Why capitalists are coming out against democracy - “Does classical liberalism imply democracy?”
https://www.ellerman.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Reprint-EGP-Classical-Liberalism-Democracy.pdf
“There is a fault line running through … liberalism as to whether or not democratic self- governance is a necessary part of a liberal social order. The democratic and non-democratic strains of classical liberalism are both present today. Many … libertarians … represent the non-democratic strain in their promotion of non-democratic sovereign city-states.”
We’re not talking about classical times at all. We’re talking about the Age of Enlightenment and a little after. But as for those classical liberals at that proper time? They’re some of the first real capitalists.
TIL “classical liberalism” has absolutely nothing to do with the “classical” part, great, who the fuck decided to name it that?
Oh no it’s just when you say classical time period that means something different than the word classical in different contexts. Classical music isn’t referring to the Greeks and Romans either.
@V0ldek @sneerclub The people who decided that they liked 18th & 19th century “liberals” a whole lot more than the modern ones. Basically Libertarians.
@V0ldek @sneerclub There was definitely a proto-capitalist class in late Republican & Imperial Rome.
The pervasive existence of slavery made the economic systems very different from ours, and even different from our most recent flavors of slavery. One could argue that EVERY slaveholder was a de facto capitalist.
