Corporatism and its Corruption of Democracy and Education

Education is multifaceted and is influenced by the times in which we live. The bio-politics of our contemporary times regulate individuals’ lives in ways that can make it increasingly difficult to conceive of education and schooling today absent market-based assumptions or to even discuss education and schooling without the use of a market-based vocabulary. The economy is the reigning ideology, and its regulating reach extends to education and schooling. These times are ripe for entrepreneurs, who are taking advantage both locally and globally. In some respects, both education and educational reform manifest the characteristics of commodities—bought and sold, and marketed and exchanged trans-nationally. Though we feel that education can be one of the most noble of human activities, in this article we will focus on the dark underbelly of education and schooling: the commercial business side. We will show how economic ideologies, including commercial interests, market-based agendas, and, by extension, business-like ways of thinking, perceiving, and even valuing, are no longer confined to the financial aspects of schools but have come to take over and to usurp alternative views of education. In short, we will show how business and market-based, surplus-value thinking—what we term corporatism—have corrupted education, and, by extension, democracy