The Politics of Oil
Author | : Robert Engler |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 565 |
Release | : 1969 |
ISBN-10 | : OCLC:1013239070 |
ISBN-13 | : |
Rating | : 4/5 (70 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: This book is a study of the nature of corporate power and its impact upon American political assumptions and institutions. The oil industry, which operates on the frontier of technological knowledge and economic and political organization, serves as the springboard for raising a series of questions about power, purpose, and responsibility in an industrial environment, and especially its impact upon political processes throughout the United States, as well as upon foreign policy and public opinion. The illustration throughout is that a private government controls most of the petroleum resources of the world and the impact of this control not only upon American political life, but even more impelling, on the drift and distortion of democratic society. The documentation in this book shows how the petroleum industry has harnessed public law, governmental machinery, and opinion to ends that directly challenge public rule. In the name of prosperity and technology, the industry has been able to destroy competition and limit abundance. In the name of national interest it has received privileges beyond those accorded to other industries. In the name of national security, oil has influenced and profited from a foreign policy that has supported the chauvinism of a few rather than the generosity to the aspirations of the many in underdeveloped areas. In the name of private enterprise, it has contributed to the attenuation of vital portions of democratic life, from education to civic morality. In the name of representation, it has so entrenched itself within the political processes that it becomes impossible to distinguish public from private actions. In the name of freedom, the oil industry has received substantial immunity from pubic accountability. This study assumes that it is not power that modern democracy needs to fear, but rather its irresponsible use. It is rather the vacuums of public direction and individual commitment that invite personal helplessness, public anarchy, and private rule. -- from Preface and introduction.