ABSTRACT
A politically aware observer at the end of the nineteenth century surveying the emerging democracies would have said that the principal political conflicts of the twentieth century would be over issues arising from the unequal ownership of the means of production. Indeed, right into the middle of the twentieth century, it was common for commentators from a variety of political perspectives to predict a trend towards the socialisation of the means of production. Although Schumpeter (1942) wrote in a somewhat wistful tone, he was not alone when he forecast the inevitable demise of capitalism.
