28 / CHRONICLESnOPINIONSnEmpire Strikes Baek by William HawkinsnTo sit in darkness here hatching vain empires. “n—MiltonnKitchener: The Man Behind thenLegend by Philip Warner, NewnYork: Atheneum; $15.95.nDuring his discussion of tiie overthrownof feudahsm by the bourgeoisienin his classic Capitalism, So­ncialism and Democracy, JosephnSchumpeter asked whether “in the endnsuch complete emancipation was goodnfor the bourgeois and his world.” Henconcluded that it had not been. Capitalistnsociety needs the “steel frame” ofnthe precapitalist aristocracy and its valuesnin order to survive. It was thennn”human material of feudal society”nwhich “continued to rule the roostnright to the end of the period of intactnand vital capitalism.”nIt filled the offices of state,nofficered the army, devisednpolicies . . . and, thoughntaking into account bourgeoisninterests, it took care tondistance itself from thenbourgeoisie.nThe passing of this class was the principlenreason Schumpeter believed thatncapitalism was doomed. Not that itnwould fail economically; Schumpeternwas a firm believer in the economicnsuperiority of capitalism. It would failnpolitically because “the bourgeois classnis ill equipped to face the problems,nboth domestic and international, thatnhave normally to be faced by a countrynof any importance.”nWe have seen that thenindustrialist and the merchant,nas far as they are entrepreneurs,nalso fill a function ofnleadership. But economicnleadership of this type does notnreadily expand, like thenmedieval lord’s militarynleadership, into the leadershipnof nations. On the contrary,nthe ledger and the costncalculahon absorb and confine.nSchumpeter, by birth an Austrian, wasnattempting to warn his adopted UnitednStates of its weakness as a capitalistnnation without a feudal past. A nationnabout to assume global responsibilities.nThe weakness Schumpeter perceivednhas been manifest on manynoccasions. The revolt of middle-classnstudents during the Vietnam WarnWilliam R. Hawkins is the economicsnconsultant to the U.S. Business andnIndustrial Council and a columnistnfor the USBIC Writer’s Syndicate.n