You can't meaningful separate these. Sure, capitalism is not mutually exclusive to say parliamentary democracy or dictatorship or monarchy, but you need a state that enforces the "will of the market". Capitalism values property very highly. That's a political decision. It allows a very hierarchical relation between workers and bosses by enforcing the property laws of the latter. At the end of the day, it's the police (and therefore the state) that evicts you, not the landlord and not the market.

[–] Soleos@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I see, I think there are a couple things to clarify. Causally, you can view it as the political system of decision-making determines the economic system, so keeping capitalism is a political decision made through a political system such as democracy or theocracy with downstream political consequences, e.g. property has high capital value, which affects citizens.

You may also be conflating decisions that carry a political quality with decisions made by a political system. Or conflating systems that carry political qualities such as economic systems and education systems with political systems proper, which are system for instituting decisions that govern societies. For example, the market may "decide" that asbestos is the best insulation, however, the market does not set political policy about insulation. It is up to the political system (e.g. democratic parliament or dictator) to decide whether or not to pass policy about limiting asbestos insulation, not capitalism. This distinction is also present in your own argument. Like you said, the market (capitalism) doesn't create and enforce property law, it's the state (political system) that creates the law and is responsible for enforcing it.

-EDIT- Okay I think I see the semantic disagreement. What others are emphasizing is that the economy is political in nature and therefore it is a political system. What I understand for the term "Political System" is more narrow to be more narrowly "system of government". I certainly agree that the economy is political in nature. And honestly, I'm not married to my definition of political system. What I cared more about is drawing the distinction between "system of government" and "systems that are political in nature". The only reason why I'd disagree is that by the latter definition, any system of social structure such as religions, education systems, human transportation systems, communication systems, language systems etc. Are also political systems because they're political in nature. So the term "political system" may be too broad as to be useful.

[–] lugal@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

What is politics? People spend have their waking hours in a strict top down system, instead of a democratically organized economy. Tbf that's not only true for Capitalism but also for Soviet style socialism.

For example, the market may "decide" that asbestos is the best insulation, however, the market does not set political policy about insulation.

The market is not the only aspect of capitalism. Plutocracy is another strong one. Being rich makes you influential in capitalism in contrast to systems where your ancestry is important or systems that try to get rid of power altogether respectively try to distribute it as evenly as possible. So while I said it's compatible with monarchy and democracy, this is true on a scale. If the monarch is listening to rich people instead of their kind, it's less monarchical and parliamentary democracies are more prone to capitalism than more direct forms of democracy.

To put it differently: it's not only about who makes the decision according to the constitution, it's also about how this decision comes about. Besides: the institution at least makes capitalism possible, if not enforces it in one way or another. The existence of a state alone is something capitalism needs, a punitive justice system that enforces property rights, which often also are constitutional themselves, ...