From Weber's "Spirit of Capitalism" to the Republican Spirit of Innovism: Ideas, Institutions, and the Republic of Entrepreneurs

Heng-Fu Zou ()

No 804, CEMA Working Papers from China Economics and Management Academy, Central University of Finance and Economics

Abstract: We replace Weber's "spirit of capitalism" with a constitutional-cultural framework we call the republican spirit of innovism operating within a re-public of entrepreneurs. In such an order, ordinary people repeatedly propose, test, and lawfully imitate improvements under general, impersonal rules-secure property, open entry and exit, credible contract, and freedoms of speech and association. Building on Mises(calculation and residual claimancy), Hayek (discovery and dispersed knowledge), Kirzner (alertness and equilibration), and the historical evidence assembled by Mc Closkey, Mokyr, and Phelps, we argue that modern prosperity stems less from elite R&D or capital deepening and more from creative construction by the many. We derive empirical signatures-proposal density, feedback speed, and diffusion breadth-and outline a policy agenda favoring open standards, disclosure-oriented intellectual property, contestability, and re producibility. Case evidence from Britain (since 1700), the United States (since the 1780s), and contemporary technological and biomedical sectors shows that when rules keep feedback honest and imitation lawful, total factor productivity rises persistently.

Keywords: republican spirit of innovism; republic of entrepreneurs; dispersed knowledge; entrepreneurial discovery; lawful imitation; diffusion; Industrial Enlightenment; bourgeois dignity; grassroots dynamism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L26 N10 O31 O33 O43 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2025-11-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent, nep-hpe and nep-sbm
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