Earlier this year, the editors of COMMENTARY addressed the following statement and questions to a group of intellectuals of varying political views:

THE idea that there may be an inescapable connection between capitalism and democracy has recently begun to seem plausible to a number of intellectuals who would once have regarded such a view not only as wrong but even as politically dangerous. So too with the idea that there may be something intrinsic to socialism which exposes it ineluctably to the "totalitarian temptation." Thus far, the growing influence of these ideas has been especially marked in Europe-for example, among the so-called "new philosophers" in France and in the work of Paul Johnson and others in England-but they seem to be receiving more and more sympathetic attention in the United States as well.

How significant do you judge this development to be? Do you yourself share in it, either fully or even to the extent of feeling impelled to rethink your own ideas about capitalism and socialism and the relation of each to democracy?

The responses-twenty-six in all-appear below in alphabetical order.

© 2009 Commentary Inc.