SOCA2400 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Liberal Democracy, Economic Democracy, Civil Liberties
SOCA2400
Globalization, Social Justice, and Development
WEEK 8
Capitalism and Democracy: A Love Story?
Myth 6: Economic Liberalization brings about Political Liberalization
- Liberalize economy, liberalize politics. Then, good things will come.
Alternative: Democracy must be extended to the very heart of the economic
sphere
- No, don’t wait until pie is baked. Have equality/democracy already embedded in
process of economic development.
o Don’t make democracy secondary to economic development
o Pursue both at the same time!
o Democracy is about making decisions about material needs. If these are
important, have democracy in process of making economic decisions.
- Don’t limit to just politics.
- Underlying Assumption: Politics is separated by nature from economy.
o Was also adopted by Communism
▪ Separated politics from economy. Completely separated.
▪ Politics ruled by communist party. They determine what to produce,
how to produce, how to share benefits
▪ Collapsed because it was too rigid
▪ Economy is dependent on politics
o Capitalism
▪ Relationship is other way around
▪ Politics dependent on economy
▪ More flexible compared to Communism
▪ When things go wrong, blame state. It’s their job to save the big
corporations.
• Economy uses politics as subservient
• More economic liberalization → Rise of middle class → New values and demand
for property rights, civil rights, human rights, individualism
o Are the fruits distributed properly?
o Economic growth leads to enlargement of middle class
o Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
o China neo-rich
• End of big government → Rise of non-government actors and entrepreneurship
o Make government smaller
o Privatization, economic power taken from government into private
companies
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o Government power is bad
o “Move power to people” but actually corporations
o How will giving power to non-elected coporations bring more democracy
when the government officials are elected?
o Corporations pursue their self-interests
o Democracy also requires collective decision making, represent interest of
majority
o Why not just democratize government more radically?
• New ICTs (info and communication technologies) flourish → Freedom of
information and liberation of knowledge and consciousness in today’s network
society → No more Big Brother!
o More information channels, people can take part in more decision-making
processes
o Cambridge Analytica
• The more economically advanced and free, the more politically democratic.
Some Key Questions
• How does capitalist globalization affect democracy? Would it
empower/disempower people?
• Does the globalization of free market or free trade or neoliberal policies cause
democracy to expand and vice versa?
• Is the globalization of democracy among the main characteristics of today’s
global economic change?
Democracy
• Members of polity (those who take part of politics) determine – collectively,
equally, and without arbitrary imposed constraints – the policies that shape their
destinies
• Paradoxes of democracy
o In 1974, ¾ of all countries were dictatorships
o Today, more than ½ are democracies
o Yet recent efforts to promote democracy have stumbled, and many
democratic governments are faltering
• NOTES
o Representative democracy is not true democracy. Some elected officlas
pursue party ideology.
o Direct democracy has its own limitations
o Autonomous local communities who make own decisions in relation to
other communities – dream
▪ Can combine two systems
▪ Build representative demo from bottom up using representative
democracy mechanism
o We are currently witnessing a movement away from democracy
▪ Means of democracy moves us away from democracy = Elections
• People not friendly to democracy (mostly power hungry) are
being elected
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find more resources at oneclass.com
• Trump – election not rigged anymore when he won
• All sorts of people who manipulate are being put into power
▪ Declining quality
▪ Gains are not being distributed
Quantification of Freedom
• Methods used by Freedom House
o Numerical rating from 1-7 for political rights and civil liberties
o 1 – most free, 7 – least free
o http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom- world-2013/checklist-
questions
• Some gains and declines are not significant to change the category
• Political rights: electoral process, political pluralism and participation, functioning
of government
• Civil liberties checklist
o Freedom of expression and belief
o Associational and organizational rights
o Rule of law
o Personal autonomy
Three Arguments
1. Positive
a. Capitalist globalization helps democracy
b. Globalization → Growth → Size of middle class, promote education and
reduce income inequality → Foster democracy
c. International business → Pressures for peace and political stability
(democracies don’t fight with each other and power circulation is peaceful)
→ Less incentive among leaders to resist democratizations in open
economies
d. Reduces information costs → Increase contacts and strengthens pro-
democracy INGOs → Export values to authoritarian states, more exposure
to the media, diffusion of democratic values
e. Decentralization of power through privatization and shift of power to the
market (inherently democratic) – day to day governance of the economy
f. Market requires enforceable systems of property rights and impartial
judicial systems → Democratic institutions strengthened
g. Other notes
i. Increase in trade → Increase in number of democracies
1. Is there a genuine causal relationship? Or coincidence?
2. Recent elections show more people are getting worried
about impact of free trade on their lives
a. Demand more protectionism
3. Benefits of trade must be more equally shared within and
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Myth 6: economic liberalization brings about political liberalization. Alternative: democracy must be extended to the very heart of the economic sphere. No, don"t wait until pie is baked. Have equality/democracy already embedded in process of economic development: don"t make democracy secondary to economic development, pursue both at the same time, democracy is about making decisions about material needs. If these are important, have democracy in process of making economic decisions. Underlying assumption: politics is separated by nature from economy: was also adopted by communism, separated politics from economy. Completely separated: politics ruled by communist party. Democracy: members of polity (those who take part of politics) determine collectively, equally, and without arbitrary imposed constraints the policies that shape their destinies, paradoxes of democracy. In 1974, of all countries were dictatorships: today, more than are democracies, yet recent efforts to promote democracy have stumbled, and many democratic governments are faltering, notes, representative democracy is not true democracy.