What is the relationship between liberalism, illiberalism and despotic forms of dictatorship – this is the central question of this paper. From the 1970’s and especially after 1989-91 it appeared that the rise of global capitalism and liberal democracy was unstoppable. Since 2005 this trend seems to be reversed. The number of countries classified as “non-free,” “undemocratic” or “illiberal” has been increasing. The bottom line of this paper is that illiberal regimes (even if they tend to be dictatorial in some ways) as long as they offer a minimal legal guarantee to capitalist businesses, can accommodate a capitalist system. Under despotic-dictatorial systems this is unimaginable. In the second part of the paper the authors make an attempt to re-conceptualize capitalism with a new theory of rent.

自由主义，自由主义和专制政体之间的关系是什么–这是本文的核心问题。从1970年代开始，尤其是在1989-91年之后，全球资本主义和自由民主的崛起似乎势不可挡。自2005年以来，这种趋势似乎已被扭转。被归类为“非自由”，“非民主”或“非自由”国家的数量正在增加。本文的底线是，自由制政权（即使它们在某些方面趋于独裁），只要它们为资本主义企业提供最低限度的法律保障，就可以适应资本主义制度。在专制独裁的制度下，这是不可想象的。在本文的第二部分，作者试图用新的租金理论重新构想资本主义。