Schumpeter, Democracy, and the Scottish Enlightenments

Much of the literature surrounding Schumpeter's 1942 Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy has focused on his reformulation of democratic theory rather than on the perceived tensions in the classical variant which motivated his reorientation. In contrast to the position of Schumpeter, the rational actor is not a prerequisite for the maintenance of the liberal political model, nor is communitarian organicism a necessary condition to the emergence of a social consciousness. Instead, rationality as it is portrayed in the classical liberal model that developed from the Scottish Enlightenment is given limited importance, while the social conscience is the critical element that gives rise to the communitarian ideal.