Can Capitalism and Democracy Coexist? (Parts 1, 2 and 3) — Chris Hedges interviews Sheldon Wolin

For many years now, Wolin has been perhaps Hedges’ most cited source in articles and lectures about the state and direction of American society. An intellectual peer of Noam Chomsky, albeit less well known, Wolin is the author of seminal books on contemporary political theory, including “Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism,” and “Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought.” He is an enthusiastic proponent of popular participation in government. 

In part two of the conversation, which was produced by The Real News Network, Hedges mentions that Wolin wrote that he “doesn’t believe we have any authentic democratic institutions left.” 

Wolin responds: “I don’t. That may be a bit of an overstatement, but I think—in terms of effective democratic institutions, I don’t think we do. I think there’s potential. I think there’s potential in movements towards self-government, movements towards economic independence, and movements towards educational reform, and so on, that have the seeds for change. But I think that it’s very difficult now, given the way the media is controlled and the way political parties are organized and controlled, it’s very difficult to get a foothold in politics in such a way that you can translate it into electoral reforms, electoral victories, and legislation, and so on. It’s a very, very complex, difficult, demanding process. And as I’ve said before, democracy’s great trouble is it’s episodic.”

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Can Capitalism and Democracy Coexist? (Parts 1, 2 and 3)

Chris Hedges interviews Sheldon Wolin, Professor of Politics, Emeritus, at Princeton University
Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly