Lindblom - The Market System - Afghan Journalists' Committee

248 What To Make of Itelites to make the wheels of industry turn fast enough tokeep the population employed and political incumbents inoffice.All this gives to the market elite a special voice, a specialprivilege not granted to others in the political system. It appearsin several arenas. In the national arena, it shows upnot only in specific benefits to market elites—tax concessions,for example—but also in the general reluctance of thestate to override market elite objections to broad issues ofpolicy on which entrepreneurs agree. In municipal government,it confers tax relief and other benefits on enterprisesthat otherwise will locate elsewhere or threaten to do so toextract these benefits from the municipal government.Over the globe, the size of some corporations and the consequentjob opportunities and other benefits they offer tosmall nations permit them sometimes to overwhelm theirgovernments by threatening to withdraw or indicating reluctanceto invest. Confronted with a threat by PhilipsElectronics to move one of its many factories to Poland, theDutch minister of economic affairs explained: “I think thisbehavior of Philips is common for corporations that operatein international markets. . . . The only thing a governmentcan do . . . is provide for a maximally attractive place ofbusiness.” One can almost see the minister impotentlywringing his hands.The privileged political position of market elites constitutesa flaw in democracy, a grant of power or influence thatviolates political equality. It also helps to explain why politicalelites tend to join with economic elites in a homogeneousdefense of existing political and market institutions.And that throws more light on why neither political normarket elites in any market society have ever chosen, or evenblundered into an attempt, to abolish the market system.