Crisis of the liberal democratic capitalist state

It would appear that the Liberal Democratic State working within the context of the capitalist mode of production is in a condition of serious socio-economic disequilibrium. An article in the RSA Journal of Issue 2. 2014 suggests as much. The author David Marquand writes about what he calls ‘attrition of the public domain.’

The disequilibrium is marked by a number of worrisome developments as listed below.

1. The remorseless growth in inequality, gargantuan wealth on the one hand and grinding poverty on the other.

2. Certain, sometimes extreme social pathologies associated with that inequality of living condition.

3. The hubristic irresponsibility of a sometimes criminal financial sector and the often callous indifference of those at the top of the social ladder, symptomatic what CNN’s  Brian Stellter calls a growing ‘empathy gap’

4. The penetration of institutions by the rich and predatory corporate interests, for example the College admission scandal in the U.S.

5. The erosion of public trust generally but particularly in relation to issues relating to money.

All political systems are flawed because as a writer once observed, ‘nothing straight has ever been created out of the crooked timber of humanity.’ Similarly all political orthodoxies, no matter how well constructed in theory, have within them the seeds of their own decay. But mankind will no doubt continue to search for that elusive perfect polity. This is understandable since politics defined as the management of human affairs can be ordered for better or for worst. The better being the recognisable wellbeing of the majority, the worst being untold human suffering.

The capitalist market state is evidently not satisfying the needs of a vast number of persons in society. Not surprisingly so. Even in the more resource rich countries, capitalism has always produced a residual and often not so residual level of poverty. A Special Report in the September 28. 2019 edition of the ‘Economist’ notes that in Marin County, Kentucky U.S.A. 30 percent of residents live below the poverty line, an income of $U.S. 27,750 per year for a family of four. By the official poverty measure there were 40 million poor Americans in 2017 comprising some 12 percent of the population. 50 percent of the children in Cleveland live in poverty. The question is posed: ‘How is this possible in a country as wealthy as America’?  The disequilibrium in many countries, rich and poor alike is that the poverty is becoming increasingly less residual and more entrenched, while the rich have become richer and apparently more indifferent to the condition of the poor. As Ronald Reagan famously said: ‘We waged a war on poverty and poverty won.’

The socio-economic disequilibrium in the liberal democratic state may in part be due to the failure or reluctance of the political class to challenge the corporate elites on whom they have become dependent for party financing. The liberal democratic political class is also dependent on corporates for advancing the capitalist economy. David Marquand writes of ‘lobbying by unaccountable private interests behind a veil of secrecy.’ The result is to inhibit the liberal democratic state from taking an alternative, more radical path. The policy positions of American left-leaning candidates like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren comes to mind. Sanders is accused of being ‘a socialist’ (a bad word in America). Warren is viewed as anti-business, too far to the left and in a general election likely to alienate the voluminous Centre.

For all its promises to alleviate and even eliminate poverty the liberal state has witnessed an increase in poverty and the social pathologies that follow from prolonged and intergenerational impoverishment. The Economist Report Poverty in America states, that from white Appalachia to the Black and Hispanic ghettos of the cities, the stories are tales of crime, drug abuse, particularly opioid addiction and large scale, recidivist incarceration. These features also represent a calamitous declining level of private and public morality much of which is a factor of the unbridled march of consumer capitalism. In fact David Marquand’s latest book is entitled, Mammon’s Kingdom: An essay on Britain Now.

The Right tends to see poverty as a consequence of moral failure an absence of character. This is a notion that dates back to the Victorian age and beyond. The liberal left tends to exculpate individuals of personal responsibility and see poverty of a product and victim of some eponymous thing called ‘The System’. The truth lies somewhere in between the two position. The ultra-liberal left has done much to erode the boundaries that inhibit delinquency and deviance. The system continues to be rigged against the poor. However much poverty is self-inflicted by persons who live foolish lives that ignore the ethical requirement of the constructive life.

Ralph Jemmott is a respected retired educator.