A step in the right direction
The US Supreme Court decision on tariffs was good news for democracy
There are moments when the law has to remind governments that they are not kings. Yesterday’s ruling by the US Supreme Court on Trump’s tariff regime was one of those moments. It was not really about tariffs at all. It was about power, and about whether economic decisions can be imposed arbitrarily without democratic consent.
Firstly, economic policy is always political. Tariffs shape supply chains, wages, investment and prices. They determine whether towns thrive or decline. When a leader claims the right to impose tariffs at will, they are claiming the right to redistribute wealth and opportunity without accountability. That is not efficiency. It is about arbitrary authority. The myth that economics is neutral has always served those who wish to avoid scrutiny.
Secondly, the episode reminds us that neoliberalism has long tried to move economic power away from democratic control. Fiscal rules appear when spending on housing, green investment or social security is proposed, yet disappear when banks or defence contractors require support. Trade treaties are negotiated behind closed doors. Tax systems are shaped by those with access. Central banks make choices with little public oversight. Power migrates upwards unless resisted. Trump’s attempt to bypass legal limits was another version of that migration. This time, the court said no.
Thirdly, institutions only protect democracy when people inside them are willing to act. Courts, parliaments, regulators and civil servants are not self-executing. When they fail to insist on legality, executive power expands by default. We have seen that drift in Britain, with parliament sidelined, procurement bent, ministerial codes ignored and oversight weakened. Each step may appear small, but together they erode trust. Yesterday’s decision in the USA was a reminder that resistance is possible.
Fourthly, economic nationalism is returning everywhere. Some of that is necessary. We need resilient supply chains and a green transition. We need active government. But without due process and accountability, industrial policy becomes cronyism. Tariffs reward friends. Subsidies enrich insiders. Procurement becomes patronage. The state then becomes a private prize.
All of this matters.
When economic power escapes democratic control, inequality grows, trust collapses, and anger follows.
People see insiders benefit. They conclude democracy is rigged. That anger feeds the far right, which promises to smash the system while serving wealth even more faithfully.
And why this matters for Britain is obvious. We cannot build a politics of care on arbitrary authority. We cannot rebuild public services or deliver green investment if economic decisions are hidden. A currency-issuing government can always mobilise resources for public purpose, but legitimacy depends on transparency and democratic consent. Without that, even necessary spending is distrusted and opposed.
What is required is straightforward:
- Parliament must oversee trade and industrial policy.
- Lobbying must be transparent.
- Tax justice must end secret deals.
- Courts must be independent.
- Civil servants must be protected when they insist on legality.
- Fiscal rules must be recognised as political choices open to debate.
Above all, we must reject the claim that economics is a technical matter beyond democracy. Economics is about how we live together, how we care for each other, and how we share prosperity.
Legal limits on executive power are not obstacles to growth. They are the foundations of a civilised economy. When institutions insist that no leader is above the law, they protect the conditions in which trust, investment and shared prosperity can exist.
Yesterday, the USA stepped back, a little, from a dangerous path. That deserves recognition. But it also demands that we ask the same questions at home. If we want an economy that works for people rather than power, we must insist on democratic control of economic policy. That is the lesson. That is the task.
Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it; and this I know, my lords, that where laws end, tyranny begins.
William Pitt.
In London there was a toll bar on a bridge across the Thames, and all the working people who lived on the south side of the river had to pay a daily toll of one penny for going and returning from their work. The spectacle of these poor people thus mulcted of so large a proportion of their earnings offended the public con-science, and agitation was set on foot, municipal authorities were roused, and at the cost of the taxpayers, the bridge was freed and the toll removed. All those people who used the bridge were saved sixpence a week, but within a very short time rents on the south side of the river were found to have risen about sixpence a week, or the amount of the toll which had been remitted.