Democracy tends to work as the maximisation of the economic interests of sections of the electorate, rather than as the formation of a unified rational will concerning the public interest. Schumpeter’s suggestion that socialism can work and that it is inevitable, may be unsettling, but looked at closely, he proves very realistic analyses of why capitalism tends to develop in a socialistic direction, and therefore indications of what needs to be done in order to prevent that. These factors make Capitalist, Socialism and Democracy essential reading for liberals in the original sense of the word, and a paradoxical classic of that kind of liberalism.