Shrinking Democracy
Recent time Capitalism contains two trends:
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Shrinking wage share of output - stagnant incomes for ordinary people
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Increasing numbers excluded from the labour market
In the US the labour participation rate culminated around 2000 and has in 2017 come down to same levels as around 1980:
The backlash surfaced with the victories of Brexit and Trump - democratic movements opposing the neoliberal ‘establishment’ in reign for 30 years. There are similar movements going on in most of Europe: Podemos in Spain, Five-star-movemement in Italy, Marine Le Pen in France, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, Alternative für Deutschland etc.
The Brexit slogan Take Back Control may stand as a common message from all these - that is National Democratic Control - against globalised immigration and open labour markets. These movements are obviously seen as contrary to the interest of international, global capital. Some capitalists are more outspoken than others. Listen to Peter Thiel, well-known billionaire of Silicon Valley. Here as reported by Ben Tarnoff in The Guardian:
In a 2009 essay called The Education of a Libertarian, Thiel declared that capitalism and democracy had become incompatible. Since 1920, he argued, the creation of the welfare state and “the extension of the franchise to women” had made the American political system more responsive to more people - and therefore more hostile to capitalism. Capitalism is not “popular with the crowd”, Thiel observed, and this means that as democracy expands, the masses demand greater concessions from capitalists in the form of redistribution and regulation. The solution was obvious: less democracy. But in 2009, Thiel despaired of achieving this goal within the realm of politics. How could you possibly build a successful political movement for less democracy? … For Thiel, a smaller, more easily manipulated mob is preferable to a bigger one. If democracy can’t be eliminated, at least it can be shrunk through authoritarianism. … The state becomes even more responsive to the needs of capitalists and even less responsive to the needs of workers and citizens
This is clear speech. Capitalists feel threathened by democracy . We should not underestimate the force and determination with which they will strike back. Democracy is unneccesary and might well be replaced by more authoritarian and ‘efficient’ modes of government.