ABSTRACT
The chapter makes three claims: that it is through “classness” that capitalism leads to a democratic order; that today class is increasingly expressed as culture; that this reconceptualization of class as culture makes it difficult to defend democratic order. Capitalism initially broke up inegalitarian communitarianism and formed social classes fighting for their own interests. These classes became the basis for a new order through the help of two phenomena that arose around the same time: nations and democracy. “Nations” offered capitalism's victims a new sense of inclusion, and this new sense of inclusion promoted democratization. Today, globalization challenges democracy by disembedding class politics from national politics. And so we have the escape to culture: with “class” no longer paying high dividends, non-elites seek to advance their interests through culture. Claims of being the sole bearers of national culture, however, compromise a democratic order, and begin to create a new disorder.
