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“For Torben Iversen, capitalism is not responsible for the crisis democracies are currently facing. After Jenny Andersson, Cyril Benoît underlines the limits of this optimistic interpretation.”
“For Torben Iversen, capitalism is not responsible for the crisis democracies are currently facing. Responding to this argument, Jenny Andersson underlines the limits of this optimistic interpretation.”
“Should we blame capitalism for the challenges rich democracies have been facing over the past thirty years—from growing inequality to the rise of populism? According to Torben Iversen, the opposite is true: it was democracy that transformed capitalism to take full advantage of new technologies.”
“Human health and the care of the most vulnerable cannot be governed by market forces alone. If we leave these things solely to the market, we run the risk of exacerbating inequalities to the point of forfeiting the very lives of the least advantaged. How to avoid this unacceptable situation? By involving employees in decisions relating to their lives and futures in the workplace – by democratizing firms. By decommodifying work – by collectively guaranteeing useful employment to all.”
[a manifesto that has been published today in its original in French in Le Monde and translated and published in 37 other places]
The idea that the people have a right to shape political decisions through democratic means is widely accepted. The same cannot be said of the decisions that impact on our everyday economic life in the workplace and beyond. Andrew Cumbers shows in The Case for Economic Democracy why this is wrong, and why, in the context of the rising tide of populism and the perceived crisis of liberal democracy, economic democracy’s time has come.
“This crisis arose because the news media’s commercial imperatives never fully aligned with democratic objectives. The market simply can’t support the levels of journalism — especially local, but also international, policy, and investigative reporting — that a healthy democracy requires.”
“To learn more about the complex global relationships of democracy and capitalism — and why global opinion of the two appears to be waning — Harvard Business Review, with Henderson, reached out to top economists and political scientists who study democracy, and who are from, live, or work in countries that are struggling with it. We asked them these questions: Do democracy and capitalism need each other? Why or why not?”
“If government is the counterweight to the free market, democracy is the force that ensures that governments do not devolve into tyranny, seizing control of the markets in the process. I believe that strengthening democracy is the only way to ensure the widespread survival of free-market capitalism, and with it the prosperity and opportunity that has changed the lives of billions of people.” – article by Rachel Henderson, author of the fortcoming book Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire
