PHIL2634 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Joseph Schumpeter, Creative Destruction, Michael Oakeshott
Document Summary
By the late 1800s or early 1900s western europe had arrived in a situation recognisably similar to that of the early twenty-first century. For the first time, the majority now lived in cities and were fully dependent on a money economy : the traditional basis of ancient and medieval society in rural agriculture was truly gone. The rapid technological and economic progress of the 1800s had also created a vastly more powerful and complex state apparatus that was mirrored in the organisation of corporate firms. Efficiency and uniformity became significant considerations, regardless of the human costs that they imposed. These new structures showed no sign of slowing down in their rate of expansion. While bureaucracy has always been a feature of government and administration, the speed and quantity of the modern variety set it apart. The other feature of the modern state was a willingness to exploit and to be subjected to mass popular demands.
