22.2 Booksmx

book reviews not all Hox genes are closely linked; François AFP Jacob and Jacques Monod discovered the operon in Escherichia coli, not Lactobacillus; and so on. Popularizers of science have an obligation to get their facts right, and the quality of this book is impaired by the failure to do so. I Brian Charlesworth is at the Institute for Cell, Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK. .

Corruption and its consequences Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain by George Monbiot Macmillan: 2000. 430 pp. £12.99 Frances Cairncross Whenever government touches companies, there is an opportunity for pressure — and corruption. Whatever you think of George Monbiot’s political views, he writes like an angel. unfortunate inhabitants of the island. the building of houses, hospitals and roads. Whether on the Isle of Skye, observing Rob- The villains here are not the Bank of In essence, it is an elaborate way for the bie the Pict “with a broad ginger beard and America, which apparently owns the com- public sector to get around its own borrow- hands like shovels”, or walking along the pany (although it could do with some ing controls, by getting private companies River Usk, where “an old fisherman, gaunt as public-relations advice here), but the public to do the financing. But, as with all sub- a heron, stalked up the bank”, his book is full servants who signed the initial deal and the terfuges, there is a price to be paid, in of poetic little pictures. Most of them politicians who, having savaged it while in terms of cost and complexity. Monbiot says describe the ordinary people who are the vic- opposition, then lamely backed down when the Private Finance Initiative should be tims of the collusion between government in power. scrapped. He is right. and business that he so deplores. Sometimes, the villains are even closer to The second corrupting contact is the As one of Britain’s best campaigning home. One of Monbiot’s pet hates is the out- granting of planning permission. Monbiot’s authors and environmentalists, Monbiot has of-town superstore. He chronicles the way pages are full of stories of large companies used his powerful pen mainly against the supermarket companies extract planning that sway local politicians to override their corruption of foreign governments in such permission by bribing local councils with voters’ protests. He wants to allow objectors sinister parts of the world as the Amazon, promises of building new homes or sports the right to appeal against developers, as Kenya and Indonesia. Now he is describing centres. Monbiot is eloquent about the mis- developers can appeal against successful what he sees as corruption in Britain: the ery that big stores inflict on farmers and objectors. He’s right again — although a bet- insidious links between government and small shops. Yet is this really about corrup- ter reform might be to simplify the process business which, he believes, is corrupting the tion? Surely, the real problem is that people — by setting out a few universal rules on political process, capturing politicians and desert their local shops and drive out of town height, density and so on — that could not undermining democracy. Corporations, he because of the range of products and low be overridden for particular projects. The seethes, “are seizing powers previously prices the superstores can offer. If they were more open a process is to political interven- invested in government and using them to willing to pay a little more and accept less tion, the greater the scope for abuse. distort public life to suit their own ends”. choice, it would be the superstores, not the For most senior managers of large com- In a powerful paragraph, he announces: local butcher and baker, that would go out of panies, running a business is not about try- “The struggle between people and corpora- business. ing to subvert democracy. Many chief execu- tions will be the defining battle of the twenty- So is there no case to answer? On the con- tives would argue that government is not too first century. If the corporations win, liberal trary; wherever government touches compa- weak but too powerful — too able to inter- democracy will come to an end. The great nies — where it can grant or withhold per- vene and arbitrarily change the rules. social democratic institutions … will be mission, pay a subsidy, allocate a contract — Indeed, the pressures on companies to do toppled.” Scary stuff, and very much in the there is an opportunity for pressure, profit deals with government rarely come from a mood of the 1999 demonstrations against — and corruption. Each transaction puts desire to topple democracy or infiltrate the World Trade Organization in Seattle. temptation in somebody’s way. The solution, government. Most large public companies Yet many of the examples in Monbiot’s clearly, is to reduce such contacts. But no simply want to stay in business, make money book are testimony, not to the wickedness of politician thinks quite that way. After all, the and, above all, sell things to their customers. big companies, but to the abysmal ineptitude opportunities to grant or withhold favours Their customers — which frequently means of bureaucrats and the cynicism of politi- are an aspect of power and privilege that you and me — are the true power behind cians. Take his extremely readable chapter on makes politics worthwhile. But two such the evil empire. If we don’t buy, companies the scandal of the Skye Bridge. The bridge, contacts feature so often in Monbiot’s pages don’t sell. In a democracy, the vote is a which links mainland Scotland with the Isle that they surely call for drastic reform. powerful weapon, but the power of the purse of Skye, was built largely with private money One is the UK Private Finance Initiative. is greater still. I in exchange for the right to levy a ludicrously Not only is this at the heart of the Skye Frances Cairncross is at The Economist, high toll, not just on tourists, but also on the Bridge debacle; it leads to bad decisions on 25 St James Street, London SW1A 1HG, UK.