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It is a stark truth: capitalism and democracy are fundamentally incompatible. While democratic governments, with elections and separation of powers, are a feature of capitalist societies, our understanding of democracy as one based on electoral processes is incomplete. Real democracy requires a modicum of economic agency, which the majority of people don't have.

— Clara Mattei Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention (2026)

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Democracy

More quotes by Clara Mattei

If people no longer accept their condition as low-paid wage laborers without secure employment, our economic system collapses.

Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention (2026)

For decades, "experts" have been spreading this numbing story with academic theories spun from the elite circles of the most prestigious universities in the world. By hiding the true nature of the economic system, they atrophy our minds, blocking any possibility of transformative action. But it is possible to escape from capitalism.

Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention (2026)

Most people have no alternative but to sell their ability to work for a wage and inevitably be paid less than the value they produce. This is the capital order, the backbone of our society that we do not criticize or even discuss. It is only through the lens of class that we can escape this trap and understand the functioning of our economic system and the policies implemented to govern it.

Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention (2026)

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Democracy is the wholesome and pure air without which a socialist public organization cannot live a full-blooded life.

Mikhail Gorbachev

The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class shall represent and repress them in parliament!

Vladimir Lenin The State and Revolution (1917)

The law itself is the instrument of the ruling class; hence it is a logical impossibility for another class to assume power legally.

Oliver Cox Caste, Class, and Race: A Study in Social Dynamics (1948)

The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletarian to the level of bourgeois stupidity.

Gustave Flaubert

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Clara Mattei (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.