若要了解探究资本主义、社会主义与民主之间微妙的关系，此书值得拜读。且看熊彼特如何在书中解释资本主义历经“创造性毁灭”这一过程，及为何资本主义必将毁灭，社会主义必将胜利。初版于1942年，《资本主义、社会主义与民主》一书至今影响力不减，尤其是书中关于企业管理，计划经济以及民主程序等章节仍能在现代经济学界激起新讨论。
《资本主义、社会主义与民主》是熊彼特的代表作之一，也是作者数年来对“社会主义”这个问题进行思考、观察和研究后的集大成之作。该书探讨了马克思主义学说、资本主义未来发展以及社会主义与民主等相关问题，他所提出的“资本主义最终由社会主义制度所取代”的主张与马克思的“资本主义必然灭亡，社会主义必然胜利”的学说不谋而合，殊途同归。不同的是前者侧重于“革新式的创造性破坏”，后者则侧重于“以革命式手段为资本主义掘墓”。
1. Geniuses and prophets do not usually excel in professional learning, and their originality, if any, is often due precisely to the fact that they do not. 2. In economic life competition is never completely lacking, but hardly ever is it perfect. 3. Want and effective demand are not the same thing. If they were, the poorest nations would be the ones to display the most vigorous demand. 4. Capitalism inevitably and by virtue of the very logic of its civilization creates, educates and subsidizes a vested interest in social unrest. 5. To realize the relative validity of one's convictions and yet stand for them unflinchingly is what distinguishes a civilized man from a barbarian. 6. The...process of industrial mutation...incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure FROM WITHIN, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one. This process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about capitalism...The problem that is usually...visualized is how capitalism administers existing structures, whereas the relevant problem is how it creates and destroys them. 7. There are ultimate ideals and interests which the most ardent democrat will put above democracy...such as freedom of conscience and speech, justice, decent government and so on...Democracy is a political METHOD...a certain type of institutioal arrangement of arriving at...decisions and hence incapable of being an end in itself. 8. Capitalism stands its trial before judges who have the sentence of death in their pockets. They are going to pass it, whatever the defense they may hear; the only success victorious defense may produce is a change in the indictment.
导读
1. The Marxian Doctrine
Prologue
Marx the Prophet
Marx the Sociologist
Marx the Economist
Marx the Teacher
2.Can Capitalism Survive?
Prologue
The Rate of Increase of Total Output
Plausible Capitalism
The Process of Creative Destruction
Monopolistic Practices
Closed Season
The Vanishing of Investment Opportunity
Crumbling Walls
The Obsolescence of the Entrepreneurial Function
The Destruction of the Protecting Strata
The Destruction of the Institutional Framework of Capitalist Society
Growing Hostility
The Social Atmosphere of Capitalism
The Sociology of the Intellectual
Decomposition
3. Can Socialism Work?
Clearing Decks
The Socialist Blueprint
Comparison of Blueprints
A Preliminary Point
A Discussion of Comparative Efficiency
The Case for the Superiority of the Socialist Blueprint
The Human Element
The Historical Relativity of the Argument
About Demigods and Archangels
The Problem of Bureaucratic Management
Saving and Discipline
Authoritarian Discipline in Socialism; a Lesson from Russia
Transition
Two Different Problems Distinguished
Socialization in a State of Maturity
Socialization in a State of Immaturity
Socialist Policy Before the Act; the English Example
4. Socialism and Democracy
The Setting of the Problem
The Dictatorship of the Proletariat
The Record of Socialist Parties
A Mental Experiment
In Search of a Definition
The Classical Doctrine of Democracy
The Common Good and the Will of the People
The Will of the People and Individual Volition
Human Nature in Politics
Reasons for the Survival of the Classical Doctrine
Another Theory of Democracy
Competition for Political Leadership
The Principle Applied
The Inference
Some Implications of the Preceding Analysis
Conditions for the Success of the Democratic Method
Democracy in the Socialist Order
5. A Historical Sketch of Socialist Parties
Prologue
The Nonage
The Situation that Marx Faced
From 1875 to 1914
English Developments and the Spirit of Fabianism
Sweden on the One Hand and Russia on the Other
Socialist Groups in the United States
The German Party and Revisionism; the Austrian Socialists
The Second International
From the First to the Second World War
The “Gran Rifiuto”
The Effects of the First World War on the Chances of the Socialist Parties of Europe
Communism and the Russian Element
Administering Capitalism
The Present War and the Future of Socialist Parties
The Consequences of the Second World War
England and Orthodox Socialism
Economic Possibilities in the United States
Russian Imperialism and Communism
术语汇编与简释
熊彼特不仅是经济学界的大师，而且对社会理论有非常高的透析。他对于资本主义的发展与马克思有异曲同工之妙，都认为资本主义必然毁灭，只是对于资本主义过渡到社会主义的方式，熊彼特还是抱有和平过渡的希望。熊彼特的相当多的思考，如资本主义的本质创造性毁灭的创新问题使资本主义不断发展，可谓是预见性极强，而有关社会主义的民主过程与目的，马克思劳动价值论的定量分析，资本主义社会文化的形态，各国社会主义政党概况等部分的论述，可谓是拿的起来揉的碎，不愧为值得多读的经典。