Welcome to Progressive Politics! A place for news updates and political discussion from a left perspective. Conservatives and centrists are welcome just try and keep it civil :)
(Sidebar still a work in progress post recommendations if you have them such as reading lists)
The diagram centrists don't want you to see
Centrism frames the debate about capitalism as one of consent vs. coercion and argue that capitalism is fine because workers consent in the legal sense to the labor contract. Democratic theory recognizes a distinction among voluntary contracts i.e. consent to alienate vs. consent to delegate. A centrist can't appeal to this distinction because capitalism and political democracy are on opposite sides
I had to study the diagram a few times to figure out what the core point was, but I think it boils down to this:
Democracy: Highly equal, 1 person = 1 vote, everyone is included ("inalienist")
Capitalism: Different levels of power, 1 person = $X, some people can't participate as much as others ("alienist")
Does this mean that Democratic Capitalism is somehow an oxymoron? Only in situations where we allow both types of power to coexist - hence the absolutely critical need to:
what do "alienist" and "inalienist" mean?