Capitalism, Democracy, and Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery

""If you can't get it at Ralph's, you can probably get along without it"" is the motto of the mom-and-pop retailer in Garrison Keillor's fictional town of Lake Wobegon, Minn. It's a slogan that serves Mueller, a University of Rochester political science professor, as an adroit summation of both capitalism and democracy. Both are imperfect systems, according to Mueller. Capitalism is driven by selfish acquisitiveness and provides no guarantees of economic security; democracy is preferable to other forms of government but is dominated by special interests and, as a result, is ""unlikely ever to achieve orderly deliberation, political equality, or wide and enlightened participation by the mass of the public."" Both concepts suffer from serious image problems, according to Mueller. Capitalism gets a bad rap from Hollywood, the church and intellectuals who decry the rapaciousness of the business world; in fact, capitalism actually rewards such virtues as honesty, fairness and civility, he writes. Democracy, on the other hand, is idealized and can never foster the orderly, fair society to which its advocates aspire. Mueller is an entertaining guide through economic and political history, using references to Shakespeare, Adam Smith, Hume, Mencken and many more writers to produce deft explanations of complex ideas. One may question the wisdom of his faith in the free market, or in the fairness and civility of big corporations that, these days, are gradually devouring the Ralph's Groceries of the world. But it's hard not to find much to like in a brash manifesto that proudly extols the virtues, as Mueller puts it, of ""the pretty good over the ideal."" (Oct.)