ABSTRACT
By the early 1980s China had embarked full tilt on the capitalist road, and India was lowering taxes on the profits of rice growers in order to encourage maximum production. The American Catholic magazine Commonweal, Daniel Finn praises some of The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, the author's 1982 book on the topic–only to urge him now, in light of the economic downturn, to disown the views of such friends as Robert Sirico and Sam Gregg at the Acton Institute. The appearance of the term has actually increased these last few weeks, though mostly in the context of announcing the death of democratic capitalism–announcements mostly by writers who were reluctant to acknowledge its birth. Democratic capitalism's capacity for self-correction, by the fairly rapid punishment of its own misuse, is not the least of its attractions.
