Robert Heilbroner’s Two Realms of Capitalism

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Robert Heilbroner’s Two Realms of Capitalism
INTRODUCTION
Since the dawn of the First Industrial Revolution, economists and social critics have debated the nature and merits of capitalism. In the long-standing tradition, Robert Heilbroner emerged in the twentieth century as one of the most respected leftist thinkers. As a matter of significant contribution, Heilbroner is perhaps best known for his conceptual dialog concerning the two realms of capitalism. The current study, it follows, presents a first person analysis of capitalism based on Heilbroner’s ideas as presented in the book Twenty-first Century Capitalism. That is, discussion addresses how the Heilbroner’s two realms of capitalism are both beneficial and dysfunctional for...

.....es of government are avoided. In effect, this reduces the amount of responsibility placed on governments which promotes better efficiency and function for governments. This latter point, it follows, can be used as the basis for perhaps the most compelling argument in favor of capitalism. That is, as Heilbroner points out, history tells that "the state of explicit political liberty that we loosely call democracy has so far appeared only in nations in which capitalism is the mode of economic organization" (Heilbroner 69). Thus, in the final analysis, it becomes obvious that the contributions of capitalism to society have been more positive than negative.
WORKS CITED
Heilbroner, Robert L. Twenty-first Century Capitalism. House of
Anansi, 1992.