I'm taking a social welfare policy class and I'm a little confused about something?

[ikibah]

According to my text is says that America is viewed as a democratic-capitalist country, because it's a democratic country that runs with a market economy. I'm assuming that means that there's a connection between a market economy and capitalism? why does a free market make it a capitalist country?. That's question number one.

My second question is that my text goes on to explain that there's different economic school's of thought (keynesian, free market and democratic socialism) and different political schools of thought (Neoliberalism,The Self-Reliance School, Neoconservatism,Cultural Conservatism) I'm not sure how these fall into the discussion of America being a democratic-capitalist country.

I really appreciate any help that I can get.

Thank you so much for your time.

[Welfare Worker]

Not a "democratic government", not really.
it is "representative republic". We vote for representatives, at local, state, and federal levels, and they do whatever they want, within the letter of the law.
We get to vote on amendments, and a very few other issues, not on how the country is run in a broad sense.

There are no pure capitalist countries. We have more capitalist traits than socialist, so we are labeled capitalist.
In business, mostly capitalist, on social issues, mostly socialist.

Your question makes things sound black and white, when in reality it is all shade of gray.
I realize that is just your text book, too simplistic.