Joseph Schumpeter (1883 - 1950) was one of the foremost economic thinkers of the twentieth century. Today Schumpeter is most well-known for his idea of 'creative destruction'. This is the notion that a market economy is simultaneously creative and destructive and therein lies the process of renewal that is central to the endurance and also the unpopularity of capitalism. Schumpeter's work also contains one of the most important conservative critiques of mass democracy. Schumpeter argued that mass democracy had totalitarian tendencies and was likely to degenerate into the tyranny of the popular.
Series Introduction Series Editor's Preface Author's Preface Chapter 1. Life The Shaping of a Young Austro-Hungarian Conservative, 1883-1913 War, Fragmentation and "Tory Democracy," 1914-1918 Conservatism after the Old Regime: Ventures Political, Commercial and Scholarly, 1919- 1932 Conservatism after the Old Regime: New Continent, New Contentions, 1932-1950 Chapter 2. Critical Exposition Equilibrium Economics Innovation and Creative Destruction The Capitalist Order: The Tax State, Imperialism and Social Classes The Tax state Imperialism Classes Schumpeter as a Conservative Thinker The Capitalist Order's "Crumbling Walls" Democracy Chapter 3. Influence Schumpeter, Hayek and Polanyi on the Prospects of Capitalism and Socialism How Historical Lags Shaped Schumpeter's Influence Elite Democracy Innovative Capitalism Tax States Atavistic Empires Functional Classes Economic Sociology Chapter 4. Relevance Democratic Theory Appropriations Conservative Appropriations Bibliography Index