Is Democracy Possible without Economic Equality?

“Until there is economic equality, political equality is just talk.”

In earlier articles in this series we have described in detail exactly why democracy is no longer up to the task of managing a complex and crisis-torn planet. Starting with “Democracy — The Primary Fatal Flaw” and then “Democracy — The Other Fatal Flaws,” we then presented a progressive, radical alternative towards creating a Democratic Meritocracy. We now introduce Economic Equality as an essential condition for a true democracy:

“I want to say firstly that the democracy that exists today is not a complete democracy. And secondly, democracy cannot be complete until we create a system for economic equality. Political equality alone cannot make democracy complete: those who are economically unequal may be called politically equal, but in reality they are not equal.

“Until there is economic equality, political equality is just talk; equality will be just a plaything in the hands of a few people. So, here in India there is democracy and in other countries such as America there is also democracy — but even in America that democracy is partial. Democracy cannot be complete until an atmosphere of economic equality also emerges.