Democracy on the Retreat?

With levels of economic uncertainty rising in the European Union, some are predicting that democracy is being threatened by the realities of the world economic crisis. More and more we are seeing private interests lead the way in deciding political issues. One particular example is the S&P downgrading the US credit rating and threatening to do so for 15 EU entities. This sort of power is held privately by companies like the S&P, when it should be in the hands of the people, through their elected leaders. We touched on a lot of these issues in class, particularly the rising economic inequality, but we hadn't extended them to discussing basic democratic rights as a whole. Have we given up our democratic rights by allowing past leaders to put us in such dire straits that current leaders must step outside of their legal bounds to maintain the status quo?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/democracy-is-on-the-retreat-in-europe/2011/12/06/gIQA2CvpaO_story.html