Myth of Equality of Opportunity & Treatment

Greenberg (1990) finds that the American system of government is based on several myths related to equality of opportunity and treatment and on a concept of democracy that is at odds with the reality. What Greenberg sees in this system is a structure that responds to business interests first and foremost. He describes a litany of instances in which occupational issues are decided in favor of business and against workers and cases in which worker safety is compromised because it would be onerous to business interests to comply with the law regarding safety and health. He says that this list of ills in the workplace allows us to

discern the reality of business control of the workplace and of the conditions of daily existence of most Americans; the treatment of citizens of a democratic county as mere factors of production; the vast extent of the economic, political, and social role of concentrated private economic power; the close collaboration of business and governments at all levels in the United States. . . and the unequal distribution of political power. (p. 11)

Greenberg utilizes the concepts of justice and democracy to evaluate the American system and finds the system wanting in these areas.

Greenberg does not find this to be a recent development by any means and challenges the assumption that the Founding Fathers sought to create a system that would embody certain democratic principles of equality under the law. Instead, Greenberg finds that the men who created th

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ongress and the ways in which both view the airwaves as belonging to the people and only leased to television broadcasters on sufferance; yet, the television networks actually limit access. Kellner says this is "a typical example of the contradiction between capitalism and democracy that is central to the American experience" (p. 94). Essentially, Kellner shows that the ideal has been subverted by capitalism itself so that the very success of the networks has made them more limited in the way they serve the public interest. Ideally, for a democracy to thrive there would be a public sphere in which vigorous debate of the issues would be carried on. What has developed in the mass media is a commercial system of broadcasting dedicated to maximizing the audience and profits: "Democracy has thus clearly become subordinate to capitalism in the current system of commercial broadcasting. . . [and] the access of minority, oppositional, or alternative views is denied or limited" (p. 94). Kellner says that as the networks have become more successful, they have taken the position that they owe no duty to provide a forum as a public service or to bring the widest spectrum of opinion into the arena of public debate. To do so would be to j

Category: Government - M