Why unfettered free-market capitalism endangers democracy--and what to do about it. The global Democracy Index score has hit an historic low, with the U.S. downgraded to a “flawed democracy.” In Beginning with a clear explanation of how technological innovations and free markets interact to shape the economy and its political system, Kurz describes the way this interaction alters the distribution of economic and political power in society--and in the last 50 years created an economy that “boomed” while leaving behind the majority of America''s workers. He concludes with a realistic, integrated policy proposal aimed at several goals: lowering exclusionary market power; promoting innovations that support workers rather than replacing them; fostering a more equitable sharing of the benefits of economic growth; and, above all, saving democracy.

Autorentext

Mordecai Kurz is Joan Kenney Professor of Economics Emeritus at Stanford University. His books include, most recently, The Market Power of Technology.

Klappentext

Why unregulated free-market capitalism endangers democracy—and what to do about it.

In Private Power and Democracy’s Decline, Mordecai Kurz explores the relationship between free-market capitalism and democracy. He shows that technology has made capitalism different from what was envisioned in the Age of Enlightenment. Technology creates centers of market power and monopoly concentration that result in a society in which some people are enriched immensely while many workers’ livelihoods are often destroyed. Contrary to conventional thinking, technological competition does not remove market power, which becomes a permanent fixture of free-market capitalism. Such private power creates political inequality and generates forces that cause democracy’s decline and possible destruction.

Applying these ideas to the US, Kurz shows that today’s problems begin in the 1980s with the policy of unregulated free-market capitalism. Coupled with the information technology revolution, this created a techno-winner-takes-all economy—leading to a second Gilded Age of unsustainable inequality and extreme political polarization. In the last 50 years, the economy “boomed” for some while leaving the majority of America’s workers behind.

Kurz concludes that only regulated capitalism can support democracy so that the benefits of technology are more equally shared and no person’s livelihood is destroyed to enable others to be enriched. To save democracy, he proposes a “restoration-of-livelihood” policy, offering firms managerial flexibility to maintain rising productivity while ensuring that technology does not destroy the livelihood of others.

Inhalt
Preface
Introduction: Why Free Market Capitalism Endangers Democracy
Part A: Basic Concepts, Profit Incentive, and Some Historical Evidence
Chapters: 1-3
Introduction to Part A
Chapter 1. Some Preliminary Reflections
Chapter 2. Economic Motives and the Quest for Power
Chapter 3. Can We Prevent the Clash of Democracy and Capitalism by Repairing Market Failures?
Part B: Rising Market Power, Techno-Winer-Takes-All Economy, and the Decline of Democracy
Chapters 4 -7
Introduction to Part B
Chapter 4. Why Market Power Is Permanent In A Free Market Economy
Chapter 5. The Economic Consequences of Techno-Winner-Takes-All Capitalism
Chapter 6. The Political Fallout of Techno-Winner-Takes-All Capitalism
Chapter 7. Why Is Democracy On The Decline?
Historical Appendix to Chapter 7: The Decline of the Roman Republic
Part C: Making Capitalism Support Democracy: An Integrated Policy
Chapters 8 -9
Introduction to Part C
Chapter 8. An Economic Restoration Policy to Revitalize Democracy
Chapter 9. An Integrated Policy to Make Capitalism Support Democracy
References
Index