Capitalism and democracy are often thought of as the twin pillars that enabled the peace and prosperity of modern life. Distributed economic decision-making generates wealth, while distributed political decision-making serves as a bulwark against tyranny. But what if, instead of being complementary, these two forces are actually in constant tension? What happens when the pursuit of private interests oversteps its bounds by capturing public institutions, biasing regulatory frameworks to reward well-connected industry titans? Or what about when utopian ideologies infiltrate private enterprises, directing the flow of capital away from efficient market outcomes and towards transformational social justice?
