POLITICAL ECONOMY TODAY: How Monopoly Capitalism Erodes Democracy

Books: Grace Blakely ‘Vulture Capitalism' and Rousseau ‘The Social Contract’

Rousseau said that democracy is only for the Gods.

Mark Fisher said imagining the end of the world is easier than imagining the end of capitalism.

Economics and politics are and have been inseparable. Capital brings power and power decides capital. Therefore, if we want to understand these systems and why they are failing us- particularly, the versions of them that exist today- perhaps it would serve to look at them as two sides of the same coin.

The Myth of the Free Market

Is our economic system really a free market? Or is the invisible hand a marionette? And if so, who is really pulling the strings? Neoliberalism claims to be the golden child of the free market, embracing deregulation, financialization and laissez-faire. But I beg to question if it has lived up to these promises. The financial crash of 2008 was one of the first but not the last indicators that something was going wrong, or indeed, maybe it was working just as designed. Financial corporations received their public funds and bailouts as the storm of economic recession upturned the lives of ordinary working class citizens. In 2025, the consequences of this could not be more obvious. Income inequality has reached drastic levels. Rising inflation plunges many into a cost of living crisis. The explanation is this: the free market was a convenient myth. The reality of neoliberalism’s capitalism is a state-planned economy by the elites and for the elites. The reality is a monopoly capitalism that lowers productivity, decreases private investment, destroys small businesses, undercuts public tax revenue, hinders innovation and generates lower wages and higher inflation. 

This is the argument that Grace Blakeley makes in her book ‘Vulture Capitalism’. One of the examples she uses is the Boeing 737 Max disasters. Boeing prioritized cost-cutting and profit maximization over safety, leading to the introduction of a faulty software system (MCAS) that ended up causing fatal crashes. After the Disasters, however, Boeing received a significant bailout from the U.S. government.

Blakeley's core argument is that capitalism was never about the free market. Moreover, what distinguishes capitalism from socialism is not the size of state and the level of intervenention: it is where power lies. She thus defines capitalism through a Marxist class distinction where power lies with the capitalists. In socialism, the difference is that power lies with the working class.

Monopoly Consumes Democracy 

Clearly, the consequences of this are not just economic, but also political. 

As capital concentrates at the top, power follows. Therefore, elites and big corporations can whisper in the ear of politicians to push the economic decisions that suit their interests. Where does that leave us? Oligarchy. It follows that what is needed is a democratisation of the economy. An economy for the people and by the people where the citizens’ demands and concerns are the focus of policy. 

What could this look like?

Instead of producing more yachts, basic goods -which are currently in shortages- could be provided such as food, healthcare or the clean energy needed to save our planet. 

Instead of endless economic growth, we could choose to create a fairer distribution of income and resources.

Instead of depleting finite resources for profit, we could opt for a sustainable model of economics that strives to protect the lives of future generations and not to increase GDP.

Instead of measuring solely profit, we could place more value on human wellbeing and happiness.

This would also require a dramatic restricting of our society. One that would not be a society of consumers but of citizens.

Instead of promoting the overcompetitive, individualistic figure, we could build communities centred on empathy and humility.

Instead of prioritising private interest, we promote the common good. 

Instead of a nationalism that preaches exclusion and superiority, we could have a patriotism that teaches us to understand ourselves as citizens sharing a mutual project. 

Democracy of Citizens, not Consumers

Is that not what citizenship really means? An obligation to your fellow other.

Rousseau tells us this: as soon as the citizens “come to prefer to serve the state with the purse rather than their person, the state is already close to ruin”.

He continues: “Thanks to laziness and money, they end up with soldiers to enslave the country and deputies to sell it.” 

“As soon as the Members of Parliament are elected, the people is enslaved.”

Unfortunately, I conclude that today, the general will, the voice of the citizens, has been silenced. The death of the body politic is real. 

Rousseau warned us.

“The legislative power (the general will) is the heart of the state, the executive power is thr brain.

A man can be an imbecile and survive, but as soon as his heart stops functioning, the creature is dead.”

But this does not have to be the case.

If we so much as dare to imagine it, the alternative appears. Deliberative democracy. People's assemblies. An economic and political system where the citizens are empowered and heard.

Then, as Rousseau envisioned, we would not be subjects, but sovereigns. 

(Do you agree? Do you have anything to add? What do you believe about the way our economic and political systems should work? 

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