Economic power in democratic politics

[Will Forthman <william.forthman@csun.edu>]

In a market society most desirable things can be purchased.  Those who have great economic means can purchase a great deal.The democratic ideal, however, is that in political power each citizen is the equal of any other.  To the extent that great political power can be purchased, the effective political system  becomes a form of plutocracy rather than democracy.  To a considerable extent this seems to have already happened in the U.S.A.  My interest is whether there is some feasible way of reversing this trend toward plutocracy and asserting the political equality of citizens.