Lindblom - The Market System - Afghan Journalists' Committee

228 What To Make of Itfor example, and of other developing nations are often frustratedby the weaknesses of their governments. Citizenpower requires strong governmental powers.Moreover, whether governments abuse their authoritydepends on the rules, rooted in custom or law, that in eachnation govern the political behavior of elites. In well-establisheddemocracies, chief executives do not call out the armyto maintain their power after losing an election. And theyknow that if they were to call the army, it would not answer.In less well established democracies, the effectively operatingpolitical rules are different; coups are possible. How thecivil service or the judiciary behaves similarly depends onthe rules they follow. Nor does a large, hence “powerful,”army threaten democracy more than a small one. The size ofthe threat depends on the customary and legal rules that officersand those under their command follow.Democratic governments today exercise much greaterpowers than in early to mid eighteenth century: powers totax, to manage money and credit, to regulate enterprises, totransfer income through social welfare payments, and thelike. Democracy has not suffered from these powers—thedemocracies have not been on Hayek’s “road to serfdom.”Many observers would argue that these very powers are evidenceof growing democratic control over the state. Norhas the repeated vast exercise of wartime powers, includingmilitary conscription, undermined democracy.What Needs ExplainingIt is a second remarkable fact—perhaps we should say astonishing—thatno democratic nation-state has ever attemptedto eliminate its market system. That is the hardfact that needs explaining: not why democracy requires the