Friedrich Hayek. LSE Library/Flickr. Some rights reserved. It is increasingly common to read about the erosion of democracy under neoliberalism. From the rise of the ‘surveillance state’, to the corporate capture of politics, to the proliferation of international agreements designed to restrict sovereign state decision making, to a political ‘common sense’ that places ‘the market’ at the center of political decision making, political democracy is under attack.
To be sure, there are limits to democracy under capitalism. It does not extend into the private economic sphere: Firm owners and managers are free to sack their workers, but the reverse is not the case. Nevertheless, political democracy is ideologically defended and promoted across most of the political spectrum.
Despite such proclamations, and hand in hand with neoliberal economic policies, an erosion of democracy is occurring under the guidance of elected politicians across many of the advanced capitalist countries.
