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The Crisis of Capitalist Democracy

Pabst, Adrian (2010) The Crisis of Capitalist Democracy. Telos, 2010 (152). pp. 44-67. ISSN 0090-6514. (doi:10.3817/0910152044) (KAR id:37476)

Abstract

Since the onset of Great Recession that was triggered by the credit crunch in August 2007, both academic and public debate in the West has centered on the failure of free-market capitalism and the return of democratic statehood. This essay argues that such and similar accounts of the current crisis ignore the collusion of state and market and the convergence of democracy and capitalism.

The real issue is neither the capture of states by corporations nor that of corporations by states but instead the subordination of society to the centralized state and the unbridled ‘free market’. Closely connected to this is the triumph of capitalist democracy that reinforces the abstraction from locality, community and association which is common to both mass representation and commodification.

In particular, the essay explores the formation of post-democratic ‘market-states’ that absorb the autonomous realm of civil society. In this manner, capitalist democracy undermines resistance to the ideological poles of left and right and the institutional poles of state and market. Thus, the only genuine alternative is to strengthen the intermediary institutions of civil society and to foster the social bonds of reciprocity, mutuality and fraternity.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.3817/0910152044
Subjects: J Political Science > JC Political theory
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Politics and International Relations
Depositing User: Adrian Pabst
Date Deposited: 10 Dec 2013 21:04 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:14 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/37476 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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