JOSEPH SCHUMPETER ALS SOZIOLOGE

SUMMARY Schumpeter's sociological conception remained remarkably unchanged and consistent over his life. In his early publication Wesen und Hauptinhalt der theoretischen Nationalökonomie he separates entirely Economics and Sociology, but the ‘static’ theory (which neglects human action) inevitably leads to the ‘dynamic’ theory (which intends to centre again human action) in his Theorie der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung . Undoubtedly fundamental for his theory was not only the conception of numerically neither verifiable nor falsifiable qualitative mutations. But unfortunately through the sociological‐institutional basis of the book, the sociological prerequisites of the required innovations were failed to be recognized. Schumpeter intended a comprehensive theory of modern capitalism; in his view such a theory had to consist of the theories of origins, effects and decline of modern capitalism. The ‘effects’ he imagined to have developed by his above mentioned theory, in connection with an article ‘Zur Soziologie des Imperialismus’, the ‘origins’ by the article ‘Die sozialen Klassen im ethnisch homogenen Milieu’, which contains also a theory of the generation of social classes and class mobility, and the ‘decline’ by the book Kapitalismus, Sozialismus und Kommunismus . Capitalism will break down, because continuous economic success would destroy the indispensable bases. It is also often overlooked that Schumpeter already 1917 agreed with Max Weber and Pareto on the scope and methodology of sociology, thus stating, that sociology was a science free of value judgements dealing with the interactions between individuals and groups of individuals in a social entirety. Not only extend sociological elements most of his publications—especially the works published when he lectured in Bonn on ‘Gesellschaftslehre’—he also conceded in a work published after his death, that Sociology, Economics, History and Statistics were entirely equally entitled, consequently concluding—after having already early recognized the common bases of Sociology and Economics—that ‘economic’ and ‘other’ actions could not be separated rigorously.