>I think Marxists and Austrians also equally fail to take into
>adequate account the effect the advent of the universal franchise has had
>since Marx and the classicial economists produced their great works. Both
>camps see capitalist crises resulting in an inevitable wave of personal and
>corporate bankruptcies and mass unemployment - a necessary cleansing and
>revitalization of the system for the right, the necessary precondition to
>its overthrow for the left - but in the 20th century and beyond this
>economic option is now limited by the actual (and potential) political power
>of the masses.
As usual, you make a convincing case. I'll bet a lot of the crisis Marxists think that elections are a sham, and the bourgeoisie is in perfect control of the state, so they're not likely to give this factor much weight.
Doug