What attracts special interests to government more, democracy or capitalism?

Question

What attracts special interests to government more, democracy or capitalism?

Answer 1

Caldude, you must of graduated from a government school, it's ok.

Capitalism is the foundation of what makes this country great. Every great achievement that this country has ever produced has always been we the people, not we the government. Every "evil rich" person is only an individual who consistently made smart choices, baring physical or mental disability, Every "unfortunate  soul" is only an individual who consistently made poor choices. This point in my life time i make below 25,000 a year. A lot of that is due to poor choice making on my behalf, the other is due to the fact I am balancing supporting myself and continuing my education.  I am my own captain, and it is only because of the great foundation which this country was founded on

Answer 2

The way you have this question framed, it sounds like democracy and capitalism are mutually exclusive.  Personally, I believe it's true...

Answer 3

Corruption that leads to more profits for those special interests . Unless those interests are foreign countries then it gets into espionage .

Answer 4

capitalism.

It is an inherently corrupt system.  Anyone can be bought off for a few bucks.

Just look at Congress and the Telecom immunity bill.  The Telecoms spent millions lobbying congress for immunity and it was money well spent for them.

Banking industry did the same thing with the bankruptcy bill a few years ago.

Answer 5

Corporate special interests depend on them both being true. If there was just democracy but no capitalism, then there would be no economic incentive to have a greater control over the government. If there was just capitalism, but no democracy, then the only way to enforce your will would be to get in with the dictator/monarch/oligarch, making the way special interests function now to be obsolete.

But the idea of "special interest" without the corporate/buying elections part is totally natural and desirable to democracy. We all have special interests that we want our government to respect and demcoracy is the process of weighing these interests against each other. The problem only comes when some people have disproportionate power.