Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/334708 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 18293
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper focuses on the relationship between capitalism and the decline in democracy in the West over the past quarter-century. Using data from the V-Dem Institute, Freedom House, and the World Inequality Database, a strong correlation is found between inequality, the rise of tech billionaires, and democratic erosion. This correlation is explained by describing how tech oligarchs grow their political influence through their digital platforms, and their societal control via surveillance and influence of sense-making. The pivot of tech oligarchs toward the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) will accelerate the erosion of democracy. The implication is that efforts to regulate the digital economy to protect democracy will not be effective unless accompanied by decisive measures to break up the oligarchy and dismantle the Permanent War Economy.
Subjects: 
democracy
oligarchy
inequality
capitalism
JEL: 
P16
D31
O33
O40
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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