IS CAPITALISM A FORM OF SOCIAL DARWINISM?

Abstract

Although ideas of social Darwinism can be found in Charles Darwin's book Descent of Man, the true father of social Darwinism was Herbert Spencer. He attempted to apply the theory of natural selection to human society. Herbert Spencer is the author of the concept “survival of the fittest”. But capitalism is an economic and political system that emerged in the Western Middle Ages, more precisely in Dutch and Italian cities that then controlled European trade. Historians call the period from 1870 to 1900 the “Gilded Age”, as this was an era of rapid industrialization, laissez-faire capitalism, and no income tax, especially in the United States. Laissez-faire is a form of capitalism in which the government does not intervene in economic competition. It is the same period in which social Darwinism flourished. The great capitalists were delighted that an ideology had emerged to justify their behavior.