Corporate power - A challenge facing all democracies

It would be foolish to underestimate how corporate ambition limits the potential of politics to change things.

It would be just as foolish to underestimate the capacity of multinational corporations to steer public policy to protect their interests even if they conflict with the best interests of the majority of citizens in countries where they do business.

This reality, attractive or otherwise, shows how the control of resources — or expressed in another way, the ability to sustain or create employment — can be such a powerful card in the high stakes game of attracting international business to locate in a work-hungry, almost insolvent country without significant natural resources. Of course, they would argue that every society is free to make whatever policy decisions it chooses but it must be prepared to deal with the consequences of those decisions.