As far as I can see, the Western democracy is mostly an illusion; the Western countries are ruled by the financial aristocracy. This works as follows: if a problem arises in society, the financial elite, represented by parliamentarians, passes laws to solve it; but these laws simultaneously serve one more purpose—increasing the wealth and power of the elite. In particular, these laws are always aimed at suppressing the small businesses, because small businessmen are less dependent on the power and can overthrow it.

Currently I have two examples, but I apologize for not fact-checking everything thoroughly; I hope somebody here can help me with this:

1) I have seen an interview on Euronews, where it was said that agricultural subsidies in the European Union always help large agricultural holdings more than small farmers;

2) One blogger wrote about how laws aimed to combat global warming (greenhouse gas emission quotas) in New Zealand similarly benefit large agricultural holdings, and lead to ruining of small farmers.

Please comment my examples above and suggest any others.

1 hour ago, Linkey said:

In particular, these laws are always aimed at suppressing the small businesses, because small businessmen are less dependent on the power and can overthrow it.

This is untrue. Parliamentary representatives are unlikely to be elected in the first place unless their manifesto policies can convince a majority of the electorate that they will benefit financially - ie that there will be an acceptable degree of wealth distribution in their favour.

All things being equal, large producers have an intrinsic economic advantage over smaller producers due to economies of scale. Costs are not a linear function of output. The actual degree of proportionality varies a little with with context, but a common rule of thumb is that capital costs scale with output^0.6 for example. Conspiracy is not a prerequisite for this to happen.

3 hours ago, Linkey said:

As far as I can see, the Western democracy is mostly an illusion; the Western countries are ruled by the financial aristocracy. This works as follows: if a problem arises in society, the financial elite, represented by parliamentarians, passes laws to solve it; but these laws simultaneously serve one more purpose—increasing the wealth and power of the elite. In particular, these laws are always aimed at suppressing the small businesses, because small businessmen are less dependent on the power and can overthrow it.

Currently I have two examples, but I apologize for not fact-checking everything thoroughly; I hope somebody here can help me with this:

1) I have seen an interview on Euronews, where it was said that agricultural subsidies in the European Union always help large agricultural holdings more than small farmers;

2) One blogger wrote about how laws aimed to combat global warming (greenhouse gas emission quotas) in New Zealand similarly benefit large agricultural holdings, and lead to ruining of small farmers.

Please comment my examples above and suggest any others.

Those examples, if true, do not indicate democracy is an illusion. Government is always imperfect, like anything else. But in a democracy the people can throw out and replace those that make decisions that are sufficiently bad for a sufficiently large portion of society. Most government policies will make at least some people unhappy, but that's just the reality of life. Under any system of government.

If you claim Western government are ruled by a financial aristocracy you need to say what you mean by that. After all, government finances have to managed if the country is not to go bankrupt. So yeah, governments have pay attention to central bankers, the bond markets and so on. That, again, is just reality in the adult world.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by exchemist