CIAO DATE: 03/02

Critical Review

Summer–Fall 1999 (Vol.13 Nos.3–4)

Capitalism, Socialism, and Irony: Understanding Schumpeter in Context

By Jerry Z. Muller

Abstract

The significance of the major claims of Joseph Schumpeter's best-known work, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, have often been misunderstood by readers unattuned to its ironic mode of presentation. The book reaffirms two themes that were central to Schumpeter's thought from its very beginning, namely the significance of creative and extraordinary individuals in social processes, and the resentment created by the innovations they introduce. The thesis that socialism would replace capitalism, but that it would bring about few of the advantages imagined by socialists and many disadvantages with which they had not reckoned, was an ironic proposition, which Schumpeter put forth in a manner designed to overcome intellectuals' dogmatic resistance to capitalism.