ABSTRACT

IT HAS BEEN conventional wisdom that economic development by means of a market economy is a precondition for political liberalization and democratization, because it induces the growth of a middle class, professional groups, and a civil society, on which democracy rests (Beetham 1997:77-90). Peter Berger goes so far as to claim that there has been no case of political democracy that has not been a market economy (Berger 1992:9). Recently, however, the impact of the market is being seen as more ambivalent. David Beetham suggests that it has the capability of both supporting and undermining democracy at the same time (Beetham 1997:90).