De-Democratisation and Rising Inequality
This paper is concerned with the question of why economic inequality has increased so dramatically in recent decades, and in particular, with the seemingly paradoxical situation that this upswing in inequality has taken place at the same time as a major spread of democracy worldwide. This paper argues that democracy itself has changed in this period and that globalization has led to a process of economic de-democratisation – by (1) the direct removal of certain economics matters from political control, (2) by increasing restrictions on the policy options available to policy-makers, and (3) by transformations in the structure of the policy-making process itself. In each of these shifts the representation of capital has been significantly increased, while that of labour has been correspondingly decreased. This analysis has major implications for how we should go about tackling the contemporary rise in inequality and suggests that it is imperative to democratise economic policy making at both the national and the global level. If we are serious about tackling inequality then we must be serious about democracy.
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