So-called
‘world leaders’ and members of
the financial elites have long taken it upon
themselves to make decisions for vast portions
of the world’s population. They like
to do this in small meetings conducted out
of public view and therefore immune to critique
-- or even substantive participation -- from
the people who are supposedly being ‘represented’.
Famous examples include the World Economic
Forum, held yearly at a posh resort in Davos,
Switzerland. The meetings of the World Trade
Organization, G8, and other planning bodies
of globalizing capital are also examples of
how the summit mode is used by the forces
that are working to consolidate and intensify
the neoliberal revolution.
The summit model is also being used very effectively, however, by those working in opposition to capitalist globalization. The difference is that where state-capitalist meetings are secretive, authoritarian, and hierarchical, counter-summits such as the World Social Forum and People’s Global Alliance are open, inclusive, and decentralized.