Solt (2008) indicates how inequality may erode the democratic system: economic inequality gives the rich more power relative to the poor (p.57). Not only is the majority not able to defeat a few very rich over redistributive policies, but such policies cannot even “be debated within the political process regardless of whether poorer citizens would care to raise them” (2008, p.57). Gilens (2005) also comes to the same conclusion in his study of “inequality and democratic responsiveness”: the political game is only for the wealthy while the middle-class citizens – not to mention the poor – are largely neglected (p.794). Economic inequality just seems to corrupt almost every aspect of the U.S. democracy. That explanation of the corruption on media and political engagement just looks superficial. Is there a deeper reason if not the ultimate why economic inequality is like a forever trouble-creator for democracy? Maybe there is.
There may be a fundamental inconsistency between the economic ideology of capitalism and the political ideology of democracy. In order to take a clearer look, the story has to be traced back to the Age of Enlightenment. In the late 1700s, democracy was believed to be a classless society since it was “widely accepted that if a person had to work for another person, that person could never be a political equal” (McChesney, 2000, p.284). Democracy was not only a political but also economic ideology in the old days. However, the traditional economic side of democracy gradually got abandoned, and with the involvement of capitalism it has become today’s liberal democracy. As C. B. Macpherson points out, liberal democracy, a mixture of capitalism and democracy, is “the combination of egalitarian politics with inegalitarian economics” (cited in McChesney, 2000, p.284). The question is: can liberal democracy really work since it combines two naturally inconsistent fundamental elements? Today, the answer is more or less obvious: capitalism and democracy do not coexist and one must win over. And the winner, without any surprise, is capitalism. Capitalism corrupts democracy in a couple ways: first, capitalism must exist along with a class society within which the few wealthy people will definitely have the strongest if not the dominated political power, which violates the majority-rule ideology of democracy; second, capitalism also erodes the “democratic spirit” by assuming that all humans are selfish and pressuring people to compete and only look after themselves regardless what happens to others (McChesney, 2000, p.284).
The logic here is that capitalism has always been in favour with free market, small government, globalization and so on in order to gain more freedom for “commercial activities”, by which a class society must follow. Capitalism in nature contradicts “the core tenets of democracy” for the reason that just like feudalism overthrown by capitalism, “capitalism [itself] is [also] invariably a class society” in which a rich few own the large amount of wealth of the community (McChesney, 2000, p.285). The wealth they own can be exchanged into political power (at least under a capitalist society) which helps them to protect their wealth and pushes them to a further advantageous position by destroying “the efforts of the many to strive for a more egalitarian society” (McChesney, 2000, p.285).
On the other hand, capitalism also violates the core values of democracy. The “democratic spirit” is supposed to encourage people to care about the good of their community because the good of individuals and the good of community are largely overlapped in a democracy theologically speaking. However, capitalism would claim the opposite: individual’s good is unrelated with the good of community and as a result, individuals are encouraged to chase their own welfare regardless their actions may create harm for the community as a whole (McChesney, 2000, p.285). Finally, it can be summed up that capitalism and democracy are fundamentally inconsistent because capitalism not only corrodes the structure but also the spirit of democracy. Even though McChesney would not want to reject the capitalist system as a whole, he does emphasize that “for those who truly believe in democracy, it is imperative to reduce social and economic inequality” (2000, p.285). However, he should not ignore that fact he has already pointed out: capitalism must go along with economic inequality. That is why capitalism is also one of the main factors that corrupts America’s democracy.
To conclude the paper, it should be emphasized again that this paper has argued that economic inequality will threaten America’s democracy due to three major reasons: 1, the mainstream media only present the view of the rich while ignoring the rest because the rich few have been controlling them through ownership or advertisements; 2, economic inequality negatively influenced people’s political engagement except for the rich’s; and 3, economic inequality itself and the economic ideology of capitalism that promotes economic inequality are in nature inconsistent with the political ideology of democracy.
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