WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives
Audio archives of spoken word broadcasts from Community Radio WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill (weru.org)
Host: Amy Browne
Engineer: Joel Mann
Issue: Open mic style call in show
Key Discussion Points: LPG tank, Searport, emergency management, East-West Highway, upcoming events, hope vs. despair, corporate power, solutions, getting along with neighbors, NATO, the 99%, fear, love, Fukushima, chemtrails, encouraging more women to call in
Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters
Engineer: Joel Mann
(NOTE: Due to technical difficulties, this audio file is 47 mins long, and the recording starts with the show in progress)
Issue: Participatory Democracy
Key Discussion Points:
a) Do corporations have too much power in politics and government? What is the source of their power? Campaign finance? Lobbying? How does corpororate economic power translate into political power?
b) Do you think free enterprise and democracy go together? Do concerns about corporate power translate into concerns about capitalism as an economic system?
c) Discuss your ideas on what is needed for a healthy democracy to work? Has our own system been healthier at other times? What would be the proper role of corporations and very wealthy individuals? What can ordinary citizens do to make things work better?
Guest:
Robert Monks, shareholder activist, author, and corporate governance adviser, http://www.ragm.com/.
Call In Program: Yes
Executive Producer: Amy Browne
Producer: Marge May
Host: Ann Luther, Co-president, League of Women Voters of Maine
Topic: Part of the on-going monthly “Democracy Forum” series. Today: Corporations and Democracy
Private vs public: what’s appropriate for the public sector, what’s appropriate for the private sector?
What would be the function of government if everything possible were privatized? Why is it important to consider in a democracy? What spheres have been privatized, considered or debated to be privatized? Are there appropriate safeguards and oversight in place to protect against corruption? What are the reform proposals?
Guests:
Paul Verkuil is a litigator, counselor, businessman and scholar. He is Professor of Law at Cardozo Law School, Yeshiva University, and Senior Counsel at the law firm of Boies, Schiller & Flexner. In addition to his current roles, he has served as Dean of the Cardozo and Tulane Law Schools and President of the College of William & Mary. He has written numerous books and articles on public law issues, including his most recent book, Outsourcing Sovereignty: Why Privatization of Government Functions Threatens Democracy and What We Can Do about It. You can read more about his background at the website for BSF LLP or at the website for Cordoza School of Law.
Si Kahn is a singer, songwriter and activist. He is executive director of Grassroots Leadership, where their goal is to put an end to abuses of justice and the public trust by working to abolish for-profit private prisons. Si is the author of the book, The Fox in the Henhouse: How Privatization Threatens Democracy. You can read more about him and his work at www.sikahn.com.
Host: Ann Luther, Co-president, League of Women Voters of Maine
Producer: Marge May
Topic: Democracy Forum—Corporations and Democracy
What is a corporation, and how did it become the dominant form of business organization?
What is the history of the relationship between corporations and government? Did corporations always have both economic and political power? How did corporations come to have some of the same political rights as people? What do you see as the problems with that relationship? Give some examples of how corporations have influenced public policy. Is democracy as a system of government adversely impacted by the current relationship? How would you change things? Why would these changes work? How would we get from where we are to where you would like to be? Can a regulatory regime be sufficient?
Guests:
Robert A. G. Monks is a prominent Maine citizen with a long and illustrious career in business, law, and government service. His most recent book is Corpocracy: How CEOs and the Business Roundtable Hijacked the World’s Greatest Wealth Machine — And How to Get It Back. You can read more about his background at the web site for Lens Governance Advisors, which is the law firm Mr. Monks created to continue his work in holding corporate management accountable to ownership and in improving shareholder value through increasing shareholder involvement: www.lens-inc.com.
Ruth Caplan is the author of the 1990 book, Our Earth, Ourselves, and she is a founding co-chair of the Alliance for Democracy and current co-chair of the Alliance’s Corporate Globalization/Positive Alternatives campaign. She has been working since the early-nineties, in collaboration with other writers and activists, on a plan for an alternative economic system that is socially equitable and environmentally sustainable. You can read more about the Alliance for Democracy at their web site: www.thealliancefordemocracy.org.