ABSTRACT
POWERFUL corporate interests in contemporary America reign su- preme. Despite the U.S. system of citizen ownership, citizens are far distanced from citizen control. Ironically, of the 100% of the Americans who “own” immense resources, very few know how their possessions are managed; among these are federal lands, totaling one third of America, and the airwaves. Moreover, even those fortunate enough to have a stake in the trillions of dollars vested in pension funds, savings, insurance equities, and stocks do not control any of them. Corporations do (Nader, 1992). An elite 1% owns more than 90% of the rest of Americans combined (Brown, Flavin, & Kane, 1992; Dentzer, 1992; Fisher, 1992). As Nader (1992) argues, “Democracies do not thrive unattended. They are diminished by plutocracy and oligarchy, by political betrayals that feed public frustration and lead to resignation and then fatalism” (p. 653). His remedy is public citizenship: timely information, the technology to communicate with one another, and then mobilization for action and results.
