Democracy and freedom on the ferry of Medusa: theoretical reflections on the ‘stormy seas’ of neoliberal finance

Abstract

This text discusses, based on worldviews shaped within capitalist society, the inherent determinations of the centrality of the liberal individualist perspective and its connections with the democratic question. It addresses ideological aspects related to the scope of this centrality, while aiming to present the limits imposed both by the ideological conception and the broader dimension of social metabolism on the concrete effectiveness of real democracy and substantive freedom. It also examines the role of the State within the framework of capitalist sociometabolism and how the State-Capital-Labor connections implode the possibilities of expanding democratic reach and, consequently, freedom, particularly in the context of neoliberalism. Neoliberalism plays a major role in financial deregulation following the limits of post-war Keynesianism, seeking to boost the profits of big capital amidst the constraints of capitalist accumulation, as outlined by the general law of capitalist accumulation, while also considering the influence of the ideology of the end of history. Supported by various data and sources, it demonstrates that the concentration of income and wealth—driven by capital operating in financial markets—has a direct relationship with the erosion of democratic structures, rendering freedom unviable, except for the freedom to sell oneself as a commodity. It concludes by reflecting that effective democracy and substantive freedom depend on a rupture with capitalist sociometabolism in order to be concretely realized.