preview

Democracy : The Causes Of Capitalism And Democracy

Decent Essays
Open Document

The question of whether democracies create capitalism, or the other way around, I think is too simple and ignores the circumstances in which both are initially created. Historically, it was changes in the economic system and in structures of society, without appropriate simultaneous shifts in the government structure, that created enough tension within societies to warrant a complete reconstruction of governmental institutions. I tend to think that democracy does not have the potential to really exist without there first being some sort of dissatisfaction with how the proletariat and bourgeoisie are being treated under the current economic system and structure of government. Even if the name of changing economics in these non-democratic …show more content…

For example Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Singapore are all successful capitalist countries but none are fully democratic states. Even China has started to become a global economic power as it has become more accepting of capitalism. When considering the impacts of capitalism on a country’s regime type it is important to look at the historical context of how democracies have or have not emerged from nations’ increased capitalist tendencies in the past. Because there was no nation that originated as a democratic one, but rather all of them became democratic through a revolution of some sort or another, the question of who was leading these revolutions and what was the resulting regime type is important. As was illustrated by Potter, the Three Main Routes of Revolution are what can give the most merit to the argument that democracy is a result of general dissatisfaction with the previous regime’s ability to manage the struggles of capitalist tendencies. Potter cites revolutions lead by the bourgeois as most commonly leading to democracies, as was the case in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. Revolutions lead by the elite class of a state lead to more fascist authoritarian regimes, such as Germany and Japan. Revolutions lead by peasants lead to communist authoritarian regimes such as China and Russia. In all of these cases, capitalism lead to a regime change but not all of them were democratic. Thus, the revolutions that are supported by the general people

Get Access