TY - CHAP
T1 - Capitalism and Democracy
T2 - Complementarity, Complicity, Conflict, Compatibility
AU - Milstein, Brian
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - In this chapter I review four ways of theorizing the relationship between capitalism and democracy. Classical liberalism has long maintained that capitalism and democracy are complementary—that both mutually reinforce the same demand for freedom or, at the very least, that the freedom democracy requires fits best with a competitive market system. Orthodox Marxists, meanwhile, often held that liberal democracy as a political system is complicit in the maintenance of capitalist domination. Still others have characterized the relationship between capitalism and democracy as one of fundamental conflict, with capitalists fearing takeover by democracy and democrats fearing takeover by capitalism. Finally, there are those who strive to make capitalism and democracy compatible, for example by de-commodifying democratic citizenship or re-politicizing capitalist institutions. In the course of reviewing these perspectives, I will argue that how one conceptualizes the relationship between capitalism and democracy varies greatly with how one defines these two terms, the normative value one places on each, the level of precision one brings to the analysis, and the social ontology one adopts.
AB - In this chapter I review four ways of theorizing the relationship between capitalism and democracy. Classical liberalism has long maintained that capitalism and democracy are complementary—that both mutually reinforce the same demand for freedom or, at the very least, that the freedom democracy requires fits best with a competitive market system. Orthodox Marxists, meanwhile, often held that liberal democracy as a political system is complicit in the maintenance of capitalist domination. Still others have characterized the relationship between capitalism and democracy as one of fundamental conflict, with capitalists fearing takeover by democracy and democrats fearing takeover by capitalism. Finally, there are those who strive to make capitalism and democracy compatible, for example by de-commodifying democratic citizenship or re-politicizing capitalist institutions. In the course of reviewing these perspectives, I will argue that how one conceptualizes the relationship between capitalism and democracy varies greatly with how one defines these two terms, the normative value one places on each, the level of precision one brings to the analysis, and the social ontology one adopts.
KW - Capitalism
KW - Democracy
KW - Liberalism
KW - Marxism
KW - Social ontology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85138188950&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-031-08407-2_2
DO - 10.1007/978-3-031-08407-2_2
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:85138188950
T3 - Philosophy and Politics - Critical Explorations
SP - 9
EP - 33
BT - Philosophy and Politics - Critical Explorations
PB - Springer Science and Business Media B.V.
ER -