less top-down control from Brussels, more bottom-up power from local municipalities. Fewer corporates calling the shots, more small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) driving the economy

If we want to save democracy in our country, we must decentralise—urgently.

The concentration of power in the hands of a few mega-funds and international platforms such as the World Economic Forum (WEF) is undermining our sovereignty and liberty. What we are witnessing is no longer free-market capitalism, but a corporatocracy: a system in which unelected elites, through financial giants like BlackRock and Vanguard, set the rules—often under the guise of “public-private partnerships” that substitute genuine democracy with networked corruption.

BlackRock and Vanguard collectively manage over $20 trillion in assets and are simultaneously the largest shareholders in 88% of S&P 500 companies. Competition vanishes. When the same entity owns both Ahold and Jumbo, who still advocates for the consumer? What we get is pseudo-competition: rising prices, falling innovation, and a marketplace that serves capital, not citizens. SMEs—the engine of genuine competition and local economic resilience—are systematically outcompeted, absorbed, or stifled through overregulation and bureaucratic hurdles. COVID policies further exacerbated this imbalance, disproportionately harming smaller businesses.

Then there is politics. In Davos, politicians are welcomed with feel-good narratives of sustainability, health, and digital inclusion. But behind those noble slogans lies a model where public policy is converted into a profit mechanism for multinationals. In practice, public-private partnerships (PPPs) bypass parliamentary oversight, award contracts without competitive tendering, and—most alarmingly—shape policy behind closed doors. The WEF may brand this “stakeholder capitalism,” but in reality, it’s shareholder + civil servant = elite consensus. Politicians are promised top jobs; the citizen is excluded. And thus, so is democracy.

Decentralisation is the only path back to true democracy and functioning capitalism. We must dismantle the monopoly power of mega-funds: introduce legislation capping common ownership in any sector at 5%. Impose a concentration tax on funds exceeding

€1 trillion in assets, and channel the revenues into strengthening SMEs through fiscal relief and legal support. No hollow pledges—real action: low-interest loans for local entrepreneurs, tax incentives for cooperatives and worker-owned enterprises, and backing for local banks that are independent of Wall Street and Frankfurt.

At the same time, democratic oversight must be restored. All PPP agreements must be made public—no confidentiality, no backroom deals. Politicians involved in such arrangements should be barred from joining the private partners involved for at least five years. And any agreements made in Davos on behalf of the Netherlands must be subject to full parliamentary accountability—before and after the fact.

Technology can be an ally here: decentralised finance via blockchain enables citizens to fund local projects directly, without money flowing through BlackRock or Goldman Sachs. Let us deploy these tools—for the people, not against them.

Our society is drifting toward a neo-feudal model, where digital elites reign and citizens are managed more than represented. That must be stopped. The Netherlands has a proud tradition of local autonomy and entrepreneurship. It’s time to rebuild on that foundation. Only by returning power to the grassroots—to citizens, municipalities, and SMEs—can we truly reclaim our democracy. The time for half-measures is over. It’s now or never.

Rob Roos is a distinguished fellow at the Gold Institute for International Strategy, a Washington, DC-based think-and-do tank.