Far from two sides of the same coin, free-market capitalism and democracy are fundamentally incompatible. The only way to restore US democracy is to transform the system, so that it compensates innovators but limits their market power, while ensuring that the benefits of economic progress are more equitably shared.
Project Syndicate: On the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, there is much talk about the twilight of American democracy. In your new book, Private Power and Democracy’s Decline, you argue that this is a result not of cultural or institutional failures, but of unfettered free-market capitalism. At a glance, how are today’s economic arrangements undermining democracy?
Mordecai Kurz: The decline of democracy in the United States is the result of three factors: (i) neoliberal economic policies, (ii) the rise of digital technology, and (iii) a culture of meritocracy, in which each person is considered to be free and fully responsible for their lives.
