Neo-feudalism

Democracies are not guaranteed by pieces of paper but created out of a power struggle of the industrial era and reflect the balance of power between industrial bourgeoisie, professional and laboring classes and their factions. In a way, they were a compromise that gave these classes a slice of pie roughly proportional to the power they wield.

As the "new economy" replaced industrialism, democracy has outlived its usefulness, as the power balance has shifted. The top echelons of bourgeoisie have a vastly greater power than the laboring classes, and the political system reflects this balance of power. Democracy as a compromise is being replaced by "electoral autocracies"  that more closely resembles feudalism than industrial capitalism.

"Share economy" represented by Uber and Airbnb is the future. In this economy sharecroppers apply their labor power and tools to lord's property to eek a meager living while the lords get the lion's share of all created wealth. The elements of the political system reflecting this new power balance are already in place - the autocratic state whose main and only function is to protect private property of the oligarchs through any means necessary - deception and propaganda, and if this does not work - through brute military force. 

Street protest in this neo-feudal world order is what peasant rebellions were in feudalism. There were many such rebellions, but all were crushed by the lords' superior organization and military resources. The only way peasants could escape the lords' iron fist was the cities in which industrial economy was growing. Likewise, the only way that the 21st century peasants and sharecroppers can escape the "new economy" oligarchy is to an alternative economic arrangement that is superior to that of the neo-feudal system. 

I am not sure what that alternative economic arrangement is, or even if it will have a chance to be established before the "new" or rather neo-feudal economy will cause a destruction that will move us back to the stone age.   If I were to make a guess, I would bet on a vision outlined by Oskar Lange that combines collective ownership of the means of production with rational distribution system based on market principles.  However, such system cannot emerge without material resources - specifically, people and geographic space in which it can  physically function.  I can imagine a large group of people wanting to escape the neo-feudal world order and having sufficient knowledge to create an alternative.  It is the geographic space where my imagination stops.  An enclave in a world dominated by the neo-feudal or even old fashioned capitalist world order will likely end up as thousands of similar experiments conducted in the past - it will either disappear or be assimilated into the world that surrounds it. 

There must be a different way out of it.

TBC