Schumpeter

the classical doctrine of democracy (i.e. a

institutional arrangement for arriving at
decisions to realize the common good by people
electing representativesusually specialists)
--Assumption:
1) there is common good that all agree on by
rational argument
2) there is a definite common will outside of
the influence of outside forces, based on which
the people draw conclusions in political issues
when they also know the political facts

Schumpeter
Schumpeters Critique:
1) there is NO common good (peoples ideas are always different
2) there is NO common will (the process of people generating their
wills is always influenced by outside forces + people cannot have a
will in politics for it is too remote from their lives and this
remoteness makes them apathetic to politics ignorance and lack
of judgment prejudice and impulses even when theres no outside
influence. Even education cannot solve the problem of remoteness.
The will of the people is always the product of the political process.)
--the analogy of manufacture and customers
--In theory in the long run people may develop the ability to reach
highly reasonable and even shrewd (p264) opinions, but history is
made up of short run periods, and hence in practice this will not
happen.
People in their nature want something definite. This requires
compromise in some cases, which democracy is unable to generate.

Schumpeter
Why, then, the Classical Doctrine still survived for a
long time?
--it substitute religion. Here it is an ideal, not a method
of institutional arrangement. (People dont need to
think or know anything, they can just follow and feel
secure. A religion is by itself justified.)
-- its associated with cherished national history and is
hence part of the national ideology (e.g. democracy
and the independence war)
--it still suits some societies where there are not much
difference of ideas among people (e.g. small territory
nations like Switzerland)

Schumpeter
To replace thatthe model of competitive elitism
In it, democracy means a institutional arrangement for selecting
(and evicting) a government (i.e. Prime Minister in the case of
national government) by means of competitive struggle for peoples
vote. Hence people are not manipulated by the government, they
are the producers of the government.
Advantages: its more practical; its more democratic
--it resembles more to what we have empirically and justifies some
existing facts (e.g. it embodies the element of the Manufacture will)
Analysis, taking England as an example
--the power of the PM (party, parliament, country) which is restricted
by the people; the parliament (administrator and legislature); the
electorate (evaluate the bidsgiven party candidates and choose
which to accept)
--parties: a group of members competing for votes, the political
boss (p283) (a different group from the mass)

The notion of freedom: free to compete for political power,

free speech and discussion

 Compared to other theorists

--v.s. Marx :
the key of socialism is the distribution of
power (for Marx: class struggle)
democracy and socialism can coexist (when
Democracy is a institution of choosing
leaders)
--v.s. Weber: capitalism itself would be eroded
by the advance of technical process (Weber:
it would provide a limit to this erosion)

Held: criticizing Schumpeter

There is no classical doctrine of democracy; there are only many
classical models
The fact that the doctrine is not reached doesnt mean its not
reachable
Peoples visions arent always manufactured; and they are not
remote to a lot of political issues
The new model is close to anti-democratic and anti-liberal by
giving all power to the elite and marginalize the people in politics
Since the people are ignorant and politically incapable, how could
they select the leaders?
Why are the elites existent? Schumpeter assumes their existence
but doesnt give justification
Voting seems to justify the power of the elites with people giving
consent to the elected; but in fact accept consent (no better
choice, apathy,)
Many people dont have the resources to compete for political
power

Discussion Question
How would Schumpeter defend
himself to Helds criticisms?