Capitalism Is Killing Liberal Democracy
The claim that capitalism goes naturally with liberal democracy has never been more discredited. Today, capitalism’s liberal form is increasingly challenged by a statist authoritarian model — and in many places it’s buckling under the strain.
Electronics factory in Shenzhen, China, October 11, 2005.Steve Jurvetson / Wikimedia
The emergence of capitalism in the ex-Communist countries of Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and China presented a new, unforeseen world to those of us with an alternative future in mind. Economist Branko Milanovic surveys this new world in his book Capitalism, Alone. Milanovic originally hails from Serbia in the former Yugoslavia, which affords him a unique background and vantage point from which to observe the transformation of Eastern Europe and the USSR.
The stock-in-trade of Milanovic, a former chief economist at the World Bank, has been international data on income inequality, as shown in his previous book, Global Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization. In Capitalism, Alone, he ranges well beyond that field to discuss the institutions and market arrangements of the contemporary world economy.
The basic dichotomy in Milanovic’s new world of capitalism is between what he describes as “liberal, meritocratic capitalism” (“LMC”) and “political capitalism” (“PC”). His two archetypes are the United States and the Peoples Republic of China (PRC).
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