University of Virginia Library

CAPITALISM:

an economic system which presupposes private property in the means of production; a market economy; and the division of labor. It is often referred to as "free enterprise" or "the market system." According to MARXISM, capitalism is a transitional stage of human HISTORY leading to the communist SOCIETY of the future. WEBER suggested that democracy in its purest FORM can only occur in a capitalist society and that there is a complex relationship between capitalism and RELIGION, particularly CALVINISM.