Private Power and Democracy's Decline
How to Make Capitalism Support Democracy
Book •
Mordecai Kurz's Private Power and Democracy's Decline examines how technology, culture, and policy interact to concentrate economic and political power under free-market capitalism.
He argues that unchecked market forces and strategies like patent pyramids and acquisitions make monopoly power persistent, eroding democratic agency and increasing inequality.
Kurz distinguishes technologies that augment human productivity from those that replace labor, and proposes regulatory reforms—patent limits, stricter merger controls, monopoly profit taxation, and higher top marginal taxes—to rebalance capitalism in favor of democracy.
The book combines economic analysis with political theory and practical policy recommendations aimed at preserving livelihoods and human dignity amid technological change.
Kurz frames democracy as the means to choose humane technological design and protect widespread employment against destructive automation.
He argues that unchecked market forces and strategies like patent pyramids and acquisitions make monopoly power persistent, eroding democratic agency and increasing inequality.
Kurz distinguishes technologies that augment human productivity from those that replace labor, and proposes regulatory reforms—patent limits, stricter merger controls, monopoly profit taxation, and higher top marginal taxes—to rebalance capitalism in favor of democracy.
The book combines economic analysis with political theory and practical policy recommendations aimed at preserving livelihoods and human dignity amid technological change.
Kurz frames democracy as the means to choose humane technological design and protect widespread employment against destructive automation.
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652: Can Democracy Survive Free Market Capitalism? (with Professor of Economics Emeritus at Stanford University, Mordecai Kurz)
