What is the most enduring and stable system of economic and social order the world has known? Not capitalism, or socialism, or dictatorship. It is feudalism.
By any other name, it is the system whereby political and economic power is held by a relatively small group of capital owners who permit that capital to be worked or used by the large majority of landless for their subsistence. The landless have little or no political power of their own, but in a stable system are guaranteed a basic set of rights. Supreme authority may be further concentrated in a small group of officials or a single individual elected by the capital owners, but this authority is often loosely wielded.
Europe, through most of its history since the Dark Ages was a series of feudal states, which remained remarkably stable for hundreds of years, until power was slowly devolved to larger and larger groups of peoples. The very stable Asian societies in Japan and especially China have long been feudal in nature, and as I will argue, China remains the largest and potentially most powerful feudal kingdom in the world’s history.
The Roman Empire was essentially a feudal empire, albeit with a strong centralized government, as was the Greek civilization before it. Although the cradle of democracy, the Greeks limited democratic rights mainly to the landowners, who were served by slaves and freemen who were not participants in shaping the governmental or economic system.
The basic contract in the feudal state is that the majority of the population will be content to remain relatively uneducated, unsophisticated, and unambitious. They will demand little more than a job through which they can feed, clothe and house their families. They will expect a basic level of fairness within their class, guarantees of protection by their lords, and perhaps some government entitlements such as healthcare, free education, and the ability to retire before death (these last three are mostly represented in a modern feudal state, not an historically traditional one). In return, the holders of capital are allowed to be wealthy, comfortable and separated from the majority, so long as they provide these basic measures of subsistence to the landless.
While to the American psyche, this social contract appears grossly unfair and extremely repressive, it has, nonetheless, proven unequivocally to be the most successful in history, in terms of pure longevity. More on America in a moment. First let us consider China.
China is the epitome of the modern feudal state. Of the 1.3 billion Chinese, only a fraction have ever known political or economic freedom. Until the Communist Revolution, China was a traditional feudal state, and had been so for thousands of years. There was no history of democracy, of economic liberty among the masses, or of social equality. But it was generally a stable country. Certainly, internal wars had racked the nation for much of its history, but the country and the system held together. Following the revolution, China essentially remained a feudal state, but under the "lordship" of a smaller group of political and economic leaders. Today, China has transformed itself from Communism to Capitalism, but remains a de facto feudal society. Economic power is held by a relatively small fraction of business and landowners and political power is held by a small group of Party officials. Often the two groups overlap. The vast majority of Chinese citizens, despite the rapid economic growth of the country, remain uneducated, unsophisticated and unambitious. They expect only what a feudal state has traditionally promised its masses.
While to the Western eye, the inequality is appalling, the Chinese system has potential to be immensely powerful. The richer China grow, the more stable its guarantees to the masses will become. Without a corresponding increase in education, freedom and political power, these masses are likely to feel their needs are being satisfied, and will not demand more. This was the case in the two decades following the fall of the Soviet Union. A brief experiment with democracy was followed coincidentally by a rise in oil prices. Russians, who had barely a taste of democracy, were happy enough as a whole to give power back to the state in return for a share of the oil riches. They allowed an economic oligarchy to rise rapidly, and the reestablishment of a de facto single party, corrupt political system to occur. It is only because with the overextension of spending and the subsequent crash of oil prices, and the fact that Russia does not have much capacity to produce beyond a few limited resources, that the re-feudalization of the Russian state may ultimately fail.
China, on the other hand, has become the world’s supplier of manufactured goods of all kinds, and will likely remain so for decades. The small ruling economic and political classes control a vast resource of "vassals" for whom expectations in life are limited and modest. The presumed unstoppable spread of information around the globe into the lives of the other 800 million or so rural Chinese will be slow in taking hold. The desire for riches, freedom and political power may yet come, but it is likely to be long in the future. In the meantime, China appears to have created the "perfect" structure of political and economic power, combined with a willing world to trade with and a willing and limitless population to control.
I see, now, perhaps later than many readers of Daily Kos, that in America, we have ourselves flirted with feudalism from time to time. I do not consider the Antebellum South to be a feudal state. Slaves were treated purely as property, and there was no social contract between landowners and those that served them. But in the early industrial era corporations became the capital owners and the controllers of millions of workers. Capitalism at its most extreme, is little more than a feudal economic order. The rise of unions in the twentieth century broke somewhat, the feudal nature of American capitalism. But it has once again gained ascendancy over the past thirty years, as businesses have made quantum gains in power, both economic and political, and workers have become more dependent upon them.
I am convinced that if one could describe the Republican Party in one word, it would be "Feudal." (wish it were "futile" ) It is clear to me that the grand utopian goal of the GOP and its leaders is to create, or recreate, in America, a feudal state where power is held by a few and a social contract of work and minimum rights is granted to the many. Since the 1970’s the Republican Party has cultivated a large base of social conservatives and re-educated them to become willing vassals. By offering bread and circuses, where the circuses are anti-abortionism, anti-governmentism, anti-gayism, etc... these power holders have – ingeniously really – created a vast mass of people who want little more than the traditional feudal social contracts of old. Protect us, give us a job, and preserve our sense of morality (even if you have invented that morality for us).
I believe that it is the political and economic oligarchy within the GOP that see America’s only chance for long-term competitive advantage over the Chinas and Indias of the world, and thus the long-term survival of that class’s privilege, to be the creation of a modern feudal state in America.
Obviously, the hurdles are much higher. Americans have a 200+ year history of striving for freedom and democracy and economic mobility, and they are not likely to willingly give that up en masse any time soon. But (at least until recently) the Republican efforts to create a vast Midwest and Southern fiefdom has had, one must admit, a frighteningly high degree of success. As China and India ascend and continue to shift the balance of economic power toward them, the Republican/corporate plan will in many ways only grow more popular, among those whose jobs are being lost and survival threatened.
America must find a way to transform itself. It cannot remain in a race to the bottom with China. It should not be forced to compete with a social and economic system that has such endurance. Rather, it must be a society that produces things that require the creativity and education and ambition of all its citizens. The economy of true democratic capitalism is something that China cannot yet dream of or compete against. We must find a way to achieve stability through an economic and social order that does not lead to or compete with feudalism.