Martin Wolf - The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism

According to Martin Wolf, the “infection of democracy by the plague of populist authoritarianism” in both developing countries and established democracies, notably and crucially the US, but also the UK, France and Italy, has led to an era of looming “democratic depression”. In his address, Mr Wolf argues that the breakdown of the relationship between market capitalism and liberal democracy — the "complementary opposites" of our modern civilisation – as well as soaring inequality threatens to undermine the whole fabric of society. He considers whether it is too late to reverse course and if not, how we might do so.

About the Speaker:
Martin Wolf is Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times, London. He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 2000. He was a member of the UK government’s Independent Commission on Banking between June 2010 and September 2011. He is an honorary fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford and King’s College, London.  He has received honorary doctorates from six universities, including the London School of Economics. He is a University Global Fellow of Columbia University, New York. Mr Wolf won the Ludwig Erhard Prize for economic commentary for 2009, the 33rd Ischia International Journalism Prize in 2012,  the Overseas Press Club of America’s prize for “best commentary on international news in any medium” for 2013 and the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award at the Gerald Loeb Awards. His most recent book is The Shifts and The Shocks: What we’ve learned – and have still to learn – from the financial crisis.

Recorded on the 22nd of September 2021

[francism.odonnell]

Emphasis on growth could be challenged in terms of equity and sustainability, but the root of the current crisis in "democratic capitalism" is the absence of global regulation of giant corporations and the emergence of market concentration, which leads to "state capture" by vested interests through corrupted "democracy" and the power of oligarch money. The OECD principles of corporate governance and the UN Global Compact are purely voluntary - but they should be mandatory and enforced, and with broader scope for human rights and environmental stewardship and accountability. If we can do it for the seabed through UNCLOS, we can do it for cyberspace, outer space, and most importantly, the inner space of our economies and polities. If we fail, our human civilisation, and not just our democracy, are on dwindling life-support.