Category:Political Manipulation

The United States, Canada, and the leading European countries have established organizations that interfere in lesser developed countries around the world under the rubric of "fostering democracy". In reality the purpose of these organizations is to influence the political outcomes in those countries by manipulating the political process on many levels, for example:

• fostering business groups
• assisting political groups/parties that push for a neo-liberal economic/political agenda
• fostering civil society groups, e.g., lawyers' associations
• fostering newspapers or journalists conforming to the manipulator's agenda
• organizing "election monitors" who can either approve/validate elections won by conducive politicians, or to disparage the results of elections favoring politicians hostile to the manipulator's agenda. Exit polling serves the same purpose
• fostering human rights groups that will purportedly monitor the record of government, and use this for political ends.
• fostering academics -- especially economists -- with funding, exchange programs, prizes, etc. (e.g., Chile during the 1970s)

In the case of the US organizations, the NED and its affiliated organizations, many of their activities were previously performed by the CIA/intelligence agencies.

Sources

Two key sources to understand how this type of organization works and their aims see:

• William Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy: Globalization, US Intervention and Hegemony, Cambridge University Press, 1996.
• Naomi Klein, Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, Penguin May 2008.
• Philip Agee, Interview with Dennis Bernstein about the political manipulation in Venezuela.