Daniel Markovits on How To Fix Democracy

In our second series of How to Fix Democracy, we’ve been focusing on this complicated relationship between capitalism and democracy. And in this series, we’ve had some pretty severe critics of capitalism. Richard Wolf and Gabriel Zucman for example, I wouldn’t necessarily call them traditional Marxists, but they definitely borrow quite a lot of Marxist language in their critique of 21st century capitalism and of its inequality, particularly in the relationship between capital and labor. My guest today, Daniel Markovits, who is a Professor at Yale University and the author of The Meritocracy Trap is also I think in some ways influenced by Marx. But he turns the relationship between capital and labor on its head, at least in the early 21st century. And it seems to me, maybe I’m putting words into his mouth, but it seems to me he argues that the real power in early 21st century democracy and capitalism and the thing that is indeed undermining democracy is not so much capital, but labor.

Andrew Keen: Daniel, welcome to How to Fix Democracy.

Daniel Markovits: Thank you so much for having me on. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Andrew Keen: So, Daniel, am I putting words into your mouth? Is the problem with contemporary capitalism not capital but labor?

Daniel Markovits: I think there’s a way in which you’re getting me exactly right. I think the one distinction I’d like to draw, which is important is between labor and something that we can call human capital, which is the…