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Midwest Social Sciences Journal

Abstract

In the past few decades, the nature of capitalism has changed fast as it has lost its philosophical justification based on the principle of the common good. There have been many avatars of the idea of the “common good”: “white man’s burden to civilize the world,” “welfarism,” and “neoliberal concept of freedom of choice.” Capitalism now seems to have moved in a new direction, however, and it has failed to produce any further philosophical justification for its existence as a mode of production despite generating unprecedented economic inequality. Consequently, there is a rising tension between capitalism and democracy in societies governed by liberal democratic principles. Indications are clear that if the need arises, capitalism would abandon democracy in the name of development and security. Two things are happening simultaneously that not merely confirm this process but also support it vehemently. For one, the nature of the state is changing, becoming more and more authoritarian to smoothen this process of divorce between democracy and capitalism. Moreover, the emerging authoritarian state is supported by the technologies of social control. In the future, one can guess, these societies might witness a painful unfolding of this “techno-authoritarian state.”

Second, the promises of democracy explicitly discussed by the founding fathers of this mode of organizing society, in either capitalist or postcolonial societies, have been heavily compromised. Aside from being abandoned by the state, these principles are undermined by the “we the people” who gave themselves constitutions to govern such societies. Unfortunately, people did not recognize the gradual erasure of republican principles as the regime promised liberal democracy with unlimited freedom of choice. It reduced democracy from the model of organizing society based on liberty, equality, justice, and fraternity with delicate balance among them to a model of majoritarian governance with fractured social relationships. Instead of social sciences, literary writings could probably capture these emerging trends better. In this paper, I explore whether the rise of dystopian literature in various languages gives sufficient indications towards this emerging trend of the rise of “techno-authoritarian states” and the decline of republicanism.

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