Abstract

This paper looks at the linkage between democracy and capitalism, particularly in relation to phenomena of "globalization". It is based on the attempt to systematically gather evidence for such a linkage from different bodies of literature and to relate them to each other. The underlying review covers the linkage between "democracy" and various forms of "capitalism" in a historical perspective, liberal theory, modernisation theory, and the findings of empirical studies in favour of a linkage, as well as the counter argument recently advanced by the anti-(or alter-)globalization movement in the socialist theoretical tradition, and socialist authors affirming a linkage once more. The important finding for political theory is that, independent of their premises, all the authors reviewed (except the anti-/alter-globalization activists) come to the same conclusion: democracy and capitalism are inextricably linked. Being aware of this linkage might transform politics once and for all. Both theory and empirical evidence suggest that the grassroots democratic anti-/alter- globalization movement is contradictory in itself and will not succeed. One cannot fight capitalism, it seems, and replace it with any form of grassroots democracy because any form of democracy, in turn, leads to capitalism. Consequently, I argue that whoever wants to fight capitalism, and maybe sees globalization as today's primary manifestation of it, needs to fight democracy as well. Being anti-capitalist, it appears, one needs to be anti-democratic too.