The Myth of Democracy and Capitalism

Democracy and capitalism are the trappings or “packaging” of the exercise of political power; they cannot be the fountainhead of liberty, free markets, and good life. A nation can be democratic and yet be a brutish and extremely poor slave society—example, Ancient Athens. A nation can be capitalist but its economy might be in the control of oligarchs and crony capitalists—example, Mussolini’s fascist Italy. The history of the twentieth century tells us that the democratic and capitalist nations are as tyrannical, corrupt, and warlike as the nations which shun democracy and capitalism. It is a myth that a nation makes economic progress when it is democratic and capitalist. When the West became the world’s dominant power (between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries) it was being ruled by very tyrannical monarchs and warlords. After 1980, China became the world’s largest economy despite being a fascist state.