Power Struggles in Capitalist Democracies and the Fate of American Labo

Power Struggles in Capitalist Democracies and the Fate of American Labor UnionsTo some, capitalistic democracy conjures up the picture of a utopia where the free market is attach to by individual liberty and social justice. To others, however, the term is more akin a paradoxdespite tremendous economic power, the advanced industrial nations are not immune from the evils of socio-political inequality as well as economical disparity. Amongst the capitalist democracies of the world, it is an established and well-known fact that when compared with the advanced industrial countries in Europe, the United States has the worst condition of economical-political inequality and social injustice. Its organisation is the least progressive, and its social inequalities the most deplorable. To explain the condition in the U.S. today, both the customaryity of capitalistic democracies and the peculiarities the American system employsas well as this systems political and historical developmentmust b e examined and explored. As Joshua Cohen and Joel Rogers articulated in On Democracy, a capitalist democracy is one that if it is not just capitalism, still less is it just democracy (Cohen 50). Indeed, despite the discernible political equality in a system that nowadays guarantees universal suffrage, the dominate socio-political structure in the United States and most western European countries does not allowneither by intention nor in radiation patternfree and equal competition between the capital and labor. Cohen and Rogers theorize that at the heart of this disparity lies what they call the demand modesty and the resource constraint. In summation, the demand constraint states that because of the fact that the entire capitalistic econom... ...rlett, Donald L and James B. Steele. Fantasy Islands. Time. November 16, 1998. Ideas & Institutions in American Society Course Reader, newborn York University. Spring 2001.Clawson, Dan and Alan Neustadtl, Denise Scott. Money Talks Corpo rate PACs and Political Influence. 1992. Cohen, Joshua and Joel Rogers. Structure. On Democracy. New York Penguin, 1983. Government. Encyclopedia Britannica. Web ed. http//www.britannica.comIndiana Historical Society. Eugene V. Debs. 22 April 2001. http//www.indianahistory.org/inheritance/evdebs.htmlJudis, John. The Paradox of American Democracy. New York Pantheon, 2000.Lane, Charles. Kohl Train. The New Republican Online. 18 February 2001. 20 April 2001. http//www.thenewrepublic.com/021400/lane021400.htmlPiven, Frances Fox and Richard A. Cloward. Why Americans Dont Vote. New York Pantheon, 1989.