Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy

In this summary you will learn

• Why socialism is the likely heir to capitalism
• How capitalism’s economic success, not its stagnation, will bring about its demise
• In what ways capitalism is a process of creative destruction
• Schumpeter’s critique of Marx

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Why you should read Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy

Economist Joseph A. Schumpeter’s keen intellect makes some of today’s scholarship sound like the spouting of ideology on talk shows. Some consider him the greatest economist of the twentieth century. Only an intellect of his towering stature would be able to present a case that while Marx was wrong about how capitalism would collapse, he was probably correct that it eventually would. Schumpeter also contends that socialism may eclipse free-market economies, news he feels society should greet with angst. He believed that capitalism’s doom would proceed not from a revolution by an angry proletariat, but rather as a result of successes that would give rise to a class of elites who would gradually institute systems of central control. Fully understanding this complex, although non-mathematical, treatise may require some background; it is not a book for the novice. While this 1942 classic may seem dated in spots, those who conclude that it is time to tap dance on socialism’s grave should consider that Schumpeter expected socialism’s dominance to take a century or more. getAbstract.com recommends this classic to anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the historic, economic case for the rise of socialism.

About the Author

Joseph A. Schumpeter, one of the twentieth century’s greatest economists, was born in 1883, in the present Czech Republic. He taught anthropology at the University of Czernowitz (now Ukraine). He served as Austrian Minister of Finance from 1919 to 1920, as president of the Biederman Bank for the next four years, and as a professor at the University of Bonn from 1925 to 1932, when he relocated to Harvard. In 1933, he became the founding president of the Econometric Society. He taught at Harvard until his death in 1950. His students included Robert Samuelson and John Kenneth Galbraith, His magnum opus, History of Economic Analysis, edited by his third wife, Elizabeth Boody, was published posthumously in 1954.