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Structural Adjustment

By Noam Chomsky at Mar 10, 2004

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What can we do about it? Just about everything. The IMF is hardly more than a branch of the Treasury Department. Economist Jagdish Bhagwati, no radical, refers to the IMF- Treasury-Wall St complex that is a core part of de facto world government. The Treasury Department is part of the US government. If we had anything remotely resembling a democratic culture, actions of the government would be under the control of citizens, which would mean that citizens have to at the very least know something about them. And beyond that, we would have mechanisms to engage in political action. And in a more democratic society the third component, Wall St., would not exist in anything remotely like its present form, and what would exist would be under popular democratic control. But any of this requires constructing the basis for democratic participation, which has been very badly eroded in the US, creating what's often called a "democratic deficit" when we refer to others -- in our own case, a huge democratic deficit. People in the more civilized sectors of the world (what we call "the third world," or the "developing countries") often burst out laughing when they witness an election in which the choices are two men from very wealthy families with plenty of clout in the very narrow political system, who went to the same elite university and even joined the same secret society to be socialized into the manners and attitudes of the rulers, and who are able to participate in the election because they have massive funding from highly concentrated sectors of unaccountable power that cast over society the shadow called "politics," as John Dewey put it. But it's up to us whether we want to tolerate this, and if we could begin to approach the level of democracy of, say, Brazil, we could do quite a lot about IMF conditionalities. And it doesn't happen by just showing up once every four years to participate in an "election.

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By Scanlan, Patrick at Dec 23, 2009 09:19 AM

Hello Noam,

I know that this comment is years overdue!  I blame the structure of our State universities for that, left me with no understanding of all the holes that arose from their teachings.  Just this year I found, after searching for a bit, this website and have had a snowball effect of filling in gaps that were just out of my reach during my undergrad, mainly because of lack of dircetion, but also time.  Growing up in 80's/90's America, I realized what your blog above puts so elequently.  This led me to be very disillusioned with our system.  My question to you if you ever go back and find this comment is how can I a 30 year old, only cargiver to a 100% disabled father, recent addition to the civilian workforce, veteran, who is struggling in the ecomonomy to make 25k a year and use that to support two, help??  I not only realize what has been going on and is still happening, but I realize I felt this my whole American branded life.  I have always been at odds with our consuming culture.  Maybe it was my poverish southern upbringing?  I just feel like I am having my brain and sould wasted, just to make sure that two can have necessities like air, shelter, water, food...  I have joined the venus project, but am not sure if I agree with their goal entirely.  Can you give some advice for someone who at 30 is realizing that my whole existence is either being set up as a statistic, or can my perception help to bring the world out of a closed cycle that we have been stuck in since mesopotamia? 

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