The balance between democracy and capitalism is difficult to define, said the former director of Common Cause Massachusetts yesterday.

Kenneth White spoke about money and its effects on the government and politics yesterday in Cambridge to the Ethical Society of Boston. His speech, “Democracy and Capitalism: Can This Marriage Be Saved?” explored the relationship between the two systems and the importance of ethics in reviving this combination.

In the marriage of democracy and capitalism, capitalism has overtaken the relationship and is now currently the “dominating force of the nation,” according to White.

“It’s debilitating. It’s driving us into a state of confusion at a downward spiral,” White said about the imbalance of the relationship.

Domination by capitalism or the economy causes democratic ideals in the political system to be overruled by the prospects of individual gain, White said.

White described this domination as “the reversion to completely self-interested motivation and our willingness to allow presets of the marketplace to infiltrate every corner of our existence.

“Everyone is trying to maximize self-interested gains without regards to others,” he continued.

Democracy could put a check on this kind of selfishness by putting additional demands on citizens as a group. White suggested calling upon citizens to consider long-term interests rather than immediate individual gratification.

These demands would require “citizens [to adhere] to a higher set of standards.”

A citizen who did so would become a “Homo ethicus,” or a “meaning seeker, who looks to understand ourselves in the world and develop both for the betterment of all,” White said.

In order to prevent an autocracy of capitalism in the society, ethical values are needed and the people of Massachusetts match the ethical level of the Homo ethicus, White said.

To illustrate this, White cited the persistence voters showed in keeping the Clean Elections Law of 1998 intact despite the legislature’s reluctance to support the controversial law.

White stressed he does not want to break up the marriage of democracy and capitalism but rather distribute the power more equally.

“The marriage of democracy and capitalism need not end in the subjugation of one or a messy divorce that destroys both,” White said. Instead, he explained, it should “lead to an evolution where one or perhaps both improve.”