“If we define capitalism in terms of the employer-employee internal structure of its enterprises—what Marx termed their “social relations of production”—most socialisms to date have not yet accomplished transitions beyond capitalism. To do that, they would have to change the prevalent internal organization of their enterprises to democratic worker cooperatives. Indeed, that has now become the task for 21st-century socialism.”
Democracy exists if and when a community organizes its self-governance around the full participation, on an equal basis, of all the members of the community. Its other, autocracy, exists when a community organizes (or allows) its governance by an individual or subgroup of that community, a ruler. Universal suffrage is clearly a step toward at least formal democracy because voters elect leaders. How real this formal democracy is depends on the inclusivity of the population voting and the concrete reality of voters’ equal influence on the election’s outcome.
Residential communities in many parts of the modern world operate in formal democracies. However, they usually allow individuals with high levels of income and wealth to use these means to influence others in their voting, whereas individuals with low levels of income and wealth can and usually do wield less influence. The capitalist economic system
— source rdwolff.com | Richard Wolff | Sep 25, 2021