Peter L. Berger Quotes

Let me say again that the relationship is asymmetrical: there's no democracy without a market economy, but you can have a market economy without democracy.

So I think one can say on empirical grounds - not because of some philosophical principle - that you can't have democracy unless you have a market economy.

The biggest lie of all is that capitalism is democracy. We have no way of understanding democracy outside of the market, just as we have no understanding of how to understand freedom outside of market values.

Capitalism and the market are presented as synonymous, but they are not. Capitalism is both the enemy of the market and democracy.

Liberal capitalism is not perfect, but compared to the other 'isms,' it's far superior.

I think Russians today have a distorted picture of capitalism, liberal democracy and market economy.

Free markets tend to promote democracy.

Democracy and capitalism have both been hacked.

If you say simply that pressures toward democracy are created by the market, I would say yes.

A free economy is as essential to society as democratic political institutions. A strong market-based economy is the fertile ground for democratic freedoms that we think are important.

Having seen a non-market economy, I suddenly understood much better what I liked about a market economy.

I do believe in the free market.

Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.

History suggests that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition.

Capitalism has its weaknesses. But it is capitalism that ended the stranglehold of the hereditary aristocracies, raised the standard of living for most of the world and enabled the emancipation of women.

I was born too late to have any temptation with communism, or at least Soviet-type communism. Travelling in Eastern Europe and the ex-Soviet Union, you clearly don't want to defend a system that would have empty shops and a totalitarian regime and internal passports.

Some people think that as the Chinese economy becomes more and more capitalistic it will inevitably become more democratic.

My fundamental tenets are concerned with freedom of the individual; the market isn't perfect, but it's the best available way of allocating resources.

Open political and economic systems have been gaining ground and there's a good reason for it. They work better.

Economic freedom tends to lead to political freedom.

It is probably true that business corrupts everything it touches. It corrupts politics, sports, literature, art, labor unions and so on. But business also corrupts and undermines monolithic totalitarianism. Capitalism is at its liberating best in a non-capitalistic environment.

There has been no country with a democratic political sphere, past or present, whose economy has not been dominated by private ownership and market coordination.

Capitalism is the fullest expression of anarchism, and anarchism is the fullest expression of capitalism.

The key to democracy has been the free market economy.

A market economy is to economics what democracy is to government: a decent, if flawed choice, about many bad alternatives