Antitrust and American democracy.

The opening of the Microsoft antitrust trial in Washington, D.C., in October was very good news for democrats of all parties, in a year when politics has rarely attained dignity, let alone importance. There will be plenty to say later, when the dust has settled a bit, about United States v. Microsoft's effect on our daily lives. The connection between antitrust and the defense of democracy is intimate and long-standing, but largely ignored. Not least among the institutions inextricably connected to the American Century of technology is antitrust law.