We vote. We debate. We argue over politicians like they’re the real decision-makers. But are they really in charge? Or are they just well-dressed puppets, reading from a script written by those with real power?

Behind every election, there are corporations, lobbyists, billionaires, and hidden networks pulling the strings. Policies aren’t always shaped by public interest but by those who fund campaigns, control the media, and influence economies.

The question is: Who truly holds the power? The government? The wealthy elite? Tech giants? Intelligence agencies?

And if politicians are just the face of a system much bigger than them, does voting even matter? Or are we just choosing between different masks of the same machine?

  • davel [he/him]@lemmy.mlEnglish
    51·
    4 days ago

    You really need to specify what state you’re talking about and when. If you’re talking about a capitalist state, then the answer is the capitalist class runs it. If you’re talking about the US specifically, then I’ll recycle my previous answer:

    It’s not wrong to say regulatory capture is a problem, it just doesn’t go far enough. The US government was never not captured by the bourgeoisie, because the US was born of a bourgeois revolution[1]. The wealthy, white, male, land-owning, largely slave-owning Founding Fathers constructed a bourgeois state with “checks and balances” against the “tyranny of the majority”. It was never meant to represent the majority—the working class—and it never has, despite eventually allowing women and non-whites (at least those not disenfranchised by the carceral system) to vote. BBC: [Princeton & Northwestern] Study: US is an oligarchy, not a democracy

    • The Boob Sniffer@lemmy.worldOP
      3·
      4 days ago

      You bring up a critical point, if we’re talking about a capitalist state, it’s hard to deny that the capitalist class holds the reins. The US, as you mentioned, was built on a bourgeois revolution, and the foundational structures, designed by a wealthy, white, land-owning elite, set the stage for the kind of oligarchy we see today. The idea that the system was never intended to represent the working class is key, and it’s something that’s often overlooked. The study you mentioned about the US being an oligarchy rather than a democracy really underscores how deep this issue runs. It’s not just regulatory capture, it’s the very nature of the state being designed to serve the interests of the elite, which we can trace back to its origins.