Economic dependence on wage labor hollows out political citizenship.

Evidence

A few months after the end of World War I, moral philosopher Zino Zini gave a lecture titled “From Citizen to Producer.” He argued that the citizen as commonly viewed in a capitalist democracy is a passive individual, “theoretically sovereign, but in fact, only so on election day; the rest of the time, he is nothing but a subject subordinated to laws and regulations, drafted and promulgated without his actual participation.” The citizen lives a political servitude founded on economic servitude: How much do our votes really count when our options are circumscribed by market dependence and wage labor? The inequality of classes within the matrix of production effectively prevents any genuinely democratic relationship between free human beings. Instead, Zini argues, we must become active producers: participating on equal terrain in the construction and change of our social reality. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 406

Categorization

• DEFINE: Articulates the core conceptual link between economic servitude and sham political sovereignty.
• APHORISMS: The line ‘How much do our votes really count when our options are circumscribed by market dependence and wage labor’ reads as durable political wisdom.
• XREF: Connects to the chapter’s title thesis ‘Democracy is anti-capitalism’ and to the reading purpose on alternatives to capitalism. — connects to: Real political participation requires eliminating economic inequality as a cause of unequal political access. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2342; Political freedom is impossible when economic dependence forces people to sell their labor — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 533; Formal political equality masks deep economic servitude that hollows out democracy — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 406 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Political freedom is impossible when economic dependence forces people to sell their labor #corroborates (0.90) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 533
• Formal political equality masks deep economic servitude that hollows out democracy #corroborates (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 406
• Austerity-driven unemployment stripped organized labor of its political power in Britain. #exemplifies (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1503
• Defunding public services structurally forces wage-dependence and demobilizes workers #expands (0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 145
• Economization displaces democratic self-rule and its supporting institutions. #expands (0.72) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 15