ABSTRACT
Economics and politics are inextricably linked in modern society. Accordingly, two major variants of democracy have developed: liberal democracy and democratic socialism. Liberal democracy combines the capitalist principles developed by Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and Thomas Hobbes with the political theories of Edmund Burke, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson. They favored an economy based on free individual commerce, although Jefferson was suspicious of the ways in which private property could be used. While Burke and Madison advocated a strong central government, Jefferson advanced states’ rights, but each of the three supported a relatively paternalistic representative political system.
