Looking beyond capitalism

Press, 15 July 1978, Page 15

Looking beyond capitalism

Business Civilisation In Decline. By Robert L. Heilbroner. Pelican. 99 pp., index. $2.60. (Reviewed by N. L. Macbeth) The five chapters in this slim volume outline the author’s main thesis that “the political apparatus within capitalism is steadily growing, enhancing its power, and usurping functions formerly delegated to the economic sphere — not to undo, but to preserve that sphere.” Dr Heilbroner, Professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research, New York, takes a gloomy view of the prospects of

Western economies; but his analysis will be disputed by as many social scientists as those who accept it. Anyone expecting to find a blueprint of the society which will emerge from the collapse of capitalism in a book of a hundred pages must be either a Marxist or a subscriber to "Reader's Digest.” Even so, there are some interesting insights into Western, or at least American, political and econorr/ developments for the student of these things. The analysis would be more convincing if it betrayed more, understanding of the post-war successes of German and Japanese business.