David Falkayn explains to Lady Sandra that, on Earth, politicians do not wield much power:
"'They put on a show, but most of the real decisions are made by owners, managers, bureaucrats, union chiefs, people who aren't conspicuous enough to need all that protection or all that secretarial prearrangement of their days... Of course, the politicians think they lead.'" (p. 252)
Some of the politicians will be canny enough to know what is really going down. But who does Falkayn say really does wield power?
owners
managers
bureaucrats
union chiefs
The first three, yes. As long as there are owners, managers and bureaucrats, they will wield power. But union chiefs? Maybe in the Solar Commonwealth. But in Britain in my lifetime the Trade Union Congress and the major trade unions have been disempowered. Is this good or bad? Personally, I want to see workers' self-organization, not union chiefs wielding power alongside owners, managers and bureaucrats.
2 comments:
To wield power in a representative system, you need organization if you're not -individually- powerful.
But organization implies leaders, and it's the leaders who become powerful, not any particular member.
The leaders may need to keep the membership reasonably happy or at least not too unhappy, but it's they who have the power.
The "iron law of oligarchy" as the phrase has it.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And organizations like unions also need to not seem so crassly greedy, lazy, and incompetent that they alienate public support and sympathy. That is what is now going on with the so called teachers unions in the US. Their endless demands for money, masking of students, vaccinations, zoom teaching instead of teaching in person, peddling nonsense like CRT, etc., is eroding support for them.
Happy New Year! Sean
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