"Palme D'Or" for Mike Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11&

[kandrathe]

...structural control exerted by dominant elites in the United States over media and the economy...

I think the case in America is that control is held by the dominent elites until the masses begin to suffer. Once the economy sours, and massive numbers of the middle class are unemployed the suffering causes political upheavals which shift power to the new "dominent elites" that are at least offering the best plan to alleviate the suffering. When the cattle are well fed, there is less concern and less participation in the democracy. That may be one reason why different groups of the "dominent elites" drag us from one "war" to another, in an attempt to get the population engaged in a "problem" that will unseat the current rulers, and usher in a new regime. Some of it is legitimate as in the entry of the US into WWII, but as history has shown others, like the Gulf of Tonkin incident, are fabricated to create a "cause".

I would argue that in this sense, Germany is more democratic than America because a more diverse spectrum of viewpoints and perspectives are engaged in that country than in your own. With a wider spectrum of ideas comes a wider spectrum of criticism, and so popular ideas are better tested by democratic means.

You are right, I think. America practices representative democracy, which is one step removed from a real democracy. We democratically choose citizens to represent our views and make the laws that govern us, and what is wrong with the system is that these positions are being bought. So, the test of a representative is no longer merely a measure of ideas, but of his campaign war chest.

It's even worse to suppose that neoliberalism is a "logical" conclusion without considering the fact that it is an ideology embedded in a democratic framework, a supposed forum for a "hierarchy of ideas", that is particularly imperfect and one-dimensional (at an official level - just watch CNN, Fox News, or even NBC for the proof in the pudding.) in the North American context.

I can't argue with that. The test of the model in my mind has failed at least once, in that during the last boon, the US government should have taken advantage of the increased coffers to pay down the national debt. They did not which exemplifies the lack of character in our selection of representatives. The media is very focused on what "works", in that they are if effect telling the people what they want to hear ("ratings driven"). That coupled with the fact that they are a part of the corporate machinery, and so their perspective is not objective or sometimes intentionally skewed to attract a particular audience.