Who Runs The World?

Who really runs the world? Governments? Big corporations such as Oil? Hi Tech? Internet companies?

• Answer:

  Civil Servants, Bureaucrats, interest groups (including corporations), a modest number of political leaders, news and entertainment media, a number of politicians who are sort of randomly in the right place at the (right or wrong) time, sometime ideas and think tanks, and sometimes actual people as voters, economic producers and consumers, and sometime in the streets. Here's an answer that will not be well liked. This means the world is complicated, and the forces are sometimes hidden. Which is exactly what we would expect. This can also be a somewhat uncomfortable answer - no one has 100% or even 80% control.  But it also means there is some control by people, politicians, etc. - which means there is a need to participate in civil society and the world, but you don't always get what you want. This requires mature and responsible action by citizens, which is not always popular and is often a pain in the ass. It is a lot easier to believe in shadowy albino assassins from obscure groups, big money from foreign companies, the "magic of the free market", the "will of the people" and a dozen other fantasies that excuse the ordinary citizen from acting. A large part of most developed country governments runs along the lines of the British TV show "Yes, Minister", with senior civil servants and bureaucrats in control, and the politicians as just decoration. Interest groups, corporations, etc. are well known.  One good recent example: Why didn't the Obama administration push BP (British Petroleum) into bankruptcy and take away their oil assets in Alaska to pay for the Gulf of Mexico clean up?  Turns out that BP stock is heavily owned by UK pension funds, and the killing Bp would produce large shortfalls in many UK pensions, and another massive politcal crisis for the UK.  Since the UK and US are supposed to be BFFs ("special relationship" - we help in each others wars), the Obama administration allowed BP to live. Some political leaders are able to consistently influence events - Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore, Deng Xiaoping, Margret Thatcher, Vladimir Putin, Dick Cheney, Robert Moses, Inacio Lula in Brazil. Some politicians just end up in the right/wrong place and time - Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Dianne Feinstein.  And this means they might be able to do things like pass a Civil Rights bill. A great example of an idea influencing the world is Richard Florida's idea of the "creative class" which is influencing urban planning, real estate development, and social policies around the world, from Asia to even the state of Florida. (Richard lives in Canada, BTW) People in the streets influencing events is widely known, so I will skip this. One area that doesn't get as much attention: the mass efforts of people to do things.  There's a notable example of this with South Korea.  They have had a very fast increase in per capita income in a short period of time while still paying for large military forces.  How did this happen? They didn't find oil or gold, they did it by long years of hard work, now combined with a high level of education - also a product of hard work. Ending an answer be talking about the value of hard work is a real downer, so here's a picture of a puppy -