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From International Socialism (1st series), No.8, Spring 1962, p.33.
Thanks to Ted Crawford & the late Will Fancy.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
Theory of Economic Development
J.A. Schumpeter
Oxford Galaxy (New York), $1.50.
The Industrialisation of Backward Areas
K. Mandelbaum
Blackwell. 16s.
All serious students will welcome reprints of these two classics – both have run a number of editions, since 1911 (Schumpeter) and 1945 (Mandelbaum) when they were first published. Both have a permanent place in economic literature. Schumpeter’s weightier work, along with his other writings, forms probably the most sophisticated defence of capitalism ever produced. His concern here is not the transition from pre-capitalism, but an examination of the reasons for capitalism’s dynamism as a system.
Mandelbaum is of greater current interest, and consists of a blueprint for the industrialisation of East and Southeast Europe as they were in 1939, but carries wider implications; one of the implications being that the freedom of choice between planning goals and planning methods is much narrower than planners usually admit. Marxists will disagree strongly with both authors – but ignore them at their cost.
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Last updated on 1 March 2010