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of the term, and/or (b) to deny the thoroughly documented and, it seems
to me, determining facts which Neumann has drawn together concerning
the operation of the basic institutions of capitalism in Germany.
One of the generic errors of those who do not see the German econ–
omy as capitalistic is Marx's view that capitalism is an anarchy of pro–
duction. Of course, as Max Weber contended, modern Western capitalism
is nothing of the sort. It is rationalized and planned. The more monopo–
lization continues, the more capitalism is controlled and planned. "States"
have interfered less in the mechanisms of
laissez-faire
than have monopoly
capitalists. Many of those who would deny the advantages of capitalism
to Germany do so within a definition of pre-Twentieth Century capitalism.
However much this may help along the pleasant attitudes held of capital–
ism in other countries, it is not fair to the capitalists of Germany. They
are not so old-fashioned as those who ta·lk about their demise. And they
are not so unhistorical.
To define "capitalism" as consisting of the "free competition" of a
large number of independel}t entrepreneurs with freedom of contract and
trade is, of course, to speak of the past. A more enduring trait, and there–
fore one better fitted to be seized upon in a definition, is the major insti–
tution of modern society: private property in the means of production.
Now rapid technological change, requiring heavy investments, further
augments the gobbling up of the little by the big aitd this monopolization
eventuates in an extremely rigid economic structure. Powerful corpora–
tions demand guarantees and subsidies from the state. Thus, in an era of
monopolization "the administrative act" and not "the contract" becomes
"the auxiliary guarantee of property." Intervention becomes central, and:
"who is to interfere and on whose behalf becomes the most important
question for modern society." In Germany, as seen by Neumann, National
Socialism has tied the economic organization into the web of "industrial
combinations run by the industrial magnates." By means of the newer
implementation of property, the administrative command, the cartelliza–
tion of German business has proceeded rapidly. The Nazis saved the
cartel system, whose rigidities were sorely beset by the depression. Since
then their policies have consistently resulted in a further monopolization
into the orbit of the big corporations. The cartels and the political
authority have been welded together in such a way that private hands per–
form such crucial politico-economic tasks as the allocation of raw
materials.
But who runs the giant cartels? Behind cartellization there has oc–
curred a centralizing trend which has left power decisions and profits in
the lap of the industrial magnates, realized many an old dream not shared
by the now regimented workers or the small business men now virtually
eliminated. The dreams come true in Germany may well be those of the
industrial condottiere everywhere. Among
~pecific
Nazi politics which
have implemented ths olgarchification of capitalism is Aryanization: Jew–
ish property expropriated has not gone to the "State," but to industrialists
