On a Jacobin Radio episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber takes on Milton Friedman’s foundational claim that capitalism is the ideal system for democracy. His answer: partly right, mostly wrong.
- Capitalism did make democracy possible by separating economic power from political power — unlike feudalism, where lords needed direct coercion over peasants and political equality was structurally impossible.
- But possibility is not destiny. Capitalists fought universal suffrage, unionization, and every democratic expansion for 400+ years. Democracy was won by organized working-class movements between 1880–1920, not bestowed by the bourgeoisie.
- After democracy is installed, the tension never resolves: capitalists keep weakening unions, labor parties, and the franchise itself through campaign finance, voter suppression, and attacks on collective bargaining.
The US is “by far the least democratic country in the advanced capitalist world” — policy tracks the preferences of the top 10%, turnout is heavily skewed by income, and nonparticipation is concentrated among the poor. Both Democrats and Republicans participate in the hollowing out; the only difference is that Democrats care about legitimacy while Trump cares only about power.
Chibber’s conclusion is pointed but pragmatic: rebuilding trade unions, labor parties, and civic associations is necessary not just for socialism but for any functional democracy within capitalism. As he puts it, “if you are an actual liberal who is interested in a robust capitalist democracy, you should be pro-union.”