Schumpeter expected giant bureaucracies to end capitalism by crowding out entrepreneurs

Evidence

The rise of giant corporations and bureaucratic management led Schumpeter to predict the end of capitalism. According to him, individual entrepreneurs who were capable of relevant innovations and pushing through new combinations in the marketplace in the face of resistance (due to the inevitable destruction of previously existing market relations) were the true cause of macroeconomic progress. The successful entrepreneur would thereby also yield considerable profit (temporary monopoly), enabling, eventually, the building of lasting (family capital) empires. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 272

Categorization

• XREF: Importantly distinguishes Schumpeter from the Mises-Hayek line the book is tracing — a useful node in the internal-varieties map. — connects to: Schumpeter explained austerity’s failure through the bureaucratization of large firms — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 349; Schumpeter saw capitalism’s rationalization destroying the entrepreneur’s heroic social function — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 350; Schumpeter predicted capitalism’s end from entrepreneurial decline. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 263 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Schumpeter predicted socialism via competition’s centralizing effects, not capital’s contradictions #qualifies (0.85) — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 949