Irving Kristol — svjetovni teolog kapitalizma

In Irving Kristol, the professor and publicist who coined the prefix »neo« and the creator of the sintagm neo-conservatism, American neoconservatism of the eighties has found its political ideologue. In his last book, Two Cheers for Capitalism, which is the immediate occassion of this analysis, he expresses his concern for the fate of American democracy and the capitalist system in USA. The onslaught of egalitarians and the demand for a democracy without bounds, has produced a cultural, followed by an economic crisis, which brings about the loss of the political, economic and moral legitimacy of the American society. The solution of the present crisis, which is of a structural nature, Irving Kristol sees in the return to a traditional capitalist ethos and the politics of laissez faire, as well as to the values affirmed by the state of labour and not the welfare state. The free market as the selector of individual abilities, private property and a rational economy represent the essence of capitalism not only as a free but as a just society. The author in addition believes that socialist societies, founded on diametrically opposite values, are more historical deviations that will end up on the dunghill of history.