The White Book of Capitalism & Democracy
A comprehensive history of the crimes committed by "democratic" nations
The United States, France, Germany, Japan, and England are the most advanced capitalist nations in the world, but they are not alone. The United States government actively lends support for democracies thoughout Latin America, Africa, and Asia. When examining the crimes of Capitalism, the many third world nations that operate on a Capitalist model are certainly a part. Just as the once "Communist" nations of the third world followed a distorted path of "Socialism", "Capitalist" nations of the third world are imperfect progeny of those they seek to emulate. The following set of criteria can generally identify when a country is operating on a capitalist model:
1. Openly professes a capitalist economic system, prices are controlled by an open market
2. The vast majority of the means of production are privately owned
3. The vast majority of the people in the nation must earn a wage in order to survive
Another way to resolve the problem of categorization is through the eyes of the U.S. government's Central Intelligence Agency. In their World Fact Book for 2003, they classify over 140 nations as Democracies or Republics:
Democracy (parlimentary): Albania, Aruba, Australia, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Canada, Cook Islands, Croatia, Czech Republic, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Greeland, Hungary, Israel, Jamaica, Latvia, Lithuania, Macau*, Macedonia, Malawi, Mauritius, Nepal*, New Zealand, Niue, Panama, Papua New Guinea*, Portugal, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Solomon Islands*, Taiwan, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, & Zimbabwe.
Republics: Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Burundi, Cameroon*, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, Colombia*, Comoros, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Cyprus*, Djibouti, East Timor, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Honduras, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Liberia, Madagascar, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mexico, Moldova, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria*, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Rwanda, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Serbia and Montenegro, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Takikistan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo*, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uruguay, United States, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Yemen, & Zambia.
While these nations all share fundamentally the same system, no goverment is "perfect" and both corruption and crime occur in every nation. For example, the manipulation of market prices openly happened in the US until the creation of the SEC in 1934, and although price manipulation still occurs, it is generally a carefully watched criminal act. Most nations have followed the lead of the US by enacting similar laws, but are more lax with compliance. This does not make those nations less capitalistic; the US was still a capitalist nation in the 1920s without even the notion of such laws!
Constitutional Democratic Republic of Guatemala: (1962-1996) The Guatamalean governemt, along with the United States government which played a major role of support, committed genocide and terrorism resulting in the systematic torture and murder of 200,000 people, the vast majority of them Mayan Indians.
UN sponsored report: Guatemala, Memory of Silence, by the Historical Clarification Commission in nine volumes (9/11/2001).
The Republic of Indonesia: (1975-1999) 200,000 East-timorese (33% of the population) were massacred in a campaign of genocide spanning several decades. The UN ordered the genocide to stop and all arms shipments to Indonesia to cease. During this time the US supplied $1,118,900,000 in military weapons to Indonesia, while France, Germany, and England combined to sell over $2 billion in military weapons.
(Source: U.S. Arms Transfers to Indonesia 1975-1997: Who's Influencing Whom?). East Timor Background
Israel: (1948-present) 957,000 Palestinians were driven out of Palestine by Jewish militants in 1948, who had by year's end occupied 80.5 percent of the country's land. Today, nearly 2.5 million Palestinians are living in "security zones" under martial law policed by Israel, while another 4 million are scattered throughout the world, unable to return to the lands from which they and their families were forcibly evicted. Since 1967, over 300,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned by Israel. During the Palestinian intifada (uprising) from 1987 to 1992, the number of Palestinians killed by Israelis reached 1,119 and the number hospitalized 120,446; another 483 were expelled and 15,320 detained without charge, while 87,726 acres of land was confiscated and 2,065 Palestinian houses were demolished or sealed.
Turkey: () According to a December 2003 speech by President Demirel, since 1984, 23,638 PKK members (Kurdistan Workers Party), 5,555 security force members, and 5,302 civilians lost their lives in the fighting. Around 560,000 villagers forcibly evacuated from their homes since the conflict began.
Sri Lanka: () Over the last 16 years the Sri-Lankan government has fought a civil war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in a conflict that has claimed more than 55,000 lives and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes.