Abstract

The Cold War has ended and the post-Cold War world is often presented as one in which democracy and market economies are victorious. Francis Fukuyama goes so far as to claim that democratic politics has triumphed on a global scale.[ii] At least from a statistical point of view, most nations now declare themselves to be democracies, and a majority of the global population lives in these countries.[iii] However, the claim that the West won the Cold War too easily occludes recognition that the victory of democracy is restricted to the political sphere. While the dissolution of the Soviet Union has made the world “safe for democracy” in the political sphere, it has also made the world “safe for capitalism” in the economic sphere. In other words, the victory of democracy is partial since market economies remain largely undemocratic.