Article



Dados vol. 26 n. 1 Rio de Janeiro 1983

A Democracia Partidária Competitiva e o Welfare State Keynesiano: Fatores de Estabilidade e Desorganização

Offe, Claus

Abstract

The author discusses the possibilities for the existence and coexistence of a market economy and a mass democracy in the advanced capitalist countries in the 1980's. He begins by refuting the hypothesis, common both to 19th century liberalism and classical Marxism, concerning the impossibility of coexistence between capitalism and the extension of democratic rights. He shows next how, contrary to 19th century theoreticians' perceptions, two special arrangements make possible the support of this apparent paradox throughout the 20th century - the system of interparty competition and the Keynesian welfare state. The author agrees with the principles laid down in the 20th century by Michels, Rose Luxemburg, and Weber regarding the emergence and growth of the modem mass parties and their importance for the survival of democratic freedoms. The other great source of stability, the Keynesian welfare state, faces today a relative failure which results from its own success in achieving a harmonious relation between labor and capital. Resulting from a process of mutual concessions and negotiations, the social and economic gains which accrued to workers in the wake of capitalism's success were increased in the countries where socialdemocratic governments came to power after World War II. The author concludes with a question as to wheter such arrangements can remain in the face of new questions which came to the fore.

Full text

A Democracia Partidária Competitiva e o Welfare State Keynesiano: Fatores de Estabilidade e Desorganização