The equivalent of the consent of the governed, for corporations, is found in the dollars of the customers.

The big difference under this system, of course, is that at least in the electoral system, flawed as it is, you don't get more votes just because you have more money. The market system is fundamentally skewed so as to give more power to those with more money, at every level - as consumers, and as shareholders.

An electoral system that worked like that would be recogisd as corrupt and anti-democratic. And the truth is that, increasingly, domocratic institutions, based on the principle that everyone shoudl have an equal say in what happens, are being marginalised.

In a sense this has been what we have had all along - rule by those who control the money. But, increasingly, now it isn't even disguised, it's welcomed as the way of the world and the way of the future. In the words of the Nazi anthem "Tomorrow Belongs to Us".

And that is the evil empire staring us in the face.