Democracy : The Causes Of Capitalism And Democracy

Our world today is more capitalist than democratic. The earliest economies were based on trade of material, pastoral, agricultural to postindustrial, then boom

“How Capitalism is killing Democracy” is a paper written by Robert Reich to present that although capitalism prevails in more areas of the world, Democracy has not taken hold as promised. Democracy is a very difficult concept to verbalize and define. In our other readings, we saw Becker define Democracy as “a government where the source of political authority is with and remains with the people.” Becker also wrote that the definition of democracy is capable of distortion as to include most government types. We see evidence of this while reading the paper from Reich. Reich has some socialist viewpoints and when he sees a government not meeting a perceived need of the people, he passes this off as a shortcoming of democracy. Reich wrote “runaway economics gets in the way of

Winston Churchill once remarked that “democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried”. In agreement with his statement, this paper will examine the problems of democratic governments using specific examples, and compare it to the failure of fascist governments in Nazi Germany and Italy and communist governments in the Soviet Union and China.

We know that democracies are common among the economically urbanized countries and rare between the very deprived ones. The reason we scrutinize this pattern is not that democracies are more probable to emerge, as a result, of economic development but that they are to a large extent more possible to survive if they occur to emerge in most urbanized countries. The paths to democracy are diverse. Indeed, they appear to follow no unsurprising pattern. But once democracy is conventional, for whatever reasons, its endurance depends on a few, easily particular, factors.

Throughout history, countries around the world have demanded political change. Most of these changes have resulted in a step in the direction of democracy. However, the sustainability of a new democratic regime depends on how strong the foundations of the democratic institutions are. France and Russia are two of the most notable states that sought to replace dysfunctional authoritarian models with democracy. Despite approaching democracy in similar ways, democracy in France proved to be successful and democracy in Russia was not. This is because unlike France, the democratic institutions in Russia were built on weak foundations making democratic performance in Russia illegitimate.

The first source is a review discussing Francis Fukuyama’s book ‘The Origins of Political Order.’ The source addresses both political and economic issues. The author of the source expresses his agreement with Fukuyama’s ideas and his support for liberal capitalist democracy. Fukuyama states that because of the system’s ability to balance ‘material comforts’ with liberty and order, all societies would eventually evolve to become democracies. Fukuyama's main argument was that modern societies are best served by a government capable of both capitalism and democracy, as no other system could supply the stability and economic growth associated with a liberal capitalist democracy. The source expresses support for this

Democracy has become the most widespread political form of government during the past decade, after the fall of all its alternatives. During the second part of the 20th century, the 3 main enemies of democracy, namely communism, fascism and Nazism, lost most of their power and influence. However, democracy is still only to be found in less than half of this world's countries. China with a fifth of the total population "had never experienced a democratic government" and Russia still doesn't have a well established democracy. By adopting a democratic perspective, 3 types of governments emerge, non-democratic, new democracies, and old democracies, and all have a different challenge to overcome: either to become democratic, to "consolidate"

When one thinks of Capitalism, the first country that comes to mind is the United States of America. (“US”) In fact, the concept of Capitalism is so intertwined with the US’s culture and government that it is part of its strategy of “exporting democracy” to other countries. A classic example was the administration of Ronald Regan. During President Ronald Reagan’s two terms in the 1980’s, he began a policy of deregulation, tax reductions and increased defense spending that helped to accelerate the collapse of the Soviet Union and effectively ended the Cold War. Since then, traditionally Communist countries such as Russia and China have adopted Capitalistic policies as well.

Democracy: A political system in which citizens enjoy a number of basic civil and political rights, and in which their most important political leaders are elected in free and fair elections and accountable under a rule of law (26). In the studies we have undertaken, comparing and exploring various countries and systems politically, economically, and psychologically throughout the quarter, this outcry of democracy has prevailed as a main theme. Successful countries such as the United States and Great Britain are based upon such democratic ideals. It is no wonder that countries have striven more recently toward this goal of democratization. Both the Russian and Mexican revolutions prove that democracy is an attainable goal in the next

To some, "capitalistic democracy" conjures up the picture of a utopia where the free market is accompanied by individual liberty and social justice. To others, however, the term is more like a paradox—despite tremendous economic power, the advanced industrial nations are not immune from the evils of socio-political inequality as well as economical disparity. Amongst the capitalist democracies of the world, it is an established and well-known fact that when compared with the advanced industrial countries in Europe, the United States has the worst condition of economical-political inequality and social injustice. Its government is the least progressive, and

have chosen my topic as “Is Democratic Capitalism really democratic?” since I am currently learning about the globalization and I think it is a very interesting topic to study about. To study about globalization, capitalism is something that must be acknowledged in prior because it is the universal, and core mechanic of globalization. Many of the democratic countries have adapted capitalism to operate their economic system which values market activities as the most important driving force. (“Section On The Political Economy of The World-System”, 2015) Market is operated by diverse companies that are rooted not only from the country but also from other foreign countries which makes it sense that all ideologies, cultures and commodities of different

“Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.” John F. Kennedy, September 25, 1961

China and Russia are both countries with strong state traditions who have favored communist systems over the western idea of democracy. But, in the 1990’s, China and Russia began to stray from their communist systems in their own ways. Russia began the shift with rapid political liberalization under Gorbachev followed by the fall of the Soviet Union. China, on the other hand, embarked on a managed transition with step by step introduction of capitalism while the CCP remained the sole political power. China’s transition was hugely successful, experiencing astounding GDP growth and the largest increase in human welfare in history. Russia’s reforms on the other hand was a failure as the soviet lost half its territory and population. Following the fall of the Soviet Union was an economic recession with an increase in crime and death rates. China experienced a huge increase in human welfare while Russia saw a huge downturn. After comparing China’s and Russia’s different path towards modernization, China has seen stronger and stabled growth as opposed to Russia’s shortcomings.

Fortunately, a Harvard-educated history professor named Carroll Quigley wrote a handful of books that answer all of these questions and more. Unfortunately, the answers are very disturbing, especially to those who’ve accepted the common myths of “democratic government.”

Many ancient regimes throughout the world teased with the idea of basic personal rights and elections , but not until the 6th century did this form of government become a legitimate way to exercise a country's control. The earliest traces of democracy can be seen in Ancient Greece, “the birthplace of democracy”, which can be attributed for democracy through their radical political ideas. Since then the idea of democracy has slowly grown, and in some countries decayed into another form of government. Without this evolution and radical thinking where would our country be today? Would we be living in a country that allows our leader to get away with murder? A communist government led by a corrupt leader or system? Democracy did