Correspondence
BENNE, ROBERT & ASH, MARY M. & Novak, Michael & Murchland, Bernard & Steinfels, Peter
Correspondence 'DEMOCRATIC CAPITALISM' MICHAEL NOVAK, ROBERT BENNE, & OTHERS A simple shortage of space in our pages has prevented us from publishing more promptly the extended replies to Peter...
...As a result of this unprecedented change in the environment, a psychic mutation takes place: invidious competition is no longer programmed into life by the necessity of a struggle for scarce resources...
...Bernard Murchland claims that whatever the weaknesses of The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism as history, the book is still great philosophy and theology...
...Yet to the extent that my critics have been reduced to ad hominem attacks, my best arrow has struck home...
...What, then, does he think of the vision of socialism, according to his friend and mine, Michael Harrington...
...Characterizations of Novak as "ideologically promiscuous" and "an eighteenth-century British Tory," and of his position as "reminiscent of [Louis Hartz's] New Whiggery" and "Reaganism with a theological face" substitute for the discussion and rebuttal of Novak's arguments which Steinfels is apparently unable to deliver . . . Despite numerous definitional and factual quibbles, Steinfels seems to agree with Novak as to the desirability of a society's being politically democratic and culturally pluralistic...
...11], either for its immoderation or for its basic unfairness, the like of which I can never remember seeing in Commonweal...
...He suggests that a closer examination would uncover a very heavy influence indeed...
...Such treatment is all too rare among Christians dealing with such hot issues as war and peace, abortion, nuclear power, and the moral assessment of economic systems...
...And as more and more things are provided free, money, that universal equivalent by means of which necessities are rationed, will disappear...
...Does democratic socialism mean anything other than that economic decisions are to be made by democratically elected politicians...
...They reflect the facts that union work rules and wage increases which outstripped productivity produced cars which were both more expensive than and inferior in quality to those of foreign competitors...
...In the discipline of Christian social ethics, democratic socialism is a likely foil because in pursuing that vocation one runs into a lot of persons of that persuasion...
...A selection of these letters is printed here, with apologies to the authors for the delay...
...Future editions of The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism may patch up the "detail...
...The second article made a good point or two and was enhanced by a comparison with Benne and some confessional humility towards the end...
...I would welcome that further examination because I think there is considerable evidence on both sides, and that private economic influence waxes and wanes according to the political and economic mood of the country...
...As I now find myself in a more conservative environment than before, my pique has certainly diminished...
...Four different Niebuhr experts read that chapter, failing to note how my citation of detail misled them as well as myself...
...My own ideal of political consistency was well stated by Winston Churchill in an essay by that name in 1932: "A Statesman in contact with the moving current of events and anxious to keep the ship on an even keel and steer a steady course may lean all his weight now on one side and now on the other...
...From a religious perspective, a major purpose of Novak is to show that Catholic social teaching which reflects this view rests in large part on a misunderstanding of economics, and, to some extent, of the political sphere...
...In fact, what I "conceded" about Niebuhr's skepticism was that, at least at that time, it was based on reasons exactly the opposite of those Novak implied...
...All the more reason, then, to be aware of their inadequacy...
...Nor does the tripartite system consist only of its economic part...
...his methods may be verbally irreconcilable...
...But there are many smaller contexts in which neo-Marxist critiques of capitalism and democratic socialist perspectives are a looming presence, so looming that dissent is barely and rarely tolerated...
...This is, in part, because great changes have since occurred in our society (some fruitful, some not) and, in part, because I have since begun to understand our system more fairly and in comparison with other systems...
...indeed, in my articles I wrote that as "conversion stories," both his and Professor Benne's book especially deserved to be taken to heart...
...It seems to me that one of the strongest virtues of a market economic system is that it maximizes the discretionary power of individuals and families to dispose of a large portion of their incomes according to their own values...
...Steinfels takes me to task for underestimating the power of private economic enterprises to shape, limit, and distort the political sphere...
...Many skillful readers helped me to eliminate errors...
...Even "menial" jobs serve as necessary stepping stones to the acquisition of skills and higher income...
...Naturally, any that remain are my fault alone...
...Whatever its flaws, capitalism has clearly been productively superior to socialism...
...Such an incentive is lacking under purely socialist systems, for one's share of resources depends on one's needs, rather than on one's ability to produce...
...I expect to know much more about these things by 1990 than I now know in 1983...
...Two other points: First, in referring to dozens of "blunders and misunderstandings" in Novak's book, I did not give only one example, as he claims, but five...
...MARY M. ASH My larger faith Washington, D.C...
...Why, then, do so many religious leaders claim that substantial government intervention into the economy is not only empirically but morally necessary...
...But I wrote my articles in hopes of exploring what was really systematic about this "system," that is, to what extent were democracy and capitalism supportive of one another or in tension...
...Despite lip-service to the need to increase productivity, political intervention into the economy is almost invariably distributionist, for obvious political reasons...
...The New York rent control law, still in effect, was originally imposed as an "emergency" measure during the World War II period...
...I am not going to comment on Steinfels's first article...
...Again, it is surely no coincidence that the exceedingly generous - and socially expensive - unemployment benefits now in place in West Germany, after twelve years of governance by the Social Democrats, coexist with a level of unemployment unknown since the immediate postwar period and a faltering economy which reflects the diminished competitiveness of German products...
...If individuals have no economic incentive to take the only type of jobs for which their minimal skills equip them, they will be unable to progress...
...Steinfels misses it by a mile...
...In any case, moving away from democratic socialism is more like moving away from a too-narrow faith than like changing one's principles...
...Steinfels acknowledges the importance to the economy of entre-preneurship, but he fails to recognize that it is, as Marxists say, no accident, that it is neither celebrated by nor associated with socialism...
...The primary purpose of that effort seems to have been to get the venom out and do some ritualistic dumping on Novak...
...On the other hand, I remain unper-suaded that he is merely reacting to his former biases, not overreacting...
...That, in very brief outline, is what socialism ultimately is...
...We cannot call this inconsistency...
...I am most concerned about that latter task...
...Specifically, Steinfels fails to acknowledge adequately or discuss intelligently two major claims Novak makes for his book...
...If Steinfels's review is intended to provide justification for such a religious position, this suggests that it amounts to a conclusive presumption, one that no evidence, however compelling, can rebut...
...Certainly, this has been the case in Britain, France, West Germany, and the United States...
...5. Novak tends to equate pluralism with democracy, ignoring concerns about democracy within his three "systems," and dismissing, for example, the possibility that economic life could be organized more democratically...
...We must distinguish between our ultimate and penultimate commitments...
...Does the Steinfels Doctrine hold that one can move only in that direction...
...As for the reasons behind my changes of mind, these are hardly at all due to changes of principle and almost entirely due to changes in perception and in judgment about facts...
...Instead, they chose to change the subject...
...And the exact location of that "home" is the one shred of socialism still hanging precariously, its claim to a monopoly on moral ideals and the aspirations of the human spirit...
...Let me respond to his criticisms of how I handle the issues of pluralism and democracy...
...There certainly are enough poor, however, to warrant serious efforts at reform...
...I would not myself entitle Harrington's vision "Ultrasuper demo-craticsocialism," but it does lack the sense of sin, hazard, singular decision-making , and concern for the hard tasks of producing wealth and protecting pluralism which democratic capitalist societies already embody and which occupy the first nine chapters of my book...
...That is one point...
...Steinfels thinks the vision of democratic capitalism - a vision of sin, imperfect institutions, singular decisions, and much future shock - is immoderate...
...When we read them it is clear that they were consciously introducing a new and what they thought was a superior moral order - superior both in the way of promoting individual virtue and guaranteeing more stable political arrangements...
...I have made a correction on this point for later editions and will appreciate learning from any readers about any other mistakes of fact or logic...
...Where has the existence of generous government transfer payments not proved incompatible with sustained increases in productivity...
...Steinfels thinks that capitalism is more destructive of pluralism and democracy than supportive...
...It will never come to pass in its ideal form, yet it is important to detail the dream in order to better design each approximation of it...
...Steinfels mentions "dozens and dozens" of errors in the book...
...But to move from this legitimate perception to the quite idiosyncratic notion that Novak is "an eighteenth-century British Tory" strains the reader's credibility...
...I believe a great deal of evidence and moral argumentation can be marshaled for various perspectives, and none should be too quickly or easily dismissed...
...Layoffs in the auto industry were underway well before the current recession...
...Steinfels that "we must not substitute allegiance to any of our 'isms' for the goals we want to serve...
...Ash displays is unjustified...
...Stein-fels cites...
...Individuals have "rights" to "adequate" amounts of various goods, i.e., food, shelter, medical care, etc., but the availability of these goods is simply assumed...
...It is as though a writer claiming expertise on American politics were to misread a magazine article from the thirties so as to conclude that FDR opposed federal intervention in the economy...
...But even if, heaven forfend, I or anyone else could not mount a good case for democratic socialism, it does not follow that Michael Novak has mounted a good one for democratic capitalism...
...If socialism means anything, it means that economic decisions are made politi-(Continued on page 376) Correspondence (Continued from page 354) cally, rather than as with capitalism, by the market...
...But in fact only a small part of my critique of Novak dealt with democratic socialism, and...
...The Unseen Revolution, p. 174...
...The experience of a conversion in judgments about political economy is not altogether unlike a religious conversion, but not so deep...
...Following Santayana (although I am a believing Catholic and not, in his sense, a skeptic), I have practiced skepticism, especially about my own opinions...
...As Commonweal's editorials show, many religious liberals share this attraction for democratic socialism, although it often takes the guise of favoring substantial political intervention in the economy while condemning capitalism as selfish and immoral...
...THE EDITORS Delaware, Ohio To the Editors: Allow me a few lines to respond to Peter Steinfels's extended commentary [Jan...
...But these terms are given with the territory and define the parameters of a great deal of our political dialogue...
...That, indeed, may constitute the most significant point of originality in Spirit, as more than one reviewer has observed...
...Such a result only confirms what every elementary economics course teaches: distribution, or consumption, and production are interrelated...
...I believe it is true that a multiplicity of private associations correlate with democratic capitalist arrangements because people will support their various values in organized form if they have the ready income to do it...
...That leverage has not been exercised by private corporations, by and large...
...Such contexts are: a significant number of church and interdenominational theological schools, many ecumenical conferences on social issues organized by ecumenical agencies, and many conferences dealing with the church's mission abroad...
...We know, for example, that in the Eastern bloc, a disproportionate share of the agricultural output is produced by the tiny capitalist sector which, of necessity, is permitted to exist...
...Nevertheless, I have made rather strong legitimating remarks about a system that many faithful and intelligent Christians think is corrupt and destructive...
...So, I'll stand by my contention that political power is sufficiently distinguished from economic power to warrant calling the system "democratic capitalism" rather than "corporate collectivism," as Michael Harrington terms it...
...In such a world man's social productivity will reach such heights that compulsory work will no longer be necessary...
...Finally, I heartily agree with Mr...
...Steinfels identifies only one, in the chapter on Niebuhr...
...His resolves, his wishes, his outlook may have been unchanged...
...there is the vision of socialism itself...
...We are told as early as page 14 that the book is about "the theological presuppositions, values, and systemic intentions" of democratic capitalism...
...One would expect, therefore, that Steinfels would confront and seek to rebut Novak's arguments that, both theoretically and in practice, societies lacking a strong capitalistic element are unlikely to remain for long, simultaneously free, di-"verse, and economically productive...
...It is a great mistake, as Maritain pointed out years ago, to call the American economic system capitalism...
...And it does not do badly with poverty, either, since the vast majority of impoverished people who have come to these shores through the centuries have long ago moved into the ranks of the middle classes or above...
...4. Novak's celebration of capitalism's lack of ultimate value - the "empty shrine" at its core - does not address any of the difficulties that have occupied theorists of pluralism for decades...
...Somehow, the former is easier to bear...
...Steinfels finds it curious that I should use democratic socialism as a foil in reacting to my previous economic opinions...
...Persons choose to support all kinds of groups, associations, schools, churches, journals, activities, etc...
...I took up the challenge to defend "democratic capitalism" as a practically and morally viable system, but to do so with awareness of its flaws and, most importantly, to propose constructive options within the limits and possibilities of that combination...
...new generations of immigrants keep streaming toward it...
...In their original contexts and at their appearance, each of these passages made valid points...
...It still seems difficult to disagree that political will in this country in the last two decades has transferred a growing percentage of the GNP from private to public disposition (the last two years excluded...
...Where he apparently disagrees is with Novak's contention that the economic component of such a society must be primarily capitalistic, rather than socialistic...
...After all, he says, it is not exactly a looming presence in American politics...
...Novak, can supply me with the references, I would welcome their help...
...Not only does he fail to do this, Steinfels also fails to explain why he is admittedly "attracted" to democratic socialism, or, even, how socialism, as prefaced by the word "democratic," differs as an economic system from socialism as usually defined...
...it is certain that they will lose votes by reducing particular benefits and far from certain that there will be an off-setting gain...
...they do...
...Democratic capitalism is neither laissez-faire nor free enterprise alone...
...it is a moral system and a humanism...
...Once again Novak has confounded his critics with trinitarian imagery...
...I think that kind of understanding is needed even to guide efforts at serious reform...
...What truly astounds me is that Steinfels also ignores the theological aspect of Novak's book...
...Rent control is supposed to make housing more "affordable" by curbing the "excessive" profits of landlords...
...This is particularly true when one replaces the vision of democratic socialism with the vision of democratic capitalism...
...Robert Heilbroner, e.g., describes how Marxism is more like a way of seeing than like a scientific theory, and this is also true for democratic socialism, so that moving in that direction is often experienced as a conversion...
...So doing, I began to see that I had earlier acquired from Catholic traditions, from the liberal arts, and from progressive intellectuals a great many biases against capitalism and the corporations (only some instances of which Mr...
...I regret that my other correspondents found my articles venomous or unfair or dependent on name-calling...
...Without recanting their appearance at an earlier time, I would now no longer write such passages...
...Virtually everything important to democratic socialism can be incorporated within a democratic capitalist vision, but with a firmer sense of balance, especially in regard to the dangers inherent in the political system and above all in the bureaucratic, administrative state...
...On that occasion, I might even express my opinion of the passage Novak quotes from Michael Harrington: Yes, I do find it a little Utopian for my taste, but I am reassured by the way in which Harrington, unlike Novak, clearly identifies his utopianism as such, and by the next paragraphs (which Novak does not quote) in which Harrington, citing Dos-toevsky, warns against the dangers of messianic totalitarianism that such a Utopian vision could possibly provoke...
...He's right, of course, if one takes the whole scope of the American scene into account...
...To the Editors: You would not expect me to admire Peter Steinfels's review of The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism [Jan...
...But my reason for mentioning what Novak describes as a "detail" about an "exact parliamentary vote" was that this "detail" revealed not simply a mistake about Niebuhr but an abysmal ignorance about the history of totalitarianism, and the relationship of capitalism and socialism to that history...
...He concedes that I was correct on the substance of the point, Niebuhr's growing skepticism about socialism, but incorrectly used the wrong detail and revealed ignorance about the exact parliamentary vote involved...
...It is the idea of an utterly new society in which some of the fundamental limitations of human existence have been transcended...
...with that discretionary income...
...One could properly complain of uptight and caged personalities, for example, when Richard Nixon and "the best and brightest" still set the style, a style I saw plenty of at Harvard during 1960-65, and, nonetheless, later express dismay at the sudden collapse of standards and the opposite excesses of "liberation...
...Murchland is wrong about the book's merit as political philosophy (points four and five above...
...and therefore warrants reassessment...
...Further, the concept of "story" in theology, a concept my work has helped to further, helps to shed light on those changes of mind which do not result from changes of principle so much as from changes of experience and perception...
...There is no Christian social, economic, or even political system...
...I don't know what they will do about the underlying distortion of history...
...Since he continues to be a democratic socialist, while I no longer do, there will be plenty to argue about after getting each other's views straight...
...Then, too, I came to see how the ideology and adversarial intentions of persons in my intellectual class had affected my vision in an anti-capitalist, romantically socialist direction...
...He cites several passages from books of mine published in 1969, 1971, 1972, and 1974...
...politicians gain votes by extending benefits to various interest groups, including industries...
...Yet I still cannot find in his extensive writings any places where, before his conversion, he clearly declared himself a democratic socialist...
...In fact it may be claimed to be the truest consistency...
...When Christians of the left disagree, I am often charged with immorality...
...There is little historical evidence that politicians have been competent economic decision-makers, and none at all to suggest that democratic socialist politicians will be either more competent or less governed by self-interest than their predecessors...
...Socialism restricts that available income...
...It is the inability of real-world socialism to fulfill its own principles that first inspires doubt...
...But I must admit that in making my argument, I probably showed too much pique toward them...
...A number of autobiographical passages in Spirit suggest briefly how and why I have changed my mind about the actual practice and underlying theory of democratic socialism, and have come to prefer the practice and underlying theory of democratic capitalism...
...why she is wrong in moving from the quite real problems such valuable institutions pose to blaming them for things that have much wider causes...
...It was in the context of his uncritical allegiance to a schema of three social orders supposedly in marvelous equilibrium - and his neglect of alternative pluralist models - that I called him "an eighteenth-century British Tory...
...The twentieth-century is a graveyard for inadequate socialist dreams...
...3. Novak's "trinitarian" description of democratic capitalism as involving "structurally separated" but mutually sustaining political, economic, and moral-cultural systems does not do justice to the facts of American society and is so utterly flexible as to provide no guidelines for deciding whether current policy choices actually move us closer to or further from democratic capitalism...
...In regard to Novak's misreading of Niebuhr, he claims I concede he was correct "on the substance of the point, Niebuhr's growing skepticism about socialism...
...Obviously, in making a case for democratic socialism, I would have to meet a lot of objections and make a number of qualifications that I cannot do here...
...The shapers of capitalism were not primarily economists but moral philosophers like Smith, Montesquieu, Hume, and later the utilitarians...
...MICHAEL NOVAK A legitimate system Salem, Va...
...Finally, Mr...
...Finally, I would like to express my ambivalent reaction to Michael Novak's somewhat plaintive account of his change in outlook...
...Novak insists more than ever, for example, on his former adherence not simply to anti-capitalism or "radicalism" but to "democratic socialism...
...Steinfels read it quite well on the historical level, but he manifests a very imperfect understanding of The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism as philosophy and as theology...
...Government economic policies, however, usually ignore this elementary truth, and the predictable effects of such policies are evident in many areas...
...I a-greed that there were historical and logical links between capitalism and the liberal preconditions for democracy in Western nations (limited, constitutional government...
...14.-Feb...
...PETER STEINFELS...
...Any theologian or philosopher who chooses, as I have, to ply his trade close to the texture of movements and events faces a criterion as difficult in its own proper way as the one Churchill sets before the statesman...
...This does not mean that individual corporations, or the tripartite system of democratic capitalism taken as a whole, do not have serious faults...
...Steinfels, however, quotes, with apparent approval and without apparent irony, the statement of a Socialist that he finds the market and democracy to be "somewhat inseparable"-a condition surely akin to being "somewhat pregnant...
...I am glad Steinfels - who knows the relevant history well, having studied it abroad and in New York - caught it...
...Penultimately, however, I still believe that democratic capitalism offers a better mix of liberty, social equality, pluralism, creativity, opportunity, and general well-being than its competitors...
...Moreover, those who cherish democratic capitalism are not all "capitalists," in the narrow sense of owners of the means of industrial production...
...Correspondence 'DEMOCRATIC CAPITALISM' MICHAEL NOVAK, ROBERT BENNE, & OTHERS A simple shortage of space in our pages has prevented us from publishing more promptly the extended replies to Peter Steinfels's articles early this year on "democratic capitalism...
...I have gradually discovered that these are biases, and that there is much good that one must write down on the other side of the ledger...
...Novak's book resonates at three quite distinct levels: the historical, the philosophical, and the theological...
...ROBERT BENNE Jordan-Trexler Professor of Religion Roanoke College The author replies Professor Benne prefers "serious efforts at reform" rather than "rejecting a system that has done so well...
...Nor are ethnics exempt from cherishing it...
...Capitalism fosters en-trepreneurship by providing the opportunity to realize profits from successful ventures...
...Mute testimony to its effects on the housing supply may be seen in the abandoned and vandalized buildings stretching across the Bronx...
...However, I well knew that if I needed a few positive strokes I could go speak to almost any suburban congregation of our churches...
...14-Feb...
...Michael Novak and Mary M. Ash devote the bulk of their letters to attacking democratic socialism...
...Steinfels pretends to a lack of sympathy and intelligence which he usually does not manifest...
...I thought I had gone to some length - too much length, in fact - to spell out some specific arguments about Michael Novak's The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism: 1. Novak has undergone a radical shift in his values and his view of America...
...Such sins must be assessed in a fair context, judged against appropriate and relevant ideals (not socialist ideals), and compared with existing (or proximately realizable) al-ternatives...
...The point is not that there is too much or too little disposed of publicly, the point is that great political leverage has been exercised through democratic processes to execute that shift...
...But that should not be pursued by rejecting a system that has done so well on the whole...
...Democratic capitalism feels like a more realistic and larger world than that of democratic socialism, as Christianity feels like a more realistic vision (less elitist, more attuned to evil in the world) than that of the great Greek philosophers...
...If readers, including Mr...
...much remains to be done...
...To the Editors: I appreciate the fair and careful treatment of my book, The Ethic of Democratic Capitalism, by executive editor Peter Steinfels...
...Novak and his defenders have not challenged these arguments...
...In the real world, however, the basic necessities of life do not arrive like manna from heaven, but are dependent on the willingness of most humans to work...
...and why a mixture of market and political control of the economy is not" only quite unlike the absurdity of being "somewhat pregnant" but, in reality, is inevitable...
...Not to see The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism as a creative work of theology, and discuss it as such, is quite simply to miss the point...
...Peter Drucker, for example, argues that "There is no parallel in government history - certainly not in peacetime - to the expansion of public spending in the United States in the last fifteen years...
...Finally, one should notice that a Catholic and ethnic horizon, emphasizing community, tradition, the persistence of evil, and faith, quite alters the horizon of Manchester liberalism and utilitarianism, as I alter it at many places in Spirit...
...This surprises me...
...I have enough spiritual health to recognize that both contexts present considerable dangers to my soul - the former because it provokes too much anger and the latter too much complacency...
...First, pluralism...
...In a society where the very word "socialism," even when preceded by "democratic," conjures up images of Soviet Communism and totalitarian dictatorship, their rhetorical tack may be an effective one...
...On some other occasion, I might like to take the space to show why the kind of hostility toward regulation, labor unions, and transfer payments that Ms...
...I am persuaded that the economic freedom of democratic capitalism is an important support of social pluralism...
...But a more important task is to keep that distinction clear so that neither swallows the other...
...Thus, becoming a democratic capitalist, a person moves beyond the principles of democratic socialism, but without denying the impulses which led him to that perspective in the first place...
...cooperation, fraternity, and equality become natural...
...politicians are not spending their own money and will probably have left office when the bills come due...
...The Wagner Act was intended to give power to "exploited" workers by requiring employers to bargain with unions...
...Incidentally, I have found that when Christians of a conservative economic and political perspective disagree with me, they often say I am naive, sentimental, or Utopian...
...But my basic argument still holds...
...11] on Michael Novak's The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism...
...This is not an immediate program, constrained by what is politically possible, or even the projection of a middle distance in which structural changes might take place...
...Its most basic premise is that man's battle with nature has been completely won and there is therefore more than enough of material goods for everyone...
...By the same token, Steinfels is not likely in any serious sense a socialist, democratic or otherwise...
...But until I have been made aware of a substantial number of instances, I will have to take Michael Novak's profession of his previous fervent attachment to democratic socialism as I must take so many of his statements - with a large grain of salt...
...6. Far from pioneering a new area, as he claims in his letter, Novak's book stands in a long line of American efforts to promote an ideology that would use Jeffersonian rhetoric to legitimize the authority and power of corporate leadership - and would further do so, incidentally, by branding all its critics as "socialist...
...absent a system of slave labor, some means must be found to persuade individuals to produce the requisite goods and services...
...2. Novak's notion of "democratic capitalism" begs the question it needs to address: the logical and historical ties between capitalism and democracy...
...After decades of NLRB and court rulings which have had the effect of curtailing the flexibility of employers and their power to hire and fire, and have also increased the wages in unionized sectors, many key and once flourishing industries are now in a decline...
...Democratic socialism seems like a simpler, more naive, too trusting view both of human beings and of the state...
...As transfer payments become more generous, there is less incentive to take jobs paying little more than the benefits...
...Second, Mr...
...I am not in disagreement, partly because I think that any idea of blanket "rejecting a system" is sheer illusion...
...but I argued that since roughly the middle of the nineteenth century, capitalist forces and democratic ones have gone in different, and often directly conflicting, directions...
...workers and non-profit professionals also cherish it...
...On that occasion, I might argue that the democratic socialist tradition offers us more keys to escaping our current economic, political, and cultural impasses than does Michael Novak's, or even Robert Benne's, version of democratic capitalism...
...His arguments in each case when contrasted can be shown to be not only very different in character, but contradictory in spirit and opposite in direction: yet his object will throughout have remained the same...
...One is that democratic capitalism grew out of a moral-cultural base...
...I also feel the force of what he describes as a "conversion" from "a too-narrow-faith" of the left...
...Chapter XIV of Socialism begins: Finally...
...I've been the object of a number of ritual slayings in precisely those contexts...
...I think it is true that Novak projects the term "democratic capitalism" too loosely over a long span of time and thus makes himself vulnerable to some of the criticisms of the sort Steinfels raises...
...But if he wants to believe that an unhistorical, philosophically thin work allegedly about real-world questions of politics and economy can nevertheless be theologically superb, well okay...
...My book pioneers a new area...
...I invite the collaboration even of those who, in the end, do not agree with me on all the points in dispute...
...Capitalism" was in its origins and remains mostly a polemical term and to accept it, as Maritain wrote,"is to accept the challenge of Communism in the very terms of Communist propaganda itself...
...On the one hand, I think he is owed credit for raising and pursuing some questions that too many religious activists would rather ignore...
...In some places failing to see points which are obvious, and in others making difficulties where they are none, Mr...
...Moreover, by reading Novak too narrowly through historical lenses, Steinfels misses what is most original and substantial in his book...
...For the latter affirms the right and duty of the political system, and even more of the moral-cultural system, to modify and to check the economic system...
...and while he has every right to change his mind, both his old and his new positions seem to rely so heavily on subjective judgments, imprecise formulations, and selective evidence that there is considerable question why readers should follow his personal odyssey...
...Most - if not all - socialist perspectives intend a larger public sphere, with public disposition of larger amounts of the economic pie...
...BERNARD MURCHLAND Political incompetence Stanford, Calif...
...A major deficiency in such teaching, which Novak is not alone in identifying, is its virtually exclusive focus on the distribution, as opposed to the production, of goods and services...
...Steinfels virtually ignores the explicit moral and philosophical basis upon which democratic capitalism rests...
...Too much in his account consists of large and vague generalizations as well as a kind of posturing that leaves me wary...
...then it was mostly to recommend that democratic socialists take a number of his criticisms seriously...
...To the Editors: Resort to name-calling usually signifies an intellectually weak position, and Peter Steinfels's review of The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism proves no exception to the general rule...
...PETER STEINFELSratic socialism as I must take so many of his statements - with a large grain of salt...
Vol. 110 • June 1983 • No. 12
