Subject: Capitalism | Journal of Democracy

April 2024, Volume 35, Issue 2

America’s Crisis of Civic Virtue

Arthur C. Brooks

The problem for democracy today is not capitalism; it is a decline in public honesty and civility. But there is an opportunity to revive our sense of national community, if we seize it.

October 2023, Volume 34, Issue 4

How Financial Secrecy Undermines Democracy

An expansive underworld of hidden wealth lies beneath the everyday economy. This stealth network of tax havens, secret trusts, and offshore accounts is weakening democratic institutions and fueling our worst enemies.

January 2023, Volume 34, Issue 1

Shell Game

Charles G. Davidson

Trillions of dollars are stashed in the world’s secret financial system, where they are keeping autocratic regimes afloat and fueling democracy’s decline.

January 2023, Volume 34, Issue 1

Friend of the Devil

Zachary Karabell

McKinsey’s work is bankrolled by major corporations and governments around the world. How should the famous consulting firm choose the clients it represents and the projects it takes on?

January 2021, Volume 32, Issue 1

Is Meritocracy Just?

Marc F. Plattner

A review of The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? by Michael J. Sandel.

January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1

China: From Tiananmen to Neo-Stalinism

Minxin Pei

To grasp why post-Mao China’s remarkable economic development has not aided democracy, we must look first at the policies of top Chinese leaders.

April 2019, Volume 30, Issue 2

Confronting Authoritarianism

Anwar Ibrahim

In May 2018, the people of Malaysia transcended distinctions of class, religion, and ethnicity in order to vote for democracy and reform against a long-ruling party riddled with corruption.

January 2019, Volume 30, Issue 1

The Road to Digital Unfreedom: Three Painful Truths About Social Media

Ronald J. Deibert

Not so long ago, the internet was being lauded as a force for greater freedom and democracy. With the rise of intrusive and addictive social media, however, a discomfiting reality has set in.

July 2018, Volume 29, Issue 3

Modernization and Authoritarianism

Roberto Stefan Foa

Embracing a new model of capitalist authoritarianism, a number of nondemocratic regimes have made startling gains in state capacity, posing a new challenge to the appeal and advance of liberal democracy.

April 2017, Volume 28, Issue 2

The Modernization Trap

Jack Snyder

Populist nationalism is emerging as the main competitor to liberal democracy. But despite its current resurgence, in the long run, like other illiberal paths to modernity, it is likely to prove a dead end.

April 2012, Volume 23, Issue 2

Southeast Asia: Elites vs. Reform in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam

Martin Gainsborough

Vietnam and its smaller neighbors Laos and Cambodia remain bastions of illiberalism and one-party rule despite rapid economic growth and falling poverty. What will it take to reform their elitist political cultures and curtail the use of public office for private ends?

January 2012, Volume 23, Issue 1

China and East Asian Democracy: The Taiwan Factor

Yun-han Chu

If the PRC moves toward democracy, it is likely to be in some part due to the influence of Taiwan.

July 2010, Volume 21, Issue 3

Acts of Resistance in China

Bruce Gilley

A review of China's Long March to Freedom: Grassroots Modernization by Kate Zhou.

January 2010, Volume 21, Issue 1

The Crash of ’08

Laurence Whitehead

The short-term political impact of the economic crisis has been less dramatic than initially expected, but it may have lasting effects on the “quality” of democracy, including the legitimacy of prevailing financial institutions.

January 2010, Volume 21, Issue 1

Populism, Pluralism, and Liberal Democracy

Marc F. Plattner

In recent years, scholars have begun to focus on the sources of "authoritarian resilience." But democracy has also shown surprising resilience, in part because the disorders to which it is prone tend to counteract each other.

July 2009, Volume 20, Issue 3

China Since Tiananmen: The Massacre’s Long Shadow

Jean-Philippe Béja

In the two decades since the Tiananmen massacre, China has enjoyed rapid economic growth and a measure of political stability. Recently, however, various forms of popular protest have been increasing. Do they represent a potentially serious threat to CCP rule?

July 2009, Volume 20, Issue 3

China Since Tiananmen: The Labor Movement

Read the full essay here. The twenty years since 1989 have brought two major developments in worker activism. First, whereas workers were part of the mass uprising in the Tiananmen Movement, there is today hardly any sign of mobilization that transcends class or regional lines. Second, a long-term decline in worker power at the point…

April 2009, Volume 20, Issue 2

Reading Russia: The Dying Mutant

Andrei Piontkovsky

Read the full essay here. The corporatist kleptocracy being erected by Russian President Vladimir Putin is profoundly misunderstood in the West. This model dooms Russia to economic degradation and margin-alization. The current global crisis has made this truth painfully clear. The artificially created image of a threatening West (and U.S. in particular) is now becoming…

April 2009, Volume 20, Issue 2

Reading Russia: The Merger of Power and Property

Leon Aron

Read the full essay here. The regime in Moscow mixes key features of a capitalist economy with a political system wherein power is monopolized by a close-knit professional and age cohort whose members often have a background in the secret police. Instead of seeking to base its legitimacy on broad-based, transpersonal institutions with character and…

January 2009, Volume 20, Issue 1

Violence and the Rise of Open-Access Orders

For most of history, a closed social order has seemed the most “natural” way to manage the problem of controlling the use of force. The rise of modern democracy can be understood only in the context of the transition to open-access orders.

April 2005, Volume 16, Issue 2

Challenge and Change in East Asia: “Business Populism” in Thailand

Recently reelected premier Thaksin Shinawatra and his "Thais Love Thais" party offer a fusion of populist rhetoric with policies that serve the interests of the Thai business class.

July 2003, Volume 14, Issue 3

Political Freedom, Economic Liberty, and Prosperity

Liberty and self-government are not only good in themselves, but also have powerful and beneficial effects on a nation’s level of economic development and prosperity.

January 2003, Volume 14, Issue 1

China’s Changing of the Guard: The New Inequality

An Chen

Class politics is an ever more important reality, but the growth of capitalism is not likely to produce pressures for democratization.

April 2001, Volume 12, Issue 2

High Anxiety in the Andes: The Real Story Behind Venezuela’s Woes

Moisés Naím

The conventional wisdom about Venezuela’s plight is largely mistaken. Only when Venezuelans recognize the real causes of their woes will they be able to make progress in overcoming them.

October 2000, Volume 11, Issue 4

Comparing East Asia and Latin America: Capital Mobility and Democratic Stability

Sylvia Maxfield

Despite the persistent doomsaying about the political consequences of untrammeled international capital flows, financial liberalization may actually contribute to democratic consolidation.

July 2000, Volume 11, Issue 3

Markets, Law, and Democracy

Charles Fried

The experience of “bandit capitalism” or “tyrant capitalism” in postcommunist societies shows that markets cannot work properly without a community of trust and mutual respect. Such a community can be achieved only where there is a rule of law, applied by able and independent judges.