Can Capitalism and Democracy Coexist?

Dr. Sheldon Wolin, an author and a professor of politics, was interviewed to discuss if Capitalism and Democracy coexist. During most of his responses to the questions, he eloquently connected his opinions and political facts with the various political philosophies explained by known philosophers to define the past and current state of American democracy, political participation, and inverted totalitarianism.

Wolin defined inverted totalitarianism as a form of democracy which probably started from 1930’s where a centralize structured government with dominant groups are serving the needs of the superpower, and not representing the overall needs and well-being of the people. He clarifies the difference between classical and inverted totalitarianism. In the classical approach, the dictatorship flows ‘top to down’ hierarchy, and it is made clear that the motive is to dominate and rule. Inverted totalitarianism is just an illusion where despite the free election, open media, and freedom of speech the government is only serving the interest of the elite superpowers.

Wolin explains that inverted totalitarianism is partially due to the state-centered phenomenon. Other institutions like media and corporations are also supporting the political agenda. Politics have been absorbed into non-political institutions like economics, sociology, and religion. All these institutions are eventually benefiting the goals of the superpower.

Capitalism, as Wolin mentions is destructive to democracy. He refers to Max Weber, a philosopher, take on how Capitalism requires a political system that promotes an independent economy to serve feudal aristocrats. Any opposition that can decentralize the autonomy is a threat to Capitalism. To support his argument, he talks about how Cold War promoted Capitalism due to opposition from communist leaders, like Vladimir?Lenin and Joseph?Stalibrn, which provided leverage to Alexander Hamilton?to enforce Capitalism, and encouraged Friedrich Nietzsche notion of elite and masses. All these events promoted the destruction of participatory democracy.

The concept of elite and masses fueled the corporate capitalism’s agenda to gain control of newspapers, radio, television to shape the political atmosphere. Masses are focused on making a living which does not create opportunities for them to participate. As a result, this gives more authority to superpowers to run their agenda.

However, this was not the case with every democratic society. Wolin provides an example of the ?Athenian democracy where the citizens were paid to participate. The citizens were relieved from a certain amount of economic insecurity to engage actively in politics. This type of encouragement is missing in our current times due to the tensions between the economic structures and political institutes of democracy.

After referring to Athenian democracy as a positive example to promote democracy, he talks about how the founders of the United States favored the elite -?educated and those with property enshrined to rule, to manage democracy, while the masses were busy making a living with no time to participate in politics. Thomas Paine, one of the founding father, preferred participatory democracy, but this could not last long due to the needs of the political system and order required by the founders. There were initiatives taken to promote participatory democracy from 30’s onwards by the Democrats, but the Republicans never encouraged this popular movement. Attempts by Freedom Riders to support African Americans, the New Left, President Roosevelt, Alf Landon, Wendell Wilkie and the New Deal all could not establish the foundation of participatory democracy to ensure its longevity.

Wolin explains that the historic democratic systems have not created an example of a linkage between the political and economic order to support and develop democracy. Every leader has furthered the agenda of the superpower. He mentions that in recent times, Clinton and Obama's administrations used the rhetoric to support the agenda of the superpower, instead of taking any drastic measures to change political reforms to promote participatory democracy.

Wolin claims that Capitalism has influenced American education system. The political science departments are now social sciences departments focused on the quantitative projects. 53% of tenured faculty positions indicates that education systems are not focused on exploring new ideas and concepts. Young students do not know how to adjust to changing economic systems and political climates. The education system has not made efforts to make participation in democracy easy, nor there are any genuine platforms for masses to make an impact.

Based on Wolin’s interview it is evident that he does not think that Capitalism and Democracy can coexist. I believe that we need to realize that superpowers supporting Capitalism and playing God will eventually have its unknown consequences. History has shown us that the major empires like Roman, Mughal, and Gaza had fallen due to injustice and inequality in their societies. To define our future, we should learn from our past, which starts by reforming our core education system. People would say that we need another Revolution, but Wolin’s explains that the word Revolution has a‘ lot of baggage’, tied to carnage, violence, and destruction. Therefore, we need to come with a new word, maybe ‘invitation to universal brotherhood’ to identify how we can contribute towards participatory democracy, let go of our biases, change educational reforms that influence our ‘think tank,’ and collectively works towards our social, political and economic stainability.?