1. Introduction Rebecca Fisher
Because they (citizens) press for more action to meet the problems they have to face, they require more social control. At the same time they resist any kind of social control that is associated with the hierarchical values they have learned to discard and reject. The problem may be worldwide. The Crisis of Democracy 1975 Trilateral Commission Report1
This collection is centred on the fundamental problem of creating legitimacy for capitalism: how can an inherently and profoundly antidemocratic system contain and limit dissent and at the same time present itself as ostensibly ‘democratic’? It will examine how ideological and material limits are placed on democratic practice, suppressing oppositional politics and restricting people’s freedoms in order to protect the capitalist social order from challenges for greater social, economic and political equality and freedoms. It will argue that these limits are sustained using hollowed out, carefully managed versions of ‘democracy’, which exploit the popular appeal of democratic ideals while suppressing political dissent. Thus the grand promise of social and political equality is exploited to protect a system which requires gross social and political inequality. Capitalism is dependent upon its relentless expansion and penetration into new spheres - such as land, resources and forms of labour - and consequently can permit only a very limited degree of popular participation. This is restricted to nominal political ‘rights’