Name(s):
Misuse of financial and industrial power
Financial and industrial oligarchy
Nature
The control of economic and financial resources by multinational corporations and banks enables them to realize their financial and political aims. Their main means of control have changed from direct use of power to structural power, of which the main aspects are: exploitation; fragmentation; and penetration. Exploitation involves benefiting from interaction. The technique of fragmentation has three facets: the prevention of horizontal economic interaction between dominated countries; the prevention of multilateral interaction among dominated and dominating countries; and the permitting of only a minimum amount of interaction between the dominated country and its environment. Penetration has two aspects: (a) the elites of the dominated countries form a bridgehead through which the elites of dominating countries can spread their influence; and (b) the degree of inequality is considerably higher in the peripheral countries than in the central nations, which facilitates penetration. Multinational banks and corporations have at their disposal several mechanisms for exploiting, fragmenting and penetrating, and at the same time are driving forces in advocating the use of structural power.