World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

Voting was very heavy in Kenya, and the early returns give the lead to Uhuru Kenyatta.  We won’t know the official results for a while, but there were pockets of violence during the election, but nothing like the violence of 2007.  The heavy turnout was a very encouraging sign since that suggests that most voters were not deterred from voting because of fear.  If these early reports prove to be accurate, then the election will be a stunning success for the people of Kenya.

One of the more disturbing paradoxes to emerge from the process of economic globalization over the last forty years is the rather dramatic increase in the profitability of most corporations and the declining share of income to workers.  The Atlantic has published a number of graphs that demonstrate this paradox, and it seems clear that economic success is relying less and less on the activity of workers.  How long this dichotomy can persist is anyone’s guess:  at some point profits will depend on consumers, and if there are no workers, then there won’t be any consumers.