Republicanism and the political economy of democracy

Abstract

Europe is experiencing rapidly accelerating poverty and social exclusion, following half a decade of financial crisis and austerity politics. The key problem behind Europe's malaise, in our view, is the economic disenfranchisement of large parts of its population in the winner-takes-all-society. This paper proposes that we examine the contribution of republican political theory as a distinctive approach that provides us with the conceptual and normative resources to reclaim what we call the political economy of democracy, the constellation of political and economic institutions aimed at promoting broad economic sovereignty and individuals' capacities to govern their own lives. In this paper we identify three key ideas that together constitute a distinctively republican approach to political economy: establish an economic floor, impose an economic ceiling to counter excess economic inequality, and democratize the governance and regulation of the main economic institutions.Keywords: republicanism, domination, freedom, economic governance, inequality, basic income Europe is in turmoil. A little more than half a decade of global financial crisis and a deep economic slump has seen large swaths of European citizens facing dire economic 2 2 uncertainty and social exclusion. Austerity politics, an unimaginative knee-jerk response, continues to push already disadvantaged citizens across Europe into precariousness of a sort not seen since the 1930s. The brunt of the crisis is largely borne by those who are already struggling, with those at the top (the much maligned One Percenters) facing little or no adverse effects (Duménil and Lévy, 2013;Sayer, 2014).The resulting dramatic rise in inequality of economic opportunities, income and wealth is deeply problematic, morally and politically.Proposals to keep economic precariousness and inequality in check, let alone reverse it (e.g., Piketty, 2014), rapidly find themselves gridlocked by a political and economic elite that has committed itself to riding out austerity policies at all cost for ideological rather than persuasive economic reasons (Stiglitz, 2010;Krugman, 2013). iii This makes it an appealing starting point for examining the economic conditions of democratic governance.The aim of our paper is to build on the work of the republican political theorists mentioned above by reconsidering the foundations of economic independence as a condition for freedom from domination and economic sovereignty. We begin in the next section to briefly outline the political theory of republicanism, as we understand it.Republicanism of course contains a variety of different ideas, and not all claims are endorsed by all who self-identify as republicans. Nevertheless, we hope our outline will sufficiently appeal to those who share our republican intuitions and concerns to form a basis upon which to build the next sections. The bulk of the paper examines three key ideas that together constitute the republican political economy of democracy. First, republican political economy must se...

The Democratic Case for a Basic Income

“…However, it is dubious that granting people a modest basic income will suffice to ensure the kind of equal citizenship Pateman proposes. Even though basic income offers a floor (Van Parijs and Vanderborght 2017), it may fail to block the vast differentials in income and wealth -and, therefore, of power -that characterize contemporary societies (Casassas and De Wispelaere 2016).…”

Editor's Introduction: Land, Power, and Democracy

“…Modern republicans, like David Cassas and Jurgen De Wispelaere, have argued that republicanism today should focus on the equal distribution of capital more broadly. They argue that in a modern republican schema “the importance of real estate gives way to ownership of and control over installations and facilities (Marx's ‘means of production’), but also increasingly professional dexterities (human capital), opportunities to access profitable markets, and so on” (Casassas and Wispelaere ).…”

Piketty’s Capital, His Critics and Basic Income

“…A single measure will not be enough to stop income and wealth concentration. A policy package is needed in order to reverse the tendencies to growing inequality in our societies (Casassas & De Wispelaere, 2015).…”