Noam Chomsky - Turning the Tide U.S. intervention in

The Challenge Ahead
1. The “Conservative” Counterattack
1.1 Confronting the Threat of Democracy at Home
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
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O
f the various reasons advanced for the unwillingness of the “true
democrats” to take part in the political system in Nicaragua, one
has a ring of credibility: their allegation that the Sandinistas
exerted too much control over domestic institutions for them to have a
fair chance. There is merit in this argument, despite the access to the
public granted them by electoral law and the advantages resulting from
their private power and external support. Correspondingly, there is merit
in the argument that principled critics of public or private state capitalist
institutions are effectively excluded from the political system when
control over the economy and communications is concentrated in the
hands of a small elite of owners and managers with essentially shared
interests, as in the United States. Under these conditions, the bounds of
political action are narrow, even when there is no resort to state violence
to ensure that they are not transgressed.
It has long been understood that democratic forms are of limited
significance (and are therefore quite safe) when isolated individuals
confront systems of concentrated power alone. Meaningful democracy
presupposes the ability of ordinary people to pool their limited resources,
to form and develop ideas and programs, put them on the political
agenda, and act to support them. In the absence of organizational
structures and resources that make this possible, democracy amounts to
the option of choosing among candidates who represent the interests of
one or another group that has an independent power base, generally in
the private economy. The conclusion is all the more valid when central
areas of decision-making are excluded in principle from the domain of