The Trilateral Commission blamed inflation on democratic demands.

Evidence

Conservatives, who blamed loose monetary policy for rampant inflation, declared democracy to be in crisis. The infamous 1975 report of the Trilateral Commission, a think tank dedicated to promoting co-ordination between elites in the US, Japan, and Europe, provided the canonical statement of this alarmism. Its conclusion, jointly authored by Samuel P. Huntington, Michel Crozier, and Joji Watanuki, read: … Inflation is obviously not a problem which is peculiar to democratic societies, and it may well be the result of causes quite extrinsic to the democratic process. It may, however, be exacerbated by a democratic politics and it is, without doubt, extremely difficult for democratic systems to deal with effectively. The natural tendency of the political demands permitted and encouraged by the dynamics of a democratic system helps governments to deal with the problems of economic recession, particularly unemployment, and it hampers them in dealing effectively with inflation. In the face of the claims of business groups, labor unions, and the beneficiaries of governmental largesse, it becomes difficult if not impossible for democratic governments to curtail spending, increase taxes, and control prices and wages. In this sense, inflation is the economic disease of democracies. — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics, 135

Categorization

• XREF: Huntington’s over-democracy argument is the antidemocratic echo of the reader’s Communication as Culture notes on the bias of communication.