A Reading of J. Schumpeter’s Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy

As the second world war gathers the storm, circa 1942 Joseph Schumpeter grafts what would become a classic piece of work in economic innovation and modern political philosophy : Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. A hundred years after Marx, Schumpeter assesses the legacy of this lineage through an economic reinterpretation of the stakes and challenges of democracy, in a new scenario where capitalism “creatively destroys” and socialism rises leaving aside the disaffected intelligentsia. Could Schumpeter already foresee that democracy, in spite of its promises, would become a major system of discrimination ? Democracy, then, is not anymore the end, the ‘default’ political position of a nation, but rather a method — an institutional arrangement that will ultimately have to alter itself. So why is it that liberal capitalism has dawned so brightly upon the world, but still socialism has the strength of a natural, intuitive conviction ? Because man cannot live by bread alone. The capitalist system is successful with the multiplication of wealth, but leaves the romanticism expressed through creativity of art, music, dance, literature, poetry, etc., unfulfilled. With the rise of a capitalist market system, a minimalist vision of democracy is limited to a voting procedure. But indeed, is electoral pluralism sufficient to explain the whole of democratic legitimacy ? History has shown that governments are not anymore responding to only an electoral voting bank. This course will attempt a comprehensive and exhaustive reading and discussion of the very subtle embedded arguments that form Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, to revisit this classic and bring it critically to the current political situation. So : are minimalist democracy and socio-cultural expression of individuality two sides of the same modernity coin ?