HIS GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT...:

Six things, Novak argues, echoing Russell Kirk's six tenets of conservatism, intentionally or not, help define democratic capitalism: free labor; reason; continuous enterprise; impersonality; stable networks of law; and cities and towns. These six, Novak takes from the great sociologist, Max Weber.  As such,

the spirit of democratic capitalism is the spirit of development, risk, experiment, adventure. It surrenders present security for future betterment. In differentiating the economic system from the state, it introduced a novel pluralism into the very center of the social system.  Henceforth, all societies of its type would be internally divided--an explosively revolutionary.

The revolutionary element of democratic capitalism comes not just from the freedom of the economic system--"to live in an energetic, dynamic, free society is to experience culture shock frequently"--but, especially, from its embrace of pluralism. For, Novak writes, "in a genuinely pluralistic society, there is no one sacred canopy."  Thus, such places as Brazil and China--no matter how competitive their markets--cannot be considered as having embraced the spirit of democratic capitalism. Such places become examples of what should not be. In its pluralism, "a democratic capitalist society mirrors the infinity of God through the conflicting, discordant, irreconcilable differences of huge numbers of persons, each of whom is an originating agency of distinctive insight and distinctive choice." Here, Novak sounds very similar to John Paul II, who called each person an unrepeatable center of dignity and freedom.

In contrast, Novak contends, traditionalist societies care too much about maintaining "order and stability," while socialist societies overly worry about "inequalities in wealth and power."  The democratic capitalist society, though, most "fears is tyranny, most notably by the state, but also by excessive private power." In its promises, democratic capitalism never claims to end sin, but it does hope to inculcate traditional virtues through persuasion rather than force. Still, Novak cautions, "democratic capitalism is not a system of radical individualism," as some of its critics and proponents have proclaimed.  Rather

Parties and factions loom large in it.Family is central to it.Structures, institutions, laws, and prescribed procedures are indispensable to its conception. In economic matters, its chief social inventions are the business corporation and the free labor union. Its theory of sin makes such complexity necessary. Its theory of sin makes creative use even of self-interest.

And, "the success of democratic capitalism in producing prosperity and liberty is its own danger," and, thus, "the commercial virtues are not, then, sufficient to their own defense. A commercial system needs taming and correction by a moral-cultural system independent of commerce."

In these arguments, Novak sounds very much like Madison, especially in Federalist no. 10, and Adam Smith in The Theory of Moral Sentiments. And, to be sure, Novak lists "the inventors of democratic capitalism--Montesquieu, John Adams, Adam Smith, Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Rush, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson. . ."

Tweet   @brothersjudd