Formal political equality and market exchange produce economic domination when property is unequal

Evidence

The concentration of control of these resources, however, means the majority must exchange their only produc­ tive property (their capacity to labor) for a wage or salary, thereby agree­ ing to give formal jurisdiction over their economic activities to owners and managers. Thus formal equality in the political sphere and equal exchange in competitive markets give rise to relationships of dominance and sub­ ordinacy within the confines of the capitalist enterprise. — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 582

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the specific mechanism by which formal legal equality coexists with economic subordination in capitalism.
• XREF: connects to: Formally neutral liberal states in capitalist orders produce homogeneous life outcomes, not real pluralism — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 44; Marx held that market equality masks a coercive inequality at work — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America:…, 573; Formal political equality masks deep economic servitude that hollows out democracy — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 406 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Capitalist-worker exchange is formally equal but substantively unequal #expands (0.90) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1365
• Formal political equality masks deep economic servitude that hollows out democracy #corroborates (0.88) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 406
• The class system coexisted with political equality and blocked republics #exemplifies (0.85)
• Formal political equality coexisted with birth-determined class inequality in Europe #exemplifies (0.85) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 89
• Complete political equality requires prior economic equality #expands (0.82) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 957
• Subordinating politics to markets failed to produce either freedom or equality #corroborates (0.78) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 457
• Market ideology conceals exploitation by making exchange stand in for production #complicates (0.72)