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ReviewAuthor(s): William S. Carpenter

Review by: William S. Carpenter

Source: The American Political Science Review , Vol. 37, No. 3 (Jun., 1943), pp. 523-524

Published by: American Political Science AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1948935

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 BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTICES 5 3

 Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. BY JOSEPH A. SCHUMPETER. (New

 York: Harper and Brothers. 1942. Pp. x, 381. $3.50.)

 This is a provocative book written in a style which is likely to repel

 American readers. This is unfortunate, because its involved sentences of

 Germanic scholarship contain many ideas which people in the United

 States would do well to ponder. The thesis embraces three parts: capital-

 ism is doomed to failure, it will be replaced by socialism, and finally social-

 ism is compatible with democracy. The abundant arguments with which

 this thesis is buttressed are almost wholly from European experience, but

 there are enough references to the United States to indicate that Professor

 Schumpeter believes New Deal policies are hastening the advent of social-

 ism in this country.

 Capitalism, the author thinks, is doomed, not because it will break down

 under the weight of economic failure, but because its very success under-

 mines the social institutions which protect it, and 'inevitably' creates

 conditions in which it will not be able to live. The weaknesses of capitalism

 do not spring from the sins of the capitalists, but from the apathy which is

 engendered in the entrepreneurs as they behold the decomposition of the

 environment in which their system operates. In short, the factors which

 account for the final collapse of capitalism are psychological. Apparently

 it becomes useless to attempt the correction of evils in a system whose

 beneficiaries no longer have an interest in its survival.

 The socialism which is to come is compatible with a variety of insti-

 tutions. When free competition has been abandoned, an institutional pat-

 tern will emerge in which the control over means of production and over

 production itself is vested with a central authority. The existence of a

  huge and all-embracing bureaucratic apparatus is contemplated with

 resignation. Is this to be distrusted by a people who have already wit-

 nessed the bureaucratization of economic life and, indeed, of life in gen-

 eral? Fears may be allayed by appealing to human vanity. Altruism may

 not exist, but human egotism will continue to flourish and can be ex-

 ploited for the service of society. As each individual assumes his proper

 station, the badge of social prestige will differentiate him from his fellow-

 men. Since the individual will not be distracted by taxes, the need for

 saving, and the like, his material requirements can be met by modest

 monetary rewards. If a touch of cynicism hovers about this portion of the

 thesis, one must read the book to have it removed-or confirmed.

 The reconciliation of democracy with socialism, which is the most inter-

 esting portion of the thesis to a political scientist, Professor Schumpeter

 is unable to effect by reference to the classical doctrine of democracy. On

 the contrary, he believes that a theory of democracy which retains the

 common good as its central concept has long been at variance with the

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 5 4 THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW

 political facts. Obeisance to this theory was- rendered in the United States

 much longer than elsewhere because the people were so fully occupied with

 the exploitation of the resources of a continent that they did not indulge

 in political speculation. But the state in the future requires another theory

 of democracy. Democracy must be so defined that the r6le of the electorate

 is not to formulate opinions about political issues but to produce a govern-

 ment which will make decisions. This conception of democracy becomes

 compatible with socialism when the leadership is of high quality, the

 effective range of political decision is not extended too far, and a broad

 spirit of toleration prevails. To the reviewer, the danger from democracy

 conceived in this way is that it may readily be perverted to support a

 totalitarian form of government. Politicians seldom abide within a narrow

 range of official competence unless compelled thereto by fear of losing

 public confidence, and bureaucrats are not naturally endowed with a

 broad spirit of toleration. The danger of authoritarianism is not lessened

 by the admission of a power in the electorate to evict a government. The

 right of revolution has always been exercised in subordination to a pre-

 ponderant public opinion. In a democracy, a government is not cashiered

 for light and transient causes, but only when by its acts it outrages public

 sentiment. A system in which the most important duty of the politician is

 to guess whether particular decisions will be successful is not likely to be

 democratic.

 WILLIAM S. CARPENTER.

 Princeton University.

 Ballots and the Democratic Class Struggle; A Study in the Background of

 Political Education. BY DEWEY ANDERSON AND PERCY E. DAVIDSON.

 (Stanford University, California: Stanford University Press. 1943.

 Pp. 377. $4.00.)

 The authors have contributed a study of political behavior in which the

 political role of occupational groups is given the central position. The title

 of this volume was chosen to convey three ideas which to Dr. Anderson

 and Dr. Davidson comprise the substance of the democratic political

 process-the popular franchise, the democratic ideal, and the group

 struggle for increased well-being based on the principle of self-help. Their

 interpretation attempts to refute the claims of both those who believe

 that the motivation force in political behavior should be a blind faith in

 democratic ideals and the Marxist conception of the inevitable class

 conflict which will destroy the existing political structure in this country.

 The data to support this thesis are drawn largely from some 70,000 regis-

 trants in a California county (Santa Clara) during one national (1932) and

 one state election (1934).

 However, the importance of the study lies in the fact that its scope,

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