The multinationals are a major political force in the world economy and, for the most part, a political force without political accountability. The Chilean episode, although extreme in its characteristics, highlights a much more general set of problems relating to the contradictions that arise when strong authoritarian powers like the multinationals are allowed to exist in democratic states, for they are in a position to make complete nonsense of the democratic process, obliging governments to be more responsive to corporate interests than to those of the people who elected them.