by Increasingly, however, academics and development practitioners are looking at a less visible and tangible obstacle – the capture of the State by economic and political elites. The extreme concentration of economic and political power reinforces the ability to unduly co-opt, corrupt and divert the democratic process, and influence the role of the State, perpetuating measures that reinforce privilege on the one hand and inequality and exclusion on the other. This elite capture is manifested in the ability to influence public policies, fiscal systems (regressive rather than progressive), and keep wages low (one in six workers with formal employment in the region live in poverty). It also leads to corruption and an erosion of democratic process, principle and institutions. The UN Economic
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Mike Norman considers the following as important: culture of privilege, democracy, Latin America, Neoliberalism, oligarchy, socialism, state capture
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Increasingly, however, academics and development practitioners are looking at a less visible and tangible obstacle – the capture of the State by economic and political elites. The extreme concentration of economic and political power reinforces the ability to unduly co-opt, corrupt and divert the democratic process, and influence the role of the State, perpetuating measures that reinforce privilege on the one hand and inequality and exclusion on the other. This elite capture is manifested in the ability to influence public policies, fiscal systems (regressive rather than progressive), and keep wages low (one in six workers with formal employment in the region live in poverty). It also leads to corruption and an erosion of democratic process, principle and institutions.
The UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) call it “the culture of privilege.” Latinobarometro in its 2017 report “Decline in Democracy”, refers to a ‘democratic diabetes’, an invisible illness that isn´t alarming in itself but slowly kills you. 75% of Latin Americans believe they are governed by an elite that rules for its own benefit.There you have it.
Neoliberalism is a political theory based on elite capture of the state and using the state apparatus to further elite interests. It is a form of oligarchy (rule by a few) called "plutonomy," literally "the rule of wealth." "The culture of privilege" summarizes it aptly in sociological terms as a manifestation of downward causation in a system of networks, with the upper nodes controlling lower nodes.
What about "the failure of socialism"? Socialism was doing fine in the commodity boom, even with elite opposition support from abroad. When that boom ended and the economic situation shifted, elite interest saw a chance to regain control and the result has been destabilization, again with foreign support.
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