History of Capitalism, Anarchism and Democracy

During the Age of Enlightenment, people were experiencing many problems and didn't have a solution for the problems. Ideology was a belief that was born to help people take positive action to improve their conditions. This paper will discuss the similarities and differences of capitalism, anarchism, and democracy in terms of government and politics.

Capitalism was evolved to reject the ideas of mercantilism. "Mercantilism was a theory that was prominent in the 1600s and 1700s. Mercantilism was the use of economic monopolies and colonial exploitation in efforts to increase their wealth and political powers." (Baradat 2006, 292) Adam Smith was the father of capitalism and developed capitalism as a liberal challenge to mercantilist of his time. "Capitalism is an economic and social system in which investments, distributions, income, production, and pricing of goods are determined through the operation of a market economy." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism, 1) The decline of mercantilism was led by Adam Smith and David Hume. Adam Smith challenged fundamental mercantilist doctrines with his 1776 book The Wealth of Nations.

Smith was confident that a nation's wealth was not determined by the amount of gold found in its treasury. (Baradat 2006, 81) Smith suggested that a nation's wealth was determined by its productivity. By the 18^th century, industrial capitalism was made possible by the accumulation of capital under the merchant phase of capitalism and using it to invest in machinery. The rise of the Industrial revolution was the decline of mercantilism. Industrial capitalism was the development of the factory system of manufacturing, division of labor between and within the work process and the routine process of work tasks. The global domination of the capitalist mode of production was established from this process. During the Industrial revolution, the merchant was replaced with the industrialist as dominant in the system of capitalism. Also, the Industrial revolution affected the decline traditional skills of artisans, guilds, and journeymen. Smith was an advocate of laissez-faire which was the demand that the government should pursue no economic policy. By the 1840's, laissez-faire was favored over mercantilism in Britain. "Britain embraced liberalism, encouraging competition, and the development of a market economy." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism , 1)

By the end of the 19^th century, Social Darwinism had become very popular in the United States. Social Darwinism was advanced by Herbert Spencer and was coined as the phrase "Survival of the Fittest". "After all, it was little more than a chance of history that the scion of Anglo-Saxon liberalism would sprout on the other side of the Atlantic, institutionalize its heritage with independence, and expand across one of the most habitable and thinly populated territories in the world, feed off of massive immigration from Europe, and so create on a continental scale what was and still is by far the world's largest concentration of economic and military might." (Gat, A 2007, 1) Unfortunately, the rich were exploiting the poor to gain more power and riches.

The Progressive Era was the decline Social Darwinism. Also, the New Deal was developed during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt helped with the abandonment of Social Darwinism. In the 1980's, during the time that Ronald Reagan was president the doctrine of economic individualism came into play. President Reagan limited government involvement in the economy and celebrated the free marketplace being in control of goods. Reagan was an advocate on entrepreneurship and encourages individuals to seek their own opportunities. There was a big gap between the rich and poor and homelessness was very common. Moreover, the American capitalism system is historically a successful and productive economic system.

Capitalism was strongly influenced by Max Weber in the 19^th century. In addition, Weber expressed that the rise of the entrepreneur spirit in the political and cultural realms was the cause of capitalism. Also, Weber thought that the entrepreneur spirit was related to religion. Moreover, Weber felt that capitalism was the most advance economic system that was built during the course of human history. Also, capitalism was the advance of Business Corporation, public credit, and the further advance of bureaucracy. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism , 1) Furthermore, Weber saw capitalism as a threat to traditional cultural values and institutions.

Throughout history, capitalism has been the subject of strong criticism from critics. In addition, the American Capitalism has the greatest advantages for the wealthy. The wealthy is able to take advantage of the most lucrative tax advantages. The wealthy is able to buy tax advantages that the poor and wealthy can't afford. In addition, social security tax is not collected on anyone that's making 90,000 and above. "Hence, the Social Security tax is heavily regressive, with the wealthy paying only a tiny fraction of their income to the tax, compared to almost a tenth of the income of the less well to do." (Baradat 2006, p. 84) Also, the wealthy receives an advantage on income tax because the wealthy makes their money off of long term capital gains. The tax rate made on money from work is between 10 and 35 percent. The tax rate that's made from money that is a long term capital investment is between 5 and 15 percent. Also, it is profitable for an investor to risk a loss because the investor can write that loss off on his taxes. There are so many advantages for the wealthy in the American capitalist system that wealth will accumulate in fewer hands. There are suggestions that there is something wrong with the economic system. The economic system is supposed to demonstrate bias and favor the wealthy group. Capitalism is dependent on private enterprise and need private capital investment to function. "The most efficient way of creating private capital is to concentrate huge amounts of money in the hands of a tiny minority of the people rather than spreading it out more equally among the masses. The fortunately few, the wealthy, then put their amassed fortunes into capital investments, increasing productivity. The increased productivity is then divided between the wealthy, in the form of profits to be reinvested, and the masses, as improved living and working conditions."( Baradat 2006, 86) Capitalism is dependent on the monopolization of wealth. Government policies are designed to ensure the monopolization. The criticism is how true the principles of individualism and laissez-faire are when the government can openly intervene to ensure that money remains in the hands of the wealthy.

Anarchism was a reaction to the growing power of the government and the influence of capitalism. "Anarchism is the philosophy of social affiliation unrestricted by law, government, or hierarchies of power, in which free groupings of women and men join together for the common good." (Falk 1998, 1) Anarchism is a pure expression of political thought because it relies on human self government. Anarchism came about during the Industrial Revolution because of the need to have social organization without the institutional government. It wasn't until the 19th century when anarchism took on as an ideology and a political movement. The anarchism is misunderstood in the United States but has become popular among right wing extremists and enthusiasts. Also, anarchism is popular among some left wing extremist because the fear of globalization. Some people see anarchism and anarchy as interchangeable. Anarchists believe that humans have out grown the need for a government. Anarchists believe that government was created to make human development easy but the government prevent people from fulfilling their potential. Anarchists believe that humans know how to conduct their selves with out enforcement from the government. The United States see anarchist as a violent group because violence was associated with anarchism at the turn of the century. The anarchism movement can be violent or nonviolent depending on the theory. Also, people thought that anarchism was associated with leftist ideology. Anarchism can be found on the left or the right of the political spectrum. Anarchist would like to reduce or eliminate government control and leaving the individual to pursue their best interests. Leftists view people as a whole and don't believe that people can e evaluated apart from a group. Social anarchism is the best known form of anarchism because of the enormous selection of literature that's published on the subject. Social anarchists are advance to the right of the political spectrum and there a lot of social anarchists in the United States. Individual anarchists believe that each individual person has to achieve success without help from the government. "The principle of owness," as max Stirner called it, suggests that humanity is best served when people advance or fall back in relation to their individual abilities." (Baradat 2006, 135) Also, individual anarchist doesn't believe in welfare programs, affirmative action policies, and progressive income taxes. The militant civilian movement is an example of individualist anarchism.

William Godwin is the founder of modern anarchism. Godwin was devoted to human equality and was the first philosopher of modern times to advocate gender equality and social equality. Godwin published a very important work which was The Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and this work established him as a leading critic. In this work, Godwin suggested that all people were equal and rational. Also, people should be left to their own impulses and will naturally create a society that all will benefit. In addition, others will not suffer at the hands of other people.

Pierre Joseph Proudhon was able to give anarchism the philosophical depth and economic perspective that made it competitive ideology in the modern world. Pierre Joseph was the first person calls himself a anarchist. The title of Pierre Joseph Proudhon's best know book was What is Property. Proudhon was a teacher of the labor theory of value. The labor theory of value is the theory that the value of any object is determined by the amount of labor needed to produce it. Proudhon raised a question in the book title what is Property and answer that question by saying that property is theft. Proudhon was saying that all unearned property was stolen from the workers that produced the property. Proudhon felt there wasn't a need for the government or any other institution. Proudhon believed that government denied the people of human rights and earned property. He felt that only the wealthy was benefiting from the government. This was the birth of anarcho syndication and it was a big influence in the French Labor movement and other countries labor movement. Proudhon proposed the idea of restructuring society into voluntary groups of workers. Proudhon felt that he could restructure society by using syndicates and syndicates would provide the service of the government. Syndicalism would be voluntary and the state would pay for all expenses. Syndicalism would liberate the worker capitalism and government. "Frustrated by the growing complexity of modern bureaucracy and decrying the lack of morality in state policy. Proudhon condemned authority as corrupt and decadent." (Baradat 2006, 137)

In history, Mikhail Bakunin was one of the best known anarchist was considered the founder of violent anarchism. Mikhail Bakunin was an advocate of violence, terrorism, destruction, revolution and atheism. Mikhail Bakunin was passionate about the government being the biggest obstacles that preventing mankind from achieving liberty. Bakunin was a radical and more radical than his counterpart Marx. Bakunin felt that revolution would come about by arming the criminals or underworld of society. Bakunin rejected all ideas of conformity because society was trying to trap the spirit. Mikhail spent most of his life in prison, imprisonment and exile,

Capitalism has accelerated with the collapse of the Soviet Union. There is a new dimension of control and regimentation that's brewing in the Soviet Union. There has been some criticism of the newly created World Trade Organization which is a body facilitate international trade. Some leftist has condemned the World Trade Organization and it's outgrowing the nation state government regulations. Leftist feel that the WTO is becoming a super government that's being controlled by corporations. It is believe that this organization is taking advantage of the individual and is engaging in ruthless, unchecked worldwide labor exploitation. World Trade Organization is considered a threat and has breath new life into anarchism. In 1999, there was a dramatic confrontation between World Trade Organization and the new economic world order at a World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, Washington. The protest turned violent because the police overreacted to the demonstrators. There are criticisms of anarchism because anarchism has been associated with violence. Another problem is the idea of overthrowing the government and people are in charge of self government. There are some good ideas behind the theory of anarchism and anarchism could work in some society. Moreover, I don't think anarchism would be possible in the Unite States society.

Democracy is simply that every human is created equal. Also, every human has a right to say who governs them and how they are govern. "The act of popular consent to government is explained by the theories of popular sovereignty and the social contract." (Baradat 2006, 61) Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean Jacques Rousseau were considered the principal social contract philosophers. In the beginning, Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau believed there was no government and humans were able to be rational.

Social was the process of creating and organizing a government. The features and definition of government has never really been decided by the experts. Also, democracy is considered to be simply a way of making decisions. Process democrats expressed there is really no real philosophy or theory of democracy. Process democrats see democracy as a agreement among citizens that the majority vote will carry the issue or that one branch of government will not reach too far into the functions of another branch. (Baradat 2006, 62) The American government is a republic government because representatives make laws for the people. Liberal democracy is a principal of democracy that the individual is very important in society and each individual is equal to all other individuals. The United States is a liberal democracy. Meaning, citizens make political decisions by voting and use specific legal and administrative procedures to protect people liberties. An example of these procedures is the right to due process. Moreover, process democrats feel that the government should improve life for all people and the people should have some degree of control of the government. The assumption is that everyone wants to be free. The liberal democrats established the freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly and many more freedoms. There are 220 national constitutions that are acting as a democracy.

Throughout history, the idea of democracy has not always been popular or considered a good government system. The Greeks practice direct democracy by only allowing the men to vote on government policy. Furthermore, the system evolved into an authoritarian system and democracy lost its acceptance with this system. For Plato, the meaning of democracy was the meaning ruled by the mob. Plato say there was very little people of high quality in society and there were more people of low quality in society. Moreover, if all people were allowed to rule the low quality people would out rule the high quality people. Plato felt that a democracy government would be short lived and democracy would be destroyed. Aristotle felt that democracy was a good form of government but preferred to be governed by aristocracy. Aristotle felt that the upper class should make the decisions for the good of all society.

During the Industrial Revolution, there were a lot of social and economic problems. These problems led people to ponder individualism. In addition, people thought about equality for each individual and an equal share of wealth for the individual. The idea of individualism was eliminate the ability to rule anyone and the powers would shift. There still was a need for governors to maintain order and the leaders should be chosen by a community at a whole. In the 17^th century, the people should contain the legal and political authority. This led to the theory of popular sovereignty which led to the speculation of democracy. Popular sovereignty resulted into the social contract.

Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau were very important to the social contract theory. Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau were similar and different on some issues with social contract. There were three points that Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau agreed on concerning social contract. First, Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau believed that government was not a natural condition and that people had live at some point with no government. Second, Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau believed in natural law and should be measure by human conduct. Third, Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau believed that all humans were rational and capable of solving their own problems with reason.

Hobbes was an advocate of monarchy as the best possible form of government. Hobbes was not a follower of the theory of the divine rights of kings. Hobbes expressed that the social contract was the source of royal power. Hobbes had a negative view of people and felt that people were self serving. Hobbies felt that people were rational but people were out of control of their life. Hobbes felt that this recklessness was driven by the fear of death. In addition, the fear of the death was the cause of the aggression people express toward each other. During the time before government, Hobbes suspected that people were violent chaotic, irresponsible in the state of nature. Hobbes believed and expressed that political powers came from people and not God. This theory led people to the concept of the separation of state and church.

John Locke was history's leading classical liberal and believed in the natural law. Natural law was that each individual was entitled to certain natural rights that could not be legally taken away without due process of law. Each individual is equally subject to the natural law and each person owes every other person a degree of respect and consideration that's not owed to unequals. These alienable rights were summarized as life, liberty, and estate. "He held that individual freedoms were an essential right; indeed, its important to his theory would be hard to exaggerate." (Baradat 2006, 69) Locke felt that people were good by nature and when solve their own problems. Locke felt that the restraints of the government were unnecessary to keep order among the people. Basically, people should allow to be free as long on there's no interference with other people freedom. Individual equality was another right that was guaranteed by the natural law. Locke felt that every person had a equal claim to the natural law. Locke was the first important philosopher to integrate economics into political theory. Locke's writing made people aware of the importance of economics to political motivation and behavior. The importance of economics was the basis for economic determinism. Economic determinism is a theory that's important to leftist thinking and Locke invented the modern left. Locke discusses political economics within the context of individual liberty. Locke believed that private property was essential for people provide and live. The assumptions of high status were that the accumulation of private property allowed people to provide for their family and Locke believed that the property reflected the owner. These ideas were a big contribution to democracy and led other thinkers to adopt these ideas.

For the past six years, the U.S. government has been trying to make Iraq a democratic government. The aim of the foreign policy of George Bush administration is to spread democracy abroad and taking steps to make this happen. The government has the military station in Iraq and Afghanistan but not succeeding at forming a democracy. The spread of democracy seem to be a pattern for American president but it seems that American democracy can't be spread to other countries. For example, the Clinton administration attempted to establish a democracy in Somalia but democracy failed to take form in this country. This doesn't mean that democracy has failed because of Washington's unsuccessful attempts. "To the contrary, in the last quarter of the twentieth century this form of government enjoyed a remarkable rise. Once confined to a handful of wealthy countries, it became, in a short period of time, the most popular political system in the world. In 1900, only ten countries were democracies; by mid-century, the number had increased to 30, and 25 years later the count remained the same. By 2005, fully 119 of the world's 190 countries had become democracies." (Mandelbaum 2007, 1)

Democracy has experience a lot of criticism over then years and still is criticize. I think the main criticize of democracy is the control of the wealthy and the government is unfair to the poor. People feel that the government is motivated by money and does everything to keep money circulating among the wealthy. Presently, I think since President Bush has been in office there has been a lot of jobs lost and inflation. For example, it costs 3.00 to per gallon to fill your gas tank and minimum wage is at 5.40 in the state of Georgia. Democracy seems to be set up so that people make their advantages and to pursue entrepreneurship. There are many things wrong with democracy but it's functional. Moreover, I don't think that American democracy is something that will work for other countries.

There are many similarities and differences between capitalism, anarchism, and democracy. The ideology of these concepts has help to shape the government of this present time. Ideology is important to find out what works and what doesn't work in our society.

Bibliography

Gat, A. (2007). The Return of Authoritarian Great Powers.. Foreign Affairs (pp. 59-69). US: Foreign Affairs. Retrieved December 16, 2007, from History Reference Center database.

Falk, C. (1998). Anarchism.. Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History (pp. 30-31). Houghton Mifflin. Retrieved December 16, 2007, from History Reference Center database.

Mandelbaum, M. (2007). Democracy Without America.. Foreign Affairs (pp. 119-130). US: Foreign Affairs. Retrieved December 16, 2007, from History Reference Center database.

Baradat, Leon P.(2006). Political ideologies 9^th ed. Prentice Hall, 2006.

www.wikipedia.org/Capitalism

www.wikipedia.org/Anarchism

www.wikipedia.org/democracy