Democracy Paradox Podcast
About the Episode:

Political scientist Rachel Beatty Riedl joins host Justin Kempf to examine how extreme economic inequality and the growing power of transnational elites have contributed to democratic backsliding. Drawing on experiences from Africa and other third-wave democracies, Riedl explains how concentrated wealth can weaken states, distort political competition, and prevent citizens’ preferences from being represented equally in government.

 

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Show Notes:

The third wave of democratization coincided with widespread economic liberalization, creating optimism that political and economic competition would reinforce one another. In this latest episode of the Democracy Paradox podcast, Rachel Beatty Riedl argues that, over time, this relationship has changed. What she describes as “late-stage neoliberal extractive capitalism” has concentrated enormous wealth among a small transnational elite, limiting the ability of national governments to regulate markets, collect taxes, provide public services, and respond to their citizens.

Riedl explains that democracy depends not only on participation and political competition but also on citizens’ preferences being weighted equally in the conduct of government. Extreme inequality undermines this principle by giving economic elites disproportionate influence over candidates, policies, information systems, and public debate. Although neoliberal reforms were intended to distribute economic power more broadly, privatization often benefited politically connected individuals who then used their new wealth to shape political systems in their favor.

These dynamics are especially consequential in smaller and less economically developed countries. Drawing on the example of Benin, Riedl describes how Patrice Talon transformed control over key economic sectors into political power. More broadly, she argues that competition for Africa’s natural resources has created a kind of global resource curse, as corporations, foreign governments, and wealthy individuals seek influence over the countries whose resources they hope to extract.

Closing countries off from the global economy is not the solution, Riedl says. Instead, societies need stronger and more responsive democratic institutions capable of holding political and economic elites accountable. Although she worries that technological change, social fragmentation, and concentrated capital will make the coming years difficult, she retains hope in citizens’ ability to organize, demand their rights, and use democracy’s self-correcting mechanisms to build more inclusive governments.

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