About this source
Martin Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times, draws on his book 'The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism' to explain why market capitalism and liberal democracy depend on each other — and why both are now failing. The episode covers concentrated wealth, demagogue cycles, post-war compact erosion, and reform pathways.
Frameworks extracted
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Popperian Incrementalism — Reform Not Revolution
Every revolution resets to the starting point; only sequenced reform builds forward
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The Rentier Capitalism Wealth-Power Flywheel
Wealth buys political rules that protect wealth — the self-reinforcing loop that stalls reform
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The Mid-Century Social Compact
Post-war prosperity was built on explicit inclusion — its erosion explains today's political rage
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The Demagogue Cycle
Economic grievance + elite failure = the ancient pattern that ends in tyranny
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Democratic Capitalism as Complementary Opposites
Democracy and capitalism need each other — but inequality pulls them apart