is democracy an economic concept?

Answer 1

No. Democracy has nothing to do with economics, just government.

Take both Capitalism and Socialism are democratic. Yet Fascism is not democratic but has a free market like capitalism. If you are looking for a term, these 3 examples along with Communism says something about both government and economics. But democracy is just something on the political side.

Answer 2

Democracy is certainly an economic concept, as there is no such thing as 'an economy' - every 'economy' is a shortened form of the words 'political economy' which is how the word 'economy' came into being in 1776 with Adam Smiths book the Wealth of Nations.

Poltical laws control and regulate real world economic effects.

Democracy is a poltical system ensuring the laws act for the common people or common good.

We know you can have communism without local democractic control, but can you have capitalism without democracy? Yes China illustrates this- and it may also be a free market - where the persuit of profit is unfettered by regulation or laws.

In a totally free market, the polluter would poison rivers and produce at a lower cost than the non polluter, and win market share for example. Or a pirater would simple rip off other peoples intellectual property and designs, meaning its pointless building up expensive capital and training jobs for designs where you get no rewards as they are copyied the next week.

Thats a free market - totally free of regulation.


But in a democracy, the poisonous polluter is regulated by laws set by the community who would be affected.
The community has the power to detemine the laws, benefiting from a regulated market.

A regulated market establishes copyright or patent rights for example, where the whole comunity is best served by rewarding and stimulating jobs and capital in creative industries - by granting a monopoly on thier designs and ensueing thier innovation is rewarded in the market.

So a democracy is not necessary for the growth of capital - capitalism under free markets. But it is necessary to control pollution, stop deforestation and achieve a directed, regulated form of capitalism which allows the community to impose its wishes.

Answer 3

Yes, democracy is very much an economic concept. Economics is about managing and allocating available resources to satisfy people's consumption needs. Because resources are usually limited, inevitably some people will not get what the want; some won't; sometimes many people want the same good, but only one can have it -- so there must be some system in place to decide who gets what.

Democratic politics is exactly the same thing. Government powers and laws are all also a limited resource, everybody wants something from the government and people have opposing interests. No one can get everything they want, so there must be a system in place to decide who gets what from the government.

Answer 4

Democracy is a government concept. Most closely associated with democracy is the economic concept of Capitalism, due in part because of the system the U.S. uses. It calls for a lack of government oversight in economic matters and a system based on competition.

Answer 5

No, it ,like anything and everything can be perverted to an Economic Concept, but the Greeks 4 thousand years BC sorta came up with the idea of Majority Rules, that is the foundation of Democracy.

Answer 6

Democracy is not an economic concept akin to "capitalism." Technically, Communist countries are democracies, as are many capitalist countries.

Answer 7

most people think of Democracy in economic terms and in fact it is hard to distinguish the two apart because every facet of living is economic; including freedom.