Have western governments become more corporate controlled?
In order to view the videos online at Big Picture TV, you need to install the Macromedia Flash Player 8 (or later) and have Javascript enabled in your browser.
About the video: ‘Have western governments become more corporate controlled?’
Hartmann describes the historic shift towards autocratic governance in Europe and North America. Conservative think-tanks in the USA prompted a shift towards the deregulation of trade and the privatization of public utilities in the 1970s. Only a generation on do we now find that globalized, deregulated trade sidelines the socio-economic needs of regional and local communities. Modern free trade policy all too often favours multi-national corporations at the expense of citizens.
Total views: 1,549
Filmed: San Francisco, USA on 16 October 2005
Credits: Interviewer - Marcus Morrell, Camera and Editor - Marcus Morrell
Copyright © 2006 Big Picture TV
About Thom Hartmann
Thom Hartmann is an educator, radio host and popular political commentator.
He is also an innovator in the fields of psychiatry and education. He founded the New England Salem Children’s Village (1978) and the Hunter School (1997), and has developed award-winning residential treatment and therapy for abused and learning-impaired children. He is also a best-selling author whose books include “Cracking the code”(2007), “Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination” (2008).
Other videos with Thom Hartmann
Thom Hartmann
What does ‘the commons’ mean?
Thom Hartmann describes the concept of the commonwealth as being the notion that certain assets should be publicly owned. The Founding Fathers of the United States understood this.…
Recorded: 16 October 2005
Thom Hartmann
What is the problem with political lobbyists?
Thom Hartmann believes that in recent decades there has been a rise in the power of unelected and unaccountable figures within Western governments. Autocratic forms of government,…
Recorded: 16 October 2005
Thom Hartmann
Are we becoming more consumer than citizen?
Thom Hartmann finds it revealing that in the wake of the terrorist attacks on 9/11, the US President called upon the American people to keep shopping. This underlines the individual’s…
Recorded: 16 October 2005
Thom Hartmann
Are human beings inherently good?
There is one terrible long-held myth that must be challenged. This is the myth that authoritarian hierarchical government is the natural way of things. This can suggest that democracy…
Recorded: 16 October 2005
Related videos
John Cavanagh
Are corporations too powerful?
John Cavanagh gives examples of ways in which global corporations have set the world’s financial institutions – the IMF, World Bank and WTO (formerly GATT). Oil companies…
Recorded: 13 April 2005
John Cavanagh
What impacts has globalization had?
John Cavanagh looks at the history of economic globalization. He believes we are emerging from a “dark age” of the 1980s and 1990s, which saw the rise of what George…
Recorded: 13 April 2005
John Cavanagh
Are there any alternatives to economic globalization?
John Cavanagh examines the arguments that came from corporate globalizers back in 1980s. Their message is no longer convincing. The rules by which corporations and financial institutions…
Recorded: 13 April 2005
Lori Wallach
How free is ‘Free Trade’?
Lori Wallach talks about the unethical nature of multi-lateral trade agreements such as NAFTA and the seventeen agreements enforced by the World Trade Organization (WTO). Many WTO…
Recorded: 13 April 2005
Lori Wallach
What have the effects of ‘Free Trade’ been? (Part One)
In the first part of this two-part series, Lori Wallach explains how the name of free trade was usurped by multinational corporations and right-wing think-tanks in the early 1990s.…
Recorded: 13 April 2005
Lori Wallach
What have the effects of ‘Free Trade’ been? (Part Two)
Lori Wallach discusses the impact of unfair trade rules such as those of NAFTA and the WTO, established in 1994 and 1995 respectively. She gives examples of how biased trade regulations…
Recorded: 13 April 2005
