The Becomings of Capitalism and Liberal Democracy: A Materialist, Micropolitical Contribution to Political Sociology

Recent commentaries increasingly identify threats to liberal democracy posed by new authoritarianisms, populisms, nationalisms and super-rich elites, with historical parallels made with the rise of fascism in 20th century Germany and elsewhere. This article frames these threats within a sociological, materialist and micropolitical analysis of the interactions between contemporary capitalism and liberal democracy. In place of extensive yet unresolved debates in political philosophy, political science and political sociology over whether liberal democracy and capitalism are complementary or competitive social formations, it applies a post-Deleuzian ethological and micropolitical analysis, to explore the social capacities of liberal democracy, capitalism and the capitalist state. It first offers a monist analysis of the pivotal role of the capitalist state and establishes an ethology of the assemblages of capitalism and liberal democracy. Then the article explores the micropolitics of threats to capitalist liberal democracy via two case studies on terrorist attacks on minority ethnic groups and the rise of platform capitalism. The insights gleaned from these analyses supplies a basis from which to evaluate sociologically the contemporary challenges to liberal democracy.