Bemerkungen über Schumpeters Einfluß auf die amerikanische Wirtschaftstheorie

Many economists have been wondering why, in the United States, no Schumpeterian school has been formed. Was not his ingenious system broad and flexible enough to serve as a rallying point of diverging opinions? Moreover, did he not lean, already in his first publications, on basic concepts of American origin? Finally, was not his vision of economic development more in line with American experience than with that of the countries of Europe? To be satisfactory, any explanation should go back to a great variety of factors. There was, in the first place, Schumpeter's reluctance to present his message in unsophisticated terms. He liked to deploy an imposing scientific apparatus, largely of European parentage, which sometimes antagonized his audiences. So did his predilection for non-conformist and sectarian views, also his wavering in matters of methodology which invited suspicion of inconsistency and opportunism. Other obstacles were the universality of his conception, covering not only economics, but philosophy, mathematics, statistics, history, and sociology, and finally his rejection of prevalent political standards and prejudices, especially during World War II. Though we should anticipate that, as time goes on, most of those criticisms will lose in weight or be entirely forgotten and though several of Schumpeter's theorems already belong to the inventory of American economics, it would be surprising if, one day, on American soil the scattered fragments of his thought were restored to their previous unity.