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How Democratic is Capitalism?

Everything we use, everything we eat or wear, our car, our housing — we don’t produce these things as individuals. We produce socially. There is a social division of work in Australia and in the whole world. People in one part of the world make things which people in another part of the world use. Just think how many workers in different countries are involved in the production of just one bolt in a car: mining, forging the steel, shaping it, transporting it. But even though we produce socially, through cooperation, we don’t own the means of production or the products socially. This affects all the basic decisions in this society. The vast majority of people have no say in what or how things are produced. Decisions about production are made, not by or for a majority, but by a minority for itself. And because wealth is power, the same is true of all really important issues. When did we vote to invade Afghanistan and Iraq, lock up asylum seekers, introduce anti-union laws? You can vote Liberal or Labor out of office, but you can’t vote Packer and Murdoch out of power.

Who Really Rules?

In capitalism there is a group that holds the real power. It’s not a big secret where power is: it lies in the hands of the people who determine investment decisions: what’s produced, what’s distributed and how. They choose the top ranks of government departments and corporate boardrooms, choose the planners and set the general conditions for keeping everyone in their place. They are the ruling class.

How the Status Quo is Maintained

Because the capitalists are only a tiny minority of the population, they have to organise society along lines that entrench their rule. Sometimes, usually in the Third World, or in times of major crisis, the capitalists do this without the pretence of democracy, governing with dictatorships. But generally, the capitalist class prefers to rule discreetly. Capitalism sets up a whole democratic show. If you don’t like the government, we’re told, you can vote it out of office at the next election. Aside from the fact that this isn’t an option if you’re under 18 or a recently arrived migrant, the Labor Party isn’t much better than the Coalition. Meanwhile, the average citizen plays no role in running the giant corporations that govern economic life. These same corporations play the major role in selecting "our" political leaders. Their control of the media determines what political options and messages are presented to the voters.

The State

For capitalism, the democratic show is what’s important, not democracy. Everyone has the right to vote, but only capitalists have the right to decide. The decisions are made for you by all the different institutions of the capitalist state. The state is the ruling class’s apparatus of social control. It includes the police, the military, parliament, the courts, the prisons, the various government departments. The top personnel in these institutions are loyal to the capitalist class. They’re paid big salaries to keep them that way. In state institutions there is a very well-established way of going up the career ladder. On the way up, people sell their individuality and commit themselves to the system. They learn very fast that, in return for commitment and discipline in their work, they get privileges. The higher you go in a corporation, a government department, the judiciary or the army, the more privileges you get. Not surprisingly, the closer to the top people are, the more consciously they support the system. At the very top are usually those recruited directly from the ruling class: the generals, government department heads and judges who wouldn’t hesitate to use any means to maintain the system.