Market Economies and Authoritarian Rule. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy in the Twenty-first Century

The paper argues the inadequacy of some received definitions of social systems, which have been inherited from social and political thought in the 19th and 20th centuries, underlying the urgency to reconsider the concepts to think of social systems in contemporary societies. The binary opposition of the market economy versus the planned economy does not provide a fruitful conceptual frame to capture the diversity of contemporary economies. A variety of mixed forms of market economies have emerged, which should be analysed for understanding the cleavages in contemporary societies in terms of social and political hierarchy. The contemporary puzzle about social systems in states around the world is the combination of the global expansion of market economies, jointly with the still-pervasive presence of authoritarian regimes. To improve the understanding of contemporary mixed forms, it is necessary to look at the forms of state power along with the forms of economic organisation. Governance and political rights frame the way social interaction works, and the capabilities and resources which are available. The welfare perspective involves looking at the access to the range of capabilities that freedom in civil and political rights offer.