Oligarchs in Russia and elsewhere. Rule by the powerful and the wealthy few

Politics

Oligarchs in Russia and elsewhere. Rule by the powerful and the wealthy few

Mar 9, 2022

It is hard to imagine that terms such as oligarchical impotence and sado-populism might have value in discussing Australian politics. Image: Pixabay

Australia has its own oligarchs in mining, property, finance, gambling and of course in the media.

One of the core strategies of Western nations in the face of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is to target the oligarchs, to put pressure on the president.

It is uncertain how much impact this will have because Putin is surrounded by the siloviki -or securocrats. This class emerged from the security services and army, some of them becoming oligarchs in their own right, or silovarchs. The older oligarch class from the Yeltsin and early Putin days is kept firmly in its place by these men and their military agenda.

Oligarchs, however, do not only figure in distant lands. It is hard to imagine that terms such as oligarchical impotence and sado-populism might have value in discussing Australian politics. It is critical, however, that we see the Coalition government’s obsession with culture war battles to the exclusion of policy and action for what it is.

Yale historian Timothy Snyder introduced the two concepts into the discussion of Trump’s America and they prove a vital tool in understanding the paralysis of our own federal government. In opposition to a democracy, an oligarchy is the rule by the wealthy few. The regime on that trajectory is not interested in the future or the wellbeing of the populace but only the wealth and power of those with the riches to capture the government.

When the federal government neglected its pandemic roles of quarantine and the purchase of the medical products required to smooth the nation’s path, it made a shambles of the good luck our island status gifted us. Coalition politicians chose instead to snipe at the state governments that did perform their roles, stretching their budgets to breaking point. They hoped to distract from the mess resulting from leaving so much to “can-do capitalism.”

The late introduction of the Jobkeeper program after weeks of petitioning by Labor and the unions was the Keynesian program that did most to protect the economy. Sadly it was sloppily drafted to allow between $27 and $40 billion to be funnelled up to the most profitable companies, money which was not required to be returned to the taxpayer.

Further evidence of the golden handcuffing of our democracy lies in the gas-led recovery devised by Scott Morrison’s fossil-fuel dominated advisory committee; it is proof that the future is of no interest to this government. The Coalition works for the profits that can be extracted from the soon-to-be stranded assets of these big donors. Naturally these new carbon-emitting projects have been accompanied by more taxpayer corporate welfare.

The climate crisis is, however, underway. Catastrophic floods in Brisbane and NSW are met with desperately underfunded emergency services and chaos, just as we saw in the Black Summer fires. The people in the communities around Lismore have been largely abandoned without fresh water or food supplies. It is clear that the federal and NSW governments have little interest in the havoc exacerbated by carbon emission.

With the influence of money drowning good governance, it is hardly surprising that the Coalition has no interest in a strong – or even its own sham – federal anti-corruption commission. Donation reforms and all the other accountability reforms that are so crucial to reinvigorating our democracy would only obstruct their role which is to oblige the donors.

Snyder points out that in solely protecting the wealth and power of the few, oligarchy means impotence. It wants nothing done that might threaten its status quo. Tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit rich men are acceptable. Consolation tax cuts for the lower orders are phased out in the short term once the public’s attention has moved on.

So when the electorate is vaguely shocked that Australians in aged care are suffering from malnutrition and untreated bedsores, no action is to be taken despite inquiries’ findings. Morrison compounded John Howard’s moves making over the aged care sector to the profiteers. Now the shareholder rewards are greater in Australia than anywhere else in the world. This is the aged care conditions the Coalition has designed: our elders farmed for private sector and shareholder profits.

Nurses protest on our streets, a warning that our medical care in the post-pandemic world might be as rationed as it is during the crisis. Why should these essential workers continue to bear our burdens for such stingy pay? A government that cannot be bothered acting to limit the spread of a virus – and to pour money into building a stronger healthcare sector – is leaving underpaid healthcare workers to bear the load for the nation.

Social media is filled with people commenting in horror that the government is distracted from such crises by trivia. That combination is the strategy, however, not a flaw.

To limit the electoral backlash, the government chips away at the pillars of democracy. Corporate media happily parrots their talking points and a recent study has illustrated the Coalition’s relentless attacks on the national broadcaster.

Snyder describes how oligarchies are accompanied by sado-populism. This form of populism doesn’t offer policy that might attract the mass; rather it more often works to hurt it. The shortage and high cost of RATs is a fresh example. Slicing at medicare so that services and medications are removed from cover is a surreptitious way to achieve the chasm between healthcare for the rich and poor that enriches so many in America. We are moving to managed care here, and we should dread it.

The Coalition, like Trump’s Republicans, does not mind harming its base. The administration of suffering creates a “resource of pain, of anxiety and fear” which they direct against others.

A substantial proportion of Trump’s base has proven to the Republicans that they are prepared to suffer if they know that they are doing better than another group, or if they are encouraged to believe that they are indeed better than another group.

Culture war battles like the Religious Freedom bill thus become central to the government’s mission, or targeting trans athletes, rather than addressing crises around the country. Thus the pain is displaced onto vulnerable groups instead of levelled at the government that services the wealthy.

Warren Buffett declared in 2006 that “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” The global class of Ultra High Net Worth Individuals has sucked wealth away from the people in massive amounts since then, and in 2020 alone, our handling of the pandemic gifted the world’s billionaires US3.6 trillion dollars while millions “tumbled out of the middle class”.

Robert Reich noted that “Capitalism is consistent with democracy only if democracy reduces the inequalities, insecurities, joblessness, and poverty that accompany unbridled profit-seeking.” The oligarchs this kleptocratic system is creating in Australia appear to have as little interest in a government that works to perpetuate democracy as the Coalition does.

Scott Morrison, in his 2022 Lowy Institute speech this week declares that we must challenge the “new arc of autocracy” with further arming against challenge to our rules-based order and accountability. It is his own government that most threatens our commitments to both the international and domestic rules-based order, as well as accountability to the electorate.

Australians look set to have the crucial opportunity in May to vote out a government that is in fact quite comfortable with autocratic tendencies, and to vote in a government committed to all the critical changes to protect Australia’s rule of law, diminishing the impact of our oligarch class.