Lindblom - The Market System - Afghan Journalists' Committee

Necessary to Democracy? 227cratic central-planning state does not at all deny that it toomay be possible. Perhaps the tie between democracy andmarket system is merely a historical accident and will intime disappear. What do we know about the historical connection?A frequent answer is that, if a state through central planningputs an end to the market system, the state then becomesso powerful as to destroy democracy. The postulatedsequence is democracy, then removal of the market system,consequently the end of democracy. Since never in historyhas there been a democratic central planning state, no suchsequence is to be found in history. It cannot explain the historicaltie.What might happen if a democratic state abolished themarket system is an interesting question even if it cannotexplain why in history the two are tied together. The commonhypothesis is that a state powerful enough to engage incentral planning in the absence of a market system would,because of its powers, destroy democratic controls over it.It is an appealing argument but embarrassingly simpleminded.It says that more power in one location—the government—impliesless power elsewhere—among citizens.But the proposition that more power at one location meansless at another is not generally correct, even though it holdsin some circumstances. If citizens are to exercise powerover the Internet, for example, that will require new powers,not fewer, in the hands of regulatory agencies, nationaland international.Historians have often noted that the power of citizens tocompel their governments to undertake programs desiredby citizens requires not weak governments but authoritystrong enough to tax and administer. The citizens of India,