MORE LEVIATHANS IN THE LURE OF MAMMON

The original Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

"Leviathan in the lure of Mammon: limits of political Islam in Turkey" is the title of a recent article on the Open Democracy website by Kerem Oktem - http://www.opendemocracy.net/kerem-oktem/leviathan-in-lure-of-mammon-limits-of-political-islam-in-turkey In this, Oktem uses the context of "Western-style liberal democracy's" apparent increasing loss of appeal to discuss the current political economy of Turkey. However, the article's rather brilliant title, invoking the "Leviathan" of Thomas Hobbes, might also be used to describe the state of global and state capitalism as this manifests in so-called Western-style liberal democracies.

The present controversy around US drugs giant Pfizer's - http://www.pfizer.com - take-over bid for the UK's Astrazeneca - www.astrazeneca.co.uk - seems to illustrate that there are a lot more Leviathans in the lure of Mammon around the world. Indeed this metaphor seems to sum up very well not only the whole dynamic of global capitalism, epitomised in the financial system - much of which in Britain is still state-owned - but also what Oktem describes as "authoritarian power regimes" of the kind that can be found, not only in countries like Turkey, but in the relationship dynamic between the private and public sectors here in the UK.

The relationship between the pharmaceuticals sector and the British National Health Service (NHS) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Health_Service - provides a very good example of this.  As one of the world's largest employers - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_employers - the NHS has always invited comparisons with other public and private sector Leviathans, such as China's People's Liberation Army and US supermarket giant Walmart. However, it is in its more recent role as a commissioning and partnership body for private sector services that the lure of Mammon has really come in to play.

In short, the NHS is not only a global cash cow for the pharmaceuticals sector, both homegrown and international, but the partner of choice for a variety of companies providing a whole range of contract services through the so-called Private Finance Initiative (PFI) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_finance_initiative All this offers the prospect of a potential feeding frenzy of positively Olympian proportions for Leviathans in the lure of Mammon, and it is hardly surprising, therefore, that our esteemed National Health Service should have provided a centrepiece of London 2012's  opening ceremony. Roll on the Great Global Grab!