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    Private Power and Democracy's Decline

    How to Make Capitalism Support Democracy

    Author Mordecai Kurz
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    $35.00 US
    The MIT Press
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    On sale May 19, 2026 | 326 Pages | 9780262053525
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    Why unregulated free-market capitalism endangers democracy—and what to do about it.

    In Private Power and Democracy’s Decline, Mordecai Kurz explores the relationship between free-market capitalism and democracy. He shows that technology has made capitalism different from what was envisioned in the Age of Enlightenment. Technology creates centers of market power and monopoly concentration that result in a society in which some people are enriched immensely while many workers’ livelihoods are often destroyed. Contrary to conventional thinking, technological competition does not remove market power, which becomes a permanent fixture of free-market capitalism. Such private power creates political inequality and generates forces that cause democracy’s decline and possible destruction.

    Applying these ideas to the US, Kurz shows that today’s problems begin in the 1980s with the policy of unregulated free-market capitalism. Coupled with the information technology revolution, this created a techno-winner-takes-all economy—leading to a second Gilded Age of unsustainable inequality and extreme political polarization. In the last 50 years, the economy “boomed” for some while leaving the majority of America’s workers behind.

    Kurz concludes that only regulated capitalism can support democracy so that the benefits of technology are more equally shared and no person’s livelihood is destroyed to enable others to be enriched. To save democracy, he proposes a “restoration-of-livelihood” policy, offering firms managerial flexibility to maintain rising productivity while ensuring that technology does not destroy the livelihood of others.
    Included in Publishers Weekly's Spring 2026 Fiction & Nonfiction Preview

    ENDORSEMENTS

    “In this compelling, urgently important book, Mordecai Kurz offers both a bold explanation of our democratic crisis and a major contribution to economic and political theory. The ‘second Gilded Age’ of the last four decades has exposed democracy’s core contradiction. Democracy needs capitalism, but the unfettered, ‘free-market’ form of it generates extreme inequality and social and political polarization, which tear democracy apart. Moreover, the intrinsic tendency of unregulated capitalism toward monopoly power and wealth concentration has been turbocharged by the information and AI revolutions and globalization, which have been displacing workers, stagnating wages, and generating staggering new levels of private power. Public policy must contain monopoly power, reduce inequality, and broadly improve job prospects, skills, and economic security, or the surging ‘techno-winner-takes-all’ system will bring down democracy.”
    —Larry Diamond, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
    “An urgent call to curb private interests, restore pro-labor policies, and save democracy. A great book, a must-read.”
    —Thomas Piketty, Professor, Paris School of Economics; author of A Brief History of Equality
    “In this important and timely book, Mordecai Kurz shows that rising concentration increases economic inequality and interferes with political democracy. Kurz lays out a public policy agenda that would promote technological innovation while constraining monopoly power and the harmful effects of unregulated technological change on workers and citizens.”
    —Michael Reich, Chair, Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics at the Institute for Research of Labor and Employment, Professor of Economics, University of California at Berkeley

    “Capitalism is a powerful engine for technological innovation and economic growth. Yet societies everywhere are struggling to reconcile it with democracy. This superb book helps us understand why. It also offers a compelling vision that replaces free-market capitalism with a version that makes markets and democracy both work better.”
    —Dani Rodrik, Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy, Harvard Kennedy School; author of Shared Prosperity in a Fractured World

    "The struggle between oligarchy and democracy will define the 21st century. This book is an essential read for anyone who wants to understand our ‘techno-winner-takes-all’ capitalism, how it undermines democracy, and what needs to be done for democracy to prevail in this existential battle. A must-read."
    —Gabriel Zucman, Professor, Paris School of Economics; coauthor of The Triumph of Injustice

    REVIEWS

    "Argues that technological innovation has led to the accumulation of monopoly power by firms — which in turn leads to the erosion of democratic institutions when those firms try to influence their own regulation through the political system."
    —Washington Post

    "Argues the US is living through an extreme version of a pattern that has repeated itself since industrialization: technological power concentrating in the hands of a few, which is eroding democracy. . . . When the time for that reform comes, Kurz outlines what it should look like in Private Power: the government should tax and redistribute excess wealth that tech firms accumulate due to monopoly power. When workers are displaced by AI, education to help them learn new, more relevant skills should be government subsidized, as should companies who hire them. And new policies should ensure that AI technology assists workers but doesn’t replace them."
    —The Guardian

    "Analyzes how unregulated free-market capitalism and the information technology revolution in the U.S. have led to inequality and political polarization."
    —Publishers Weekly

    "Stanford economist Mordecai Kurz warns that tech monopolies are concentrating power, echoing historical patterns of influence. . . . Kurz’s analysis suggests a need for greater scrutiny and regulation of tech monopolies. If history teaches us anything, it’s that unchecked power rarely self-corrects."
    —Machine Brief

    “Kurz proposes a clear, bold and detailed policy agenda for making markets more compatible with democratic institutions, rather than simply calling for them to be replaced.”
    —Financial Times
    Mordecai Kurz is Joan Kenney Professor of Economics Emeritus at Stanford University. His books include, most recently, The Market Power of Technology.
    Mordecai Kurz View titles by Mordecai Kurz
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    Preface
    Introduction: Why Free Market Capitalism Endangers Democracy
    Part A: Basic Concepts, Profit Incentive, and Some Historical Evidence
    Chapters: 1-3
    Introduction to Part A
    Chapter 1. Some Preliminary Reflections
    Chapter 2. Economic Motives and the Quest for Power
    Chapter 3. Can We Prevent the Clash of Democracy and Capitalism by Repairing Market Failures?
    Part B: Rising Market Power, Techno-Winer-Takes-All Economy, and the Decline of Democracy
    Chapters 4 -7
    Introduction to Part B
    Chapter 4. Why Market Power Is Permanent In A Free Market Economy
    Chapter 5. The Economic Consequences of Techno-Winner-Takes-All Capitalism
    Chapter 6. The Political Fallout of Techno-Winner-Takes-All Capitalism
    Chapter 7. Why Is Democracy On The Decline?
    Historical Appendix to Chapter 7: The Decline of the Roman Republic
    Part C: Making Capitalism Support Democracy: An Integrated Policy
    Chapters 8 -9
    Introduction to Part C
    Chapter 8. An Economic Restoration Policy to Revitalize Democracy
    Chapter 9. An Integrated Policy to Make Capitalism Support Democracy
    References
    Index

    Photos

    additional book photo

    About

    Why unregulated free-market capitalism endangers democracy—and what to do about it.

    In Private Power and Democracy’s Decline, Mordecai Kurz explores the relationship between free-market capitalism and democracy. He shows that technology has made capitalism different from what was envisioned in the Age of Enlightenment. Technology creates centers of market power and monopoly concentration that result in a society in which some people are enriched immensely while many workers’ livelihoods are often destroyed. Contrary to conventional thinking, technological competition does not remove market power, which becomes a permanent fixture of free-market capitalism. Such private power creates political inequality and generates forces that cause democracy’s decline and possible destruction.

    Applying these ideas to the US, Kurz shows that today’s problems begin in the 1980s with the policy of unregulated free-market capitalism. Coupled with the information technology revolution, this created a techno-winner-takes-all economy—leading to a second Gilded Age of unsustainable inequality and extreme political polarization. In the last 50 years, the economy “boomed” for some while leaving the majority of America’s workers behind.

    Kurz concludes that only regulated capitalism can support democracy so that the benefits of technology are more equally shared and no person’s livelihood is destroyed to enable others to be enriched. To save democracy, he proposes a “restoration-of-livelihood” policy, offering firms managerial flexibility to maintain rising productivity while ensuring that technology does not destroy the livelihood of others.

    Praise

    Included in Publishers Weekly's Spring 2026 Fiction & Nonfiction Preview

    ENDORSEMENTS

    “In this compelling, urgently important book, Mordecai Kurz offers both a bold explanation of our democratic crisis and a major contribution to economic and political theory. The ‘second Gilded Age’ of the last four decades has exposed democracy’s core contradiction. Democracy needs capitalism, but the unfettered, ‘free-market’ form of it generates extreme inequality and social and political polarization, which tear democracy apart. Moreover, the intrinsic tendency of unregulated capitalism toward monopoly power and wealth concentration has been turbocharged by the information and AI revolutions and globalization, which have been displacing workers, stagnating wages, and generating staggering new levels of private power. Public policy must contain monopoly power, reduce inequality, and broadly improve job prospects, skills, and economic security, or the surging ‘techno-winner-takes-all’ system will bring down democracy.”
    —Larry Diamond, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
    “An urgent call to curb private interests, restore pro-labor policies, and save democracy. A great book, a must-read.”
    —Thomas Piketty, Professor, Paris School of Economics; author of A Brief History of Equality
    “In this important and timely book, Mordecai Kurz shows that rising concentration increases economic inequality and interferes with political democracy. Kurz lays out a public policy agenda that would promote technological innovation while constraining monopoly power and the harmful effects of unregulated technological change on workers and citizens.”
    —Michael Reich, Chair, Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics at the Institute for Research of Labor and Employment, Professor of Economics, University of California at Berkeley

    “Capitalism is a powerful engine for technological innovation and economic growth. Yet societies everywhere are struggling to reconcile it with democracy. This superb book helps us understand why. It also offers a compelling vision that replaces free-market capitalism with a version that makes markets and democracy both work better.”
    —Dani Rodrik, Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy, Harvard Kennedy School; author of Shared Prosperity in a Fractured World

    "The struggle between oligarchy and democracy will define the 21st century. This book is an essential read for anyone who wants to understand our ‘techno-winner-takes-all’ capitalism, how it undermines democracy, and what needs to be done for democracy to prevail in this existential battle. A must-read."
    —Gabriel Zucman, Professor, Paris School of Economics; coauthor of The Triumph of Injustice

    REVIEWS

    "Argues that technological innovation has led to the accumulation of monopoly power by firms — which in turn leads to the erosion of democratic institutions when those firms try to influence their own regulation through the political system."
    —Washington Post

    "Argues the US is living through an extreme version of a pattern that has repeated itself since industrialization: technological power concentrating in the hands of a few, which is eroding democracy. . . . When the time for that reform comes, Kurz outlines what it should look like in Private Power: the government should tax and redistribute excess wealth that tech firms accumulate due to monopoly power. When workers are displaced by AI, education to help them learn new, more relevant skills should be government subsidized, as should companies who hire them. And new policies should ensure that AI technology assists workers but doesn’t replace them."
    —The Guardian

    "Analyzes how unregulated free-market capitalism and the information technology revolution in the U.S. have led to inequality and political polarization."
    —Publishers Weekly

    "Stanford economist Mordecai Kurz warns that tech monopolies are concentrating power, echoing historical patterns of influence. . . . Kurz’s analysis suggests a need for greater scrutiny and regulation of tech monopolies. If history teaches us anything, it’s that unchecked power rarely self-corrects."
    —Machine Brief

    “Kurz proposes a clear, bold and detailed policy agenda for making markets more compatible with democratic institutions, rather than simply calling for them to be replaced.”
    —Financial Times

    Author

    Mordecai Kurz is Joan Kenney Professor of Economics Emeritus at Stanford University. His books include, most recently, The Market Power of Technology.
    Mordecai Kurz View titles by Mordecai Kurz

    Rights

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    •     West Saharan
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    •     Yemen
    •     Zambia
    •     Zimbabwe

    Table of Contents

    Preface
    Introduction: Why Free Market Capitalism Endangers Democracy
    Part A: Basic Concepts, Profit Incentive, and Some Historical Evidence
    Chapters: 1-3
    Introduction to Part A
    Chapter 1. Some Preliminary Reflections
    Chapter 2. Economic Motives and the Quest for Power
    Chapter 3. Can We Prevent the Clash of Democracy and Capitalism by Repairing Market Failures?
    Part B: Rising Market Power, Techno-Winer-Takes-All Economy, and the Decline of Democracy
    Chapters 4 -7
    Introduction to Part B
    Chapter 4. Why Market Power Is Permanent In A Free Market Economy
    Chapter 5. The Economic Consequences of Techno-Winner-Takes-All Capitalism
    Chapter 6. The Political Fallout of Techno-Winner-Takes-All Capitalism
    Chapter 7. Why Is Democracy On The Decline?
    Historical Appendix to Chapter 7: The Decline of the Roman Republic
    Part C: Making Capitalism Support Democracy: An Integrated Policy
    Chapters 8 -9
    Introduction to Part C
    Chapter 8. An Economic Restoration Policy to Revitalize Democracy
    Chapter 9. An Integrated Policy to Make Capitalism Support Democracy
    References
    Index

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