapidly filled the [political] vacuum ... by pooling resources from his extensive network of enterprises ... television channels, a publishing house, a major football club, a financial empire, a leading supermarket chain... Initially, Forza Italia had no members or activists at all as such. Many of the functions normally filled by volunteers were carried out by the employees of Berlusconi's various enterprises.... Forza Italia is an example of a political party that ... is essentially a firm rather than an organisation of the classic party type; it did not emerge from any formulation of interests by social groups, but was a construction built up by parts of the existing political and financial elite."

Rather than being the voice of mass political empowerment, the mass media is portrayed by Professor Crouch as a specific type of global firm. Examples of the effect of the dependence of post-democratic governments upon the mass media abound:

"We have become accustomed to hear politicians not speaking like normal people, but presenting glib and finely honed statements which have a character all of their own."

"Advertising is not a form of rational dialogue... Its aim is not to engage in discussion but to persuade to buy. Adoption of its methods has helped politicians to cope with the problems of communicating to a mass public; but it has not served the cause of democracy itself."

"Promotion of the claimed charismatic qualities of a party leader, and pictures and film footage of his or her person striking appropriate poses, increasingly take the place of debate over issues and conflicting interests."

As a specific example of this trend, Crouch cites "The exceptional Californian gubernatorial election of 2003, when the film actor Arnold Schwarzenegger waged a successful campaign with no policy content."

Accustomed as we are to being told that the public interest is served when business thrives ( a new spin on the maxim that "What's good for General Motors is good for America") , Professor Crouch's book is a well-argued reminder that there are human (and indeed, environmental) interests that are not fully served by such "success" when it is narrowly defined as generating shareholder bonuses and when these successes are achieved by firms exercising disproportionate power over the political process.

The final chapter ("Where do we go from here?") is, in my mind, the weakest part of the book, as it understandably takes a macro view of this question in 20 pages, providing only the broadest of suggestions of how citizens in a post-democratic age could begin to reengage in the political process through discovering their shared identity and interests and expressing them through both political parties and special interest groups.

Overall, this is an important book that, to me at least, had the effect of putting together a number of observable economic and political trends which, until reading it, had appeared to me as separate developments.

At 135 pages, the book is readily digestible and is well referenced for further reading . It also forms part of a series published by Polity which includes such titles as War and Power in the 21st Century, Governing the World Economy and Surveillance after September 11. If the tone and style of these other titles is as good as Post-democracy, then I will have stumbled upon a useful resource.

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Microsoft Offers Money for Using its Search Engine

The poor relation in search engine terms - lying third behind Yahoo and Google - and having failed in its bid to acquire Yahoo, Microsoft is seeking to grow its search business by offering cash back on items purchased from retailers found via Live Search.

The scheme - only available to US residents at present - consists of Microsoft paying cash rebates of 2-30% of the purchase price of items bought when they are searched for through the Microsoft search engine.

With over 700 retailers in the US signed up to the scheme, it will be interesting to see what effect the initiative has on web users' search habits. Searchers will need to register with Microsoft in order to receive the payments, which are credited 60 days after the purchase.

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eBay and Craigslist Slug it Out

They're two quite different animals really.

Ebay - individualistic, profit-driven, capitalist; Craigslist - community based, non-commercial, free to use.

Both can claim to represent the true spirit of the Internet.

It's not surprising, therefore, that there's not a lot of love between the two, expressed in the recent law suit that eBay has filed against Craigslist.

Ebay, who purchased 28% of Craigslist in 2004, is claiming that the free listing site - which operates from over 200 city sites world wide and allows users to post free ads and listings - is diluting its share by not charging for job adverts in more cities. At present, Craigslist only charges for job listings in 11 of its sites - including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Orange County. Analysts agree that Craigslist, which is due to make a profit of $80-100 million this year could be a multi-billion dollar business if it charged on all sites or for all listings.

Craigslsit other owners, Craig Newmark and Jim Buckmaster, have consistently declined the opportunity to place banner ads or other commercial placements on the site. In 2006 Buckmaster told Wall Street analysts that Craigslist has little interest in maximizing profit, instead preferring to help users find cars, apartments, jobs, and dates.

Their laid back business model has also prompted eBay to launch a number of rival free ad sites, paid for by sponsored advertisers. Gumtree is the most well known to British readers, while Kijiji is a similar network of sites for Internet users in Europe, North America and the Pacific Rim.

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Generation P - Which Blog Service Should I Use?

Generation P - the publishing generation - may prove to be the term that sticks as a description of those seeking to maximize the opportunities available on the Internet for producing and promoting original creative content.

I'm planning on posting a number of items about self-publishing, starting with an introduction to the different blog platforms available.

The University of Southern California journalism school has published this useful table comparing the leading blog platforms side by side, enabling you to compare features and costs (if any).

A great place to start the journey in self-publishing.

Also, if you like a particular platform but want a different look to the blog, try blogger templates which provides a range of free templates for your blog.

They're very easy to use:

• preview
• select
• download
• upload to your blog hosting site.

Even I could do it.

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Is This the Future of YouTube and Facebook?

User-generated media has taken a giant step but I'm not sure whether it's forward or backward.

Just when we've all been sitting back enjoying YouTube and its derivatives, ignoring the adverts, along comes an application that will forever change the face of user-generated videos by putting the ads right into the videos themselves.

Overlay TV, currently rolling out its Beta version, enables users (who can subscribe for free) to overlay text, images, graphics and animations onto videos from YouTube and the web's other video upload sites. These overlaid videos can then be embedded into Facebook and other social networking sites.

Overlay has a strong marketing agenda - the site's sample videos show how individual items can be highlighted within a video, enabling viewers to click on them and be shown an embedded store where they can buy the item from a range of affiliates, all while the video conveniently pauses. Like that shirt being worn by Shawne Merriman? Click on it on the video and see how much you can buy it for. Easy.

"Generation P" as Overlay calls its targeted users (that's P for publishers) can and will discover "entirely new business models" through this application.

I'm sure that's true. It certainly takes product placement to a new level of non-sophistication. Having said that, I'm sure we'll all be using it in about six months. Remember where you heard about it! Set up links to Philosopher's Tree all over your videos!

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