Four Supreme Court rulings dismantle organized popular power at every level

Evidence

The first decision permits large corporations to finance elections, the ultimate icon of popular sovereignty in neoliberal democracy. The second eliminates the primary legal means by which consumers or workers band together to fight corporate abuses. The third and fourth join a string of recent laws constricting the capacity of public-sector and private-sector workers to act in concert. Together, these decisions assault every level of organized popular power and collective consciousness in the United States: citizens, consumers, workers. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 302

Categorization

• XREF: The synthesis across citizens, consumers, workers maps onto the three dimensions of countervailing power in democratic corporatism literature (e.g., Wolfgang Streeck). — connects to: Totalitarian rule removes all reliable mediating levels between ruler and ruled — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 917; Diverting popular anger onto secondary targets protects ruling-class power — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2276; Supreme Court unanimity collapsed from near-total to under a quarter of decisions — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 4134

Broader Connections

• Totalitarian rule removes all reliable mediating levels between ruler and ruled #corroborates (0.78) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 917
• Diverting popular anger onto secondary targets protects ruling-class power #expands (0.72) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2276