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marmar

(76,988 posts)
Tue Jan 26, 2016, 12:20 PM Jan 2016

Richard Wolff: How Two-Party Political Systems Bolster Capitalism

How Two-Party Political Systems Bolster Capitalism

Tuesday, 26 January 2016 00:00
By Richard D. Wolff, Truthout | News Analysis


Mainstream economics has always privileged one debate above all others as its most central. Should production and distribution of goods and services be private or public, done by individuals or the state? Mainstream economists likewise keep aggressively projecting this question as the central debate for politics and politicians. Such arrogant self-confidence is the other side of the insular self-absorption that characterizes so much of the mainstream economics "discipline."

On one side of the debate are devotees of (1) private ownership of productive resources and (2) market exchanges to connect the private owners with one another and everyone else. They believe that private property and markets best serve every society's economic interests - growth, efficiency, fairness and rising mass consumption. On the other side are devotees of government economic intervention to correct, moderate or offset the many flaws and weaknesses they find in private property and markets. They believe that society's best economic interests can only be served through such an intervention. Most people interested in economics and politics have long accepted (been trapped within?) these mainstream positions as the boundaries of economic thought, research and policy.

However, a much deeper level of discussion about the intersection of politics and economics exists. It concerns economic issues ignored by the mainstream, and questions not raised but rather swept under ideological rugs. Mainstream debates in political economy conceal more than they illuminate. They never explore the complex relation between contemporary politics and the reproduction of the capitalist economic system versus transition to alternatives.

To reproduce capitalism is to continue the existence of that particular economic system. By capitalist system, we mean primarily the organization of work around the relationship of employer to employee (a relationship different from that of master to slave or lord to serf in the slave and feudal systems that often preceded modern capitalism).

Effects of the Two-Party System

For the reproduction of capitalism, the two-major-party structure dominating politics has proven very effective in most nations for some time now. While party names vary, their common relationship to reproducing capitalism does not. Examples include the Republicans and Democrats in the United States, Conservatives and Labour in the United Kingdom, Christian Democrats and Socialists in Germany, and so on. All those parties implicitly endorse and support the reproduction of capitalism, and most do so explicitly as well. The first in each pair differs from the second only on which variant of capitalism they prefer. ............(more)

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/34555-how-two-party-political-systems-bolster-capitalism




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Richard Wolff: How Two-Party Political Systems Bolster Capitalism (Original Post) marmar Jan 2016 OP
It gives the illusion of political change while limiting the actual options to the status quo ante. bemildred Jan 2016 #1
Two Party System Toons Ichingcarpenter Jan 2016 #2
love the toons! bbgrunt Jan 2016 #3
We can keep our heads in the sand without choking Ichingcarpenter Jan 2016 #5
really nice definition of dem soc. too. Needs to be shouted from the rooftops. bbgrunt Jan 2016 #6
There is a moral and ethical battle going on this planet Ichingcarpenter Jan 2016 #7
Amen! k and r bbgrunt Jan 2016 #10
Well then...all you have to do is organize a third party... brooklynite Jan 2016 #4
Lots of multi-party countries have capitalism too. Starry Messenger Jan 2016 #8
No I think its not as simple as that Ichingcarpenter Jan 2016 #9

bemildred

(90,061 posts)
1. It gives the illusion of political change while limiting the actual options to the status quo ante.
Tue Jan 26, 2016, 12:29 PM
Jan 2016

And it works very well for that. It is popular all over for that.

Ichingcarpenter

(36,988 posts)
5. We can keep our heads in the sand without choking
Tue Jan 26, 2016, 03:59 PM
Jan 2016

only if we are dead. The toons are just a sample of the visualization of the two party system that Wolfe described and its capitalistic catastrophic failure it is solving the problems for humanity..

The fat cats are out the bag and many in the world know it, see it in their lives or learn about it on the net.


They know these truths now





Third parties gave us the women's vote, labor laws
and most the progressive benefits we get as a nation.

So fuck the elite that say its just hype.


Ichingcarpenter

(36,988 posts)
7. There is a moral and ethical battle going on this planet
Tue Jan 26, 2016, 04:47 PM
Jan 2016

To win hearts and minds, but those that support the world banking system and their powers and the people that suffer from them.

There is no solutions from this two party existing right now as it exist in a system when the dealer on the bankster side deals the cards that are marked. and the records the greed of their pimps that say they are for gambling the future of humanity on a fixed deal decided on by their masters.

brooklynite

(93,879 posts)
4. Well then...all you have to do is organize a third party...
Tue Jan 26, 2016, 12:56 PM
Jan 2016

...and then convince people to vote for it.

The Populists figured out how in the 1880s, and they didn't even have the internet.

Starry Messenger

(32,342 posts)
8. Lots of multi-party countries have capitalism too.
Tue Jan 26, 2016, 04:56 PM
Jan 2016

People get too hung up on voting as the only way to alter the system they live in. Voting out right-wing candidates should just be considered a routine chore for a progressive, and then focus energy on doing work that uses that as an opening to pass reforms that add up to real qualitative change.

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