On the sustainability of the capitalist order: Schumpeter's capitalism, socialism and democracyrevisited

The present study provides a contemporary reading of Schumpeter's instability-of-capitalism thesis as formulated in Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1942). The study of the sustainability of the Western position in capitalism focuses on: (1) the dissociation between private and social objectives in welfare capitalism, (2) the deconstruction of the moral-ethical principles on which the capitalist order was founded, (3) the threat of egalitarianism, (4) the role of the intellectual class, and (5) the cultural contradictions of capitalism. Contrary to claims that the disolution of the state socialist order signals a victory for capitalism it is observed that capitalism remains exposed to powerful challenges. “[B]etween now and the year 2000, the order of money will become universal. From Santiago to Beijing, from Johannesburg to Moscow, all economic systems will worship at the altar of the market” “But capitalism's very success creates the conditions for failure” (Attali, 1991, Millenium, pp. 120, 118).