Pratap Bhanu Mehta: The unfolding contest between democracy and capitalism
Democracy and capitalism have, for good or for ill, often been closely aligned. But this moment in global politics is characterised by the intensification of the tension between the two. This tension provides the new ideological faultline in many contexts. Democracy, as Karl Polanyi argued, had as one its functions, the “self-protection” of society against what he called the “satanic mills” of capitalism.
Can Capitalism and Democracy Coexist?
This protection had to take place on a number of dimensions. First, there had to be a modicum of social justice, as evidenced in the share between labour and capital, for the system to have any legitimacy. In practice, this social justice was achieved through the welfare state, which by ensuring basic goods at least maintained the fig leaf of equality of opportunity. The second was to ensure that the political process was not entirely beholden to monied interests to the point that it could not claim independent legitimacy. Politics could serve as an independent source of legitimacy, only if it was not entirely subservient to the logic of market interests. Governments may rise or fall with economic performance.
But the resilience of democratic authority requires that its fate not be entirely tied to economic outcomes. Third, the self-protection had to ensure that the commodification of social life did not acquire the dimensions where it would lead to a loss of meaning. It also required ensuring that nature of capitalist accumulation was not self undermining. In the case of the environment for instance, it did not lead to outcomes, where capitalisms own promises of a better life were undermined by a degradation of the environment.
Fourth, the state ensured personal liberty as a sign of respect for and trust in the autonomy of persons, as expressed in rule of law. And finally, while economic efficiency promised the satisfaction of private wants and needs, it needed to be supplemented by some account of a common project, a community of fate that tied citizens together in more than just a relationship of convenience. Democracy would allow capitalism to flourish, only if it could be seen to be performing these functions of protecting society to some degree.
It could be argued that at this point in many countries across the world, the “Left-Right” dimension does not quite capture what is at stake in contemporary politics. What is at stake is not just equality of distribution, but the relationship between democracy and capitalism. If you look at the emerging ideological landscape, the issue is not so much between socialists and capitalists. The issue is between those who think that capitalism is the problem, and those who think democracy is the problem. There are those who think that the self-protection functions of democracy stand in the way of capitalism; and there are those who think that capitalism has seriously eroded the self-protection functions of democracy...
read more:
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/democracy-capitalism-donald-trump-us-elections-6272902/
see also
Can Capitalism and Democracy Coexist?
This protection had to take place on a number of dimensions. First, there had to be a modicum of social justice, as evidenced in the share between labour and capital, for the system to have any legitimacy. In practice, this social justice was achieved through the welfare state, which by ensuring basic goods at least maintained the fig leaf of equality of opportunity. The second was to ensure that the political process was not entirely beholden to monied interests to the point that it could not claim independent legitimacy. Politics could serve as an independent source of legitimacy, only if it was not entirely subservient to the logic of market interests. Governments may rise or fall with economic performance.
But the resilience of democratic authority requires that its fate not be entirely tied to economic outcomes. Third, the self-protection had to ensure that the commodification of social life did not acquire the dimensions where it would lead to a loss of meaning. It also required ensuring that nature of capitalist accumulation was not self undermining. In the case of the environment for instance, it did not lead to outcomes, where capitalisms own promises of a better life were undermined by a degradation of the environment.
Fourth, the state ensured personal liberty as a sign of respect for and trust in the autonomy of persons, as expressed in rule of law. And finally, while economic efficiency promised the satisfaction of private wants and needs, it needed to be supplemented by some account of a common project, a community of fate that tied citizens together in more than just a relationship of convenience. Democracy would allow capitalism to flourish, only if it could be seen to be performing these functions of protecting society to some degree.
It could be argued that at this point in many countries across the world, the “Left-Right” dimension does not quite capture what is at stake in contemporary politics. What is at stake is not just equality of distribution, but the relationship between democracy and capitalism. If you look at the emerging ideological landscape, the issue is not so much between socialists and capitalists. The issue is between those who think that capitalism is the problem, and those who think democracy is the problem. There are those who think that the self-protection functions of democracy stand in the way of capitalism; and there are those who think that capitalism has seriously eroded the self-protection functions of democracy...
read more:
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/democracy-capitalism-donald-trump-us-elections-6272902/
see also
