Democracy and Capitalism

This debate ran from 1 December 2006 and has now finished

There are many different, and often conflicting, viewpoints on the relationship between democracy and capitalism, and we hope that you will join the debate on this subject.

Download and read the Democracy and Capitalism booklet available from Friday 1 December.

Some of the main issues include:

What are the connections and conflicts between democracy and capitalism?
What are the linkages given that they frequently appear together?
Are authoritarian capitalist regimes, like that in China, proof that as Lord Daherndorf points out, ‘a capitalist world would not necessarily be a free world’ ?
How should we regard the relationship between capitalism and democracy in an age of globalisation?
Are the necessary conditions for capitalism more likely to be present in democratic societies than non-democratic ones?
Is the most important aspect of this debate the effects of global capitalism, most particularly the sustainability of the world’s resources, the challenges arising from climate change and whether current institutions are up to the task of dealing with these challenges?
How can national and international institutions bring some accountability – and where needed, some control – to the effects of global capitalism?

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Welcome...

Posted by Alex on 01/12/2006 - 09:42

Welcome to the third in the series of online discussions organised as part of the Hansard Society’s Democracy Series project.

The point of this forum is to encourage debate on some of the issues raised in the latest Democracy and Capitalism pamphlet, which analyses the connections and conflicts between democracy and capitalism.

Do you think that authoritarian capitalist regimes, like that in China, prove, as Lord Dahrendorf points out, that ‘a capitalist world would not necessarily be a free world?’ Do democratic societies provide more fertile ground for capitalism than non-democratic ones? And can accountability be exercised over capitalism?

some thoughts on capitalism as the cause of democratic failure

Posted by Paul Cotterill on 05/12/2006 - 10:35

Having read the Democracy and Capitalism brochure and attended the launch event in Manchester, I offer the following comments.

For me, the most important, but understated, sentence in the pamphlet comes from Gerry Stoker:

‘Capitalism is, because of its cultural impact, to some extent responsible for the bind we find ourselves in. Its rampant consumerism is squeezing our capacity for the collective thought and understanding that is central to democracy.’

You do no have to be a raging Marxist going on about alienation in post industrial society, and the victory of image over identity, to acknowledge this link between consumerism and apathy towards democratic processes (it helps, mind). Ralf Dahrendorf, on the other hand, ignores this causal relationship, and does not stop to query whether capitalism, in itself, may be at fault: He states blitgely ‘Desirable as they [capitalism and democracy] as they both are, there is no necessary relationship between them’.

In response to the 'Capitalism and' booklet

Posted by Phil P on 29/12/2006 - 09:58

One of Rea's requirements for successful Capitalism is the requirement of 'respect for property rights'. Yet she fails to acknowledge that it is fear of reprisal that maintains this and not a matter of a mutual or social consent. I get the feeling that Rea has never read Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" and if she has, then she has failed to understand it.

The authors discuss wealth distribution without mentioning the fact that much of that wealth distribution is a hangover from previous episodes of colonialism. Capitalism itself is contructed on poorly made and shifting foundations.

Cable uses poor analogy in his "failed marriage" discussion in that he does not extend it to the point whereby one of the couple has to leave. Begging the following questions...

Forum closed...

Posted by Alex on 16/02/2007 - 11:21

Thank you to all those people who have posted comments in this debate on Democracy and Capitalism.

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