294
PARTISAN REVIEW
On the :.uccess or failure of this technique the fate of the
world depends.
If
it succeeds, the face of the globe will be
altered beyond recognition.
..a
However, not "Germany" but the present German rulers have
staked their very existence on the
Blitzkrieg
technique. Not the
fate .of the world, but the fate of numerous vested interests based
on the
status quo
is here involved.
11
Nevertheless, it is true that
situations can be altered by political measures just as well as, and
at times even better than, through the "organic" development of
laissez faire
capitalism.
Competititm and· the Destruction of Capital
In class society the distinction between politics and economics
refers to differences of method for appropriating and distributing
the products taken from the producers by the owners and control·
lers of capital. Political methods influence economic measures and
vice versa. From this point of view, the difference between state
protection in the "old" order and state control in the "new" order
is only a difference in degree, a quantitative change that is deter·
mined by the highly monopolistic character of capitalist society.
The increase in control is an attempt to break the stagnation of the
depression, i.e., the decline of competition during the crisis. It is
true that the crisis itself sharpens competition. However, this
intensified competition at first only hastens the decline through its
destruction of capital values. Because of numerous bankruptcies
the crisis leads to further capital concentration and to a situation
where those enterprises which can weather the depression are once
more capable of increasing the profitability of their production.
The competitive struggle, for a time fought almost exclusively in
the sphere of distribution, is again fought mainly in the sphere of
production.
This latter kind of competition leads to a new pros·
perity because it is a competition by way of capital investments.
In former depressions a number of capitalist enterprises dis·
appeared. Those that the state did not wish to see disappear it
had to support with subsidies either by government financing or
'(;ermany Economy;
p.
XIII.
'Eric Voegelin writes in "Some Problems of German Hegemony" (The Journal of
Politics, May 1941, p. 166): "Where the revolutionary and military expansion was suc·
cessful , it resulted in a radical change of personnel in all governmental key positions.
. . . The measures employed . . . range from simple dismissal to detention in concen·
tration camps, killing, and forced emigration."
