Destroying Democracy: Neoliberal Capitalism and the Rise of Authoritarian Politics

A history of the erosion of democracy across the globe

Democracy is being destroyed. This is a crisis that expresses itself in the rising authoritarianism visible in divisive and exclusionary politics, populist political parties and movements, increased distrust in fact-based information and news, and the withering accountability of state institutions. Over the last four decades, democracy has radically shifted to a market democracy in which all aspects of human, non-human and planetary life are commodified, with corporations becoming more powerful than states and their citizens. This is how neoliberal capitalism functions at a systemic level and if left unchecked, is the greatest threat to democracy and a sustainable planet.

Volume six of the Democratic Marxism series focuses on how decades of neoliberal capitalism have eroded the global democratic project and how, in the process, authoritarian politics are gaining ground. Scholars and activists from the political left focus on four country cases – India, Brazil, South Africa and the United States of America – in which the COVID-19 pandemic has fuelled and highlighted the pre-existing crisis. They interrogate issues of politics, ecology, state security, media, access to information and political parties, and affirm the need to reclaim and re-build an expansive and inclusive democracy.

Destroying Democracy is an invaluable resource for the general public, activists, scholars and students who are interested in understanding the threats to democracy and the rising tide of authoritarianism in the global south and the global north.

Jane Duncan (Author)
Jane Duncan is a professor in the Department of Journalism, Film and Television at the University of Johannesburg.



Linda Gordon (Author)
Linda Gordon is a professor of History and University Professor of the Humanities at New York University.



Gunnett Kaaf (Author)
Gunnett Kaaf is a fiscal policy research manager in the Free State Provincial Treasury, and a Marxist activist and writer based in Bloemfontein.



Dale T McKinley (Author)
Dale T McKinley is an independent writer, researcher and lecturer as well as research and education officer for the International Labour, Research and Information Group.



Alf Gunvald Nilsen (Author)
Alf Gunvald Nilsen is a professor of Sociology at the University of Pretoria.



Devan Pillay (Author)
Devan Pillay is an associate professor and former head of the Department of Sociology at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.



Mandla J Radebe (Author)
Mandla J Radebe is a communication practitioner, senior research associate at the University of Johannesburg’s School of Communication and a Fellow of the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study.



Alfredo Saad-Filho (Author)
Alfredo Saad-Filho is a professor of International Development at King’s College London, and most recently author of The Age of Crisis: Neoliberalism, the Collapse of Democracy, and the Pandemic (2021).

Ingar Solty (Author)
Ingar Solty is a senior research fellow in Foreign, Peace and Security Policy at the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung’s Institute for Critical Social Analysis in Berlin.



Michelle Williams (Editor)
Michelle Williams is associate professor in Sociology and chairperson of the Global Labour University programme at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

Vishwas Satgar (Editor)
Vishwas Satgar, a democratic eco-socialist, is Associate Professor of International Relations at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.