Socialism

Socialism

1. Human Nature

   • optimistic view
   • believe individuals are co-operative, generous and altruistic
   • naturally seek solidarity, fraternityand companionship
   • see human nature as malleable rather than fixed at birth

2. Revisionist Socialism

   • seek to revise the fundamentalist view that socialism is incompatible with capitalism
   • believe that socialism and capitalism can co-exist
   • Variations
     • social democracy
     • The 3rd Way
     • classic revisionism

3. State

   • socialists believe that without a strong state it will be impossible to bring about a fairer and more equal society
   • Reject the idea of a monarchal state, a theocratic state or an aristocratic state
   • between socialists there are still significant differences about the structure of ideal state, its extent and how it emerges
   • helps to explain why socialism has such a large number of variants and subdivisions

4. society

   • Humans are dependant on the society in which they find themselves
   • individuals are the product of the society into which they were born
   • See society as shaping the individuals inside it
   • If society can be improved in the prospect of its individuals

5. Economy

   • fundamentalist socialism believes that socialism is fundamentally at oddswith private ownershipand capitalism
   • Revisionist socialism believes that socialism can be achieved alongside private property and can co-exist with capitalism

6. Fundamentalist Socialism

   • Karl Marx
     • main socialist thinker and writer of the 19thC
     • wrote the 'Communist Maifesto' - main short text of revolutionary socialism
     • Engels supported Marx financially
     • View of History
       • class conflicts is the most important of all happenings in history
       • Human society had evolved through stages, these could not have been changed and were inevitable
     • Historical (dialectic) Materialism
       • Feudal Society
         • Capitalism
           • Socialism
             • Communism
               • state: no government needed
                 • society: no classes, everyone is equal
             • At first workers control the state to resist counter revolution, known as the 'dictatorship of the proletariat'. As threat diminishes, state becomes less + less powerful
           • Proletariat Revolution
             • growth of industry enlarges proles. Capitalism produces great wealth which is unfairly allocated. workers eventually revolt
           • state: parliamentary democracy defending 'liberal principles'
             • Society: dom - m/c maj - proletariat
         • Bourgeois Revolution
           • growth of commerce + trade means an increasingly wealthy m/c who seek more political power to go with economic power
         • political: monarchy
           • Society: dom - aristocracy maj - peasants

7. Classic Revisionism

   • Different in the belief that the struggle for socialism could co-exist with an economy based on private property
   • Saw conditions of the working class steadily improving under capitalism
   • Shared the belief of fabien Society in the gradual parliamentary road of socialism
   • Argued that if overseen by socialist governmants, capitalist economies could provide an even greater improvement in workers conditions

8. Social Democracy

   • Regarded as the most important and relevant form of revisionist socialism - far removed from the politics if Marx & Lenin
   • Anthony Crosland
     • 'The Future of Socialism' is seen as the key work of post war social democracy
   • Reformed capitalism was no longer vulnerable to 'peaks and troughs' and could be relied upon to finance a richer, fairer more classless society
   • Capitalism would finance the expansion of public spending and the welfare state towards the ultimate socialist goal of greater equality

9. Evolutionary Socialism (democratic socialism)

   • Leninism
     • believed that the process of dialectic change could be sped up
     • Democratic Centralism - revolutionary elite would plan, organise and undertake revolution
     • Dictator of the Proletariat
     • orthodox communism
   • Democratic Socialism was the most influential forms of fundamentalist socialism in the UK
   • Rosa Luxemburg
     • Lenins view of speeding up the dialectic process lacked relevance in already industrial societies
     • Critical of Lenin's idea of democratic centralism and the role of revolutionary elite
   • Early Democratic Socialism
     • vital to the development of the Labour Party
     • Associated with Fabian Society and bourgeois intellectuals
     • need to secure 'Common ownership of the means of production'
   • The Inevitability of Gradualism
     • Democratic socialist parties would campaign peacefully and win attention and trust of voters
       • Working class voters would gradually and inevitable realise they had no vested interest in capitalism
         • Election of socialist governments who would oversee the gradual replacement of private ownership with state ownership
           • Voters would recognise the progress and re-e;ect socialist government who would gradually and inevitably produce a socialist society
   • Later Democratic Socialism
     • Restoration of parliamentary sovereignty through withdrawal from EEC
     • Strong resistance to pro-capitalist interest by mobilising support within trade unions
     • post WW2 Labour government

10. The 3rd Way (Neo-Revisionism)

    • A new form of revisionist socialism seemed essential in the 21stC
    • Emerged in the UK as a response to:
      • dissappearance of fundamentalist socialism
      • mixed economy had failed in the UK with with extensive privatisation in the 1980s
      • Keynesian economic redundant with globalisation of capitalism
      • Associated with 'New Labour' govt of Blair and Brown
    • Giddens
      • Desire to 'triangulate' social democracy's wish for more equality within capitalist economy which was less keynesian and more neo-liberal
      • Main author of 3rd Way socialism