1. No category

Socialism
Reasons for socialism
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Socialism emerges as a reaction to social and economic conditions created by 19th Century
industrial capitalism.
Linked to the rise of a new class of industrial workers who experienced the poverty and
degradation of early industrialisation.
Socialism was a critique of liberal market society and capitalism.
Early socialism offered a radical alternative to capitalism and aimed at its removal. Early socialist
parties had a tendency therefore to advocate revolution.
As the late 19th century approached there were improvements in working class living conditions
and the advance of political democracy leading to the integration of the working class into society.
In place of revolution, socialist parties increasingly adopted legal means to achieve power..
Hence the split between revolutionary and parliamentary socialists.
Reformist socialists seeking to work within the system came to accept capitalism as the best
means of generating wealth.
In the 20th century socialism spread to Latin America, Asia and Africa where there had been little
experience of industrialisation, there it became associated with anti and post colonial liberation
movements.
At the end of the 20th Century, socialism was best by crises- the fall of communism 1989 was a
severe blow to the credibility of an ideology which placed emphasis on state planning. Sovcislist
increasingly accepted the inevitability of the globalised economy which rendered state intervention
to achieve broad social and economic goals reedundant.
The core themes
Community
• Cooperation has greater practical and moral value than
individual self striving (collectivism).
• Humans are bound together by common bonds of
sympathy and comradeship or fraternity.
• Humans are moulded by the society to which they
belong and therefore owe obligations to it.
• Wealth is collectively produced and therefore should be
shared.
• Individual self striving undermines the community.
• Collectivism- not exclusively socialist but based on belief
that collective action has greater practical and moral
worth than individual self striving.
Cooperation
• Cooperation is natural as humans are social
animals.
• Competition encourages selfishness and
encourages them to deny their social nature.
• Humans can be motivated by moral as well as
material incentives.
• Moral desire to work for common good
encourages sympathy and empathy towards
others thereby strengthening the community
whereas individual self striving undermines this
and produces conflict.
Equality
• Commitment to equality is the defining aspect of
socialism.
• Inequality in society is a reflection of unequal structure
of non socialist societies.
• Inequality arises out of unequal treatment. Justice
demands that people are treated equally.
• Common ownership rather equality of opportunity as the
latter perpetuates social inequality.
• Equality strengthens community and reduces/removes
divisions which undermine the community.
• Needs satisfaction- everyone has the same basic needs
such as food and shelter and social justice is about
satisfying the basic needs of all in society.
Social Class
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Society is divided into classes defined by socio economic circumstances.
This is the most important way in which humans identify themselves and
nationalism is more artificial because it denies the significance of social
class.
Socialism is most identified with the working class and its struggle both
political and economic for liberation. The aim however is to establish an
egalitarian society and therefore divisions or classes will disappear.
Socialists are divided on nature an importance of class, Marx saw the
proletariat differences were irreconcilable. However reformist socialists
aimed for amelioration of the differences between classes via social reform
and unlike Marx therefore saw class and capitalism as a permanent feature
of society.
Socialist identification with the working class has declined- the durability of
capitalism and the emergence of differences within the working class
including the development of an aristocracy of labour means the working
class is not solid. Also the shift from industrial to service sector economies
has led to a sharp decline in the size of the manual working class in the
west. The embourgeosiement of the working class with the adoption of
middle class lifestyles based on car and home ownership.
Common Ownership
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Competition and inequality the product of private ownership.
Private property is morally corrupting as it produces greed and negates communal obligations.
Private property leads to wealth inequality and class conflict.
Socialists seek common ownership of productive wealth or capital- banks, land, industry.
As wealth is collectively produced it is immoral that any one or group of individuals should be in
exclusive possession of it.
Private ownership means that productive wealth cannot be used for the benefit of the community
and this leads to poverty, as the owners of productive wealth seek to maximise their profits.
Marx wrote that the production of the means of subsistence ( that which is necessary too survive)
was the most important of human activities and that people were defined by and achieved a sense
of their self worth from their labour. However, private ownership means that workers were working
not for themselves and the community but for the interests of the owner, hence they were
alienated from their labour.
Socialists disagree as to what common ownership means and the degree to which it should be
implemented. Marx understood it to mean the community of workers collectively owning the
means of productive wealth- cooperatives such as the Coop Movement started in Rochdale Lancs
1844. Socialist regimes such as Eastern Europe before the fall of communism interpreted it as
state ownership. In the west e.g. UK post 1945 the commanding heights were taken under public
ownership but the bulk of the economy remained in private hands (Social democracy)
Why were early socialists attracted
to the idea of revolution?
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Early industrialisation C19 led to especially harsh new work practices especially exploitation. The expanding
urban landscape created by industrialisation was especially bleak with massive social problems such as
overcrowding in slums.
There were limited alternatives for the working class as for much of the 19th century they were excluded from
voting.
Socialists viewed the state as oppressive designed to protect and promote the interests of the property owning
class and to keep the masses down. Therefore many socialists peaceful methods as these would not remove the
exploitative state.
Revolution or armed struggle was also a convenient way in the Third World to mobilise populations against
colonial rule by western powers. Franz Fanon in Wretched of the Earth argued that colonial rule had bred a
sense of inferiority among Africans and that this could only be purged by the experience of armed struggle.
Only through revolution and the overthrow of the state could society begin afresh and create a new socialist
utopia.
Marx believed that since each social class was governed by its own interests, the only way to establish socialism
was to overthrow the capitalist state as the bourgeoisie capitalist class in whose interests it operated would never
willingly or peacefully surrender power.
To elaborate on Marx- classes were antagonistic- under capitalism, the mode of production was designed to
produce goods/services for profit which were either transformed into further investment or used as income all for
the benefit of the capitalist class. This was antagonistic because the workers served only the interests of the
capitalist class whose interest was to keep wages as low as possible to maximise profit. Because classes were
thus antagonistic, the only way for change was through revolution.
Against those social democrats who argued for the peaceful parliamentary road towards socialism, Lenin wrote in
State and Revolution 1917… to decide once every few years which member of the ruling class is to
repress and crush the people through parliament- this is the real essence of bourgeois
parliamentarianism, not only in parliamentary-constitutional monarchies but also in the most democratic
republics.
Agrarian (revolutionary) socialism
• Socialism developed not only as a critique of capitalism but also of
urban industrial society. The socialist ideal was born in European
countries in transition from traditional societies to modern ones. In
this sense, socialism were focused backwards on what was thought
to have been a communal cooperative fraternal way of life which
had to be recreated. Populist (Narodnik- Narod is the Russian word
for people) socialism which emerged in late C19 Russia essentially
opposed to industrialisation, urbanisation and individualism (seen as
western imports) and sought to re-establish roots in a traditional
agrarian collectivist society. Unlike Marxism and Leninism which are
focused on teleological goals ( in some state of perfection in the
future) it was reactionary often espousing a supposed ideal state in
which the peasant had an exemplary relationship with nature.
Why has revolutionary socialism
tended towards dictatorship?
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Marx believed that repression was a feature of the state whose sole
purpose was to uphold the interests of the ruling elite. Although he argued
that the need for a repressive state would disappear once class differences
were removed, nevertheless he argued that once capitalism was
overthrown it was necessary for the new proletarian order to establish a
dictatorship of the proletariat in order to prevent counter revolution and to
create the egalitarian society based on common ownership.
Use of force to achieve power encouraged the new rulers to apply it as a
method of rule- power grows out of the barrel of a gun Mao Zedong
Revolutionary parties had necessarily adopted militaristic and hierarchical
structures in order to plan revolution and continued to apply this to forging
the new state.
David Lane- The Rise and Fall of State Socialism on Stalinism it
became a developmental ideology. Society was mobilised by the
communist party and the advance to a communist mode of production
was to be achieved through state ownership, control and coercion.
This was a reflection of the failure of the world revolution envisaged by
Lenin 1917 to materialise and the fact that Russia was in Marxist
interpretation both socially and economically underdeveloped.
What are the key features of Marx’s
theory of History?
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The emphasis on materialism- the production of the means of subsistence is the most
important of all human activity and therefore underpins the structure of society.. All
other aspects- political, legal, cultural and religious are explained by reference to
economic factors.
Historical change was driven by dialectical materialism (phrase first used post Marx
by Plekhanov)- basically inequality of access to resources creates conflict and leads
to change. Capitalism depends on the existence of an exploited labouring classproletariat which produces the wealth for the owners of the means of productive
wealth. Capitalism therefore sowed the seeds of its own destruction as the
proletarian class would eventually rise up and establish an egalitarian society based
on common ownership.
Marx’s theory was teleological- it invested History with a purpose and that the triumph
of socialism was inevitable. In this sense by producing a formula for history, he
turned it into a science. This would only happen once society had evolved via a
series of epochs- primitive communism, slavery, feudalism, capitalism… In each
case inequality of access a to the means of productive wealth led to conflictdialectical materialism which led to a higher stage of social development. Marx
therefore envisaged an end to history as with socialism there would be no competing
classes or social groups.
Why did Marx believe that
capitalism was doomed?
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Humans are alienated. They are forced to work not for what they need but for the
profit of the owner/manager. They are alienated from their work because they are
forced to work under supervision and alienated from their fellow worker because they
are encouraged to be self interested.
Society would become progressively dominated by two competing classes- the
bourgeoisie which owned and controlled the means of productive wealth and the
proletariat. The relationship between classes must be antagonistic- the capitalist can
only make a profit by paying the worker less than the value of their work (surplus
value). The above means that economic exploitation is central to the effective working
of the capitalist system.
Capitalism was notoriously inefficient means of running the economy. There would
be recurring bouts of overproduction and recession which worsened each time as
rate of profit would fall. This would contribute to the immiseration of the proletariat
and the concentration of ownership and therefore the expansion of the proletariat.
The proletariat through its immiseration would develop class consciousness and
realise the key to its liberation lay in the overthrow of the capitalist order. This could
only be achieved by the realisation that the interest of the members of the proletariat
lay in cooperation with each other. Eventually, a classless society based on common
ownership would be established. There would be no exploitation and class
antagonism and classes would disappear and the state would wither away.
Capitalism- sowed the seeds of its
own destruction
• Marx believed that capitalism created the proletariat- its
antagonist and revolutionary successor- it would develop
in size and strength and organisation and consciousness
as capitalism itself developed. It would develop from a
class in itself to a class for itself. A progressive
simplification of class forces was underway as
intermediate petty-bourgeois elements were swallowed
up by the class polarization into the two great hostile
camps of bourgeoisie and proletariat . The hostility
would reach its decisive hour in conditions of capitalist
crisis and proletarian pauperisation when the proletariat
would emancipate itself through a revolution of the
immense majority from the final form of class
oppression and antagonism.
Why did Marx believe that the dictatorship of
the proletariat was necessary?
• The proletarian revolution had not immediately led to the end of
class antagonisms, there was the threat of bourgeois counter
revolution and hence the need for a state.
• The need for the restructuring of society along egalitarian lines.
• Not all repressed groups achieved class consciousness
simultaneously- Marx saw the industrial proletariat as gaining this
first but what about the peasantry. Trotsky wrote that the liberation
of the peasantry had to await the proletarian revolution.
• The dictatorship of the proletariat was a temporary state as once an
egalitarian society was established repression which Marx saw as
the purpose of any state would become unnecessary as there would
no longer be competing classes.
What are the criticisms of Marx?
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The belief that history was teleological left little scope for free will.
Marx contradicted himself- On the one hand wrote about violent revolution as the model of social change… Force is the midwife of
every old society pregnant with a new one (Das Kapital). However, at other times, he advocated a peaceful transition- 1872
Amsterdam Speech he allowed the possibility of peaceful constitutionalism. This was also followed up by Engels who in 1895 wrote the
mode of struggle of 1848 is today obsolete. Here he was reflecting on the electoral successes of the SPD in Germany. Harington
(1928-1989) in Socialism Past and Future- In those societies where democratic rights were repressed he {Marx] and Engels
insisted that the violent option had to be kept open. But in those countries like France, Britain and the United States Engels
wrote in 1891 there was a real possibility of a peaceful and democratic transition to the new society
Marx’s predictions imbued in 20th century Marxist leaders an absolute certainty in their conviction in their views and inclined them towards
dictatorship and the implementation of policies with scant regard for human consequences.
Orthodox communism revised the ideas of Marx in significantly important ways. In What is to be done (1902) Lenin argued that left the
proletariat were incapable of independently developing class consciousness. It required the formation of a vanguard revolutionary party to
educate the workers that the key to their salvation lay not in pressure for better wages and conditions (trades unionism) but the overthrow
of the capitalist state. Lenin wrote modern socialist consciousness can arise only on the base of profound scientific
knowledge…The vehicle of science is not the proletariat but the bourgeois intelligentsia: it was in the minds of individual
members of this stratum that modern socialism originated and it was they who communicated it to the more intellectually
developed proletarians Latterly, communist parties when they achieved power were preoccupied with addressing issues of social and
economic backwardness.
The state far from withering away becomes the engine for social and economic change. A clear example of this was Stalin's Russia
1928-1953 whereby the economy was transformed via a series of industrial five year plans. The state rather than the people themselves
owned and controlled the means of productive wealth.
Capitalism far from being on the verge of collapse, proved durable. Those states where Marx predicted revolution failed to succumb. In a
more developed economy, capitalism diversified and the working class became more integrated. Into the rest of society.
Modern Marxists have even questioned the emphasis on class struggle. Arguing for a need to address an increasingly pluralistic and
individualistic society they have shifted focus onto a wider range of struggles in the new social movements such as the women’s
movement, ecological movement, gay and lesbian movement etc…
More on Lenin and the need for a
revolutionary vanguard party.
• What is to be Done (1902) The history of all countries shows
the working class exclusively by their own efforts are able to
develop only trades union consciousness…trades unionism
means the ideological enslavement of the workers by the
bourgeoisie. Our task, the task of social democracy is to divert
the working class movement from the spontaneous trade
unionist striving and to bring it under the wing of revolutionary
social democracy…
• Writing in 1920, Lenin wrote the dictatorship of the proletariat
cannot be exercised through the whole of that class because in
all capitalist countries the proletariat is still so divided, so
degraded and so corrupt in parts that an organisation taking on
the whole proletariat cannot directly exercise proletariat
dictatorship. It can be exercised only by a vanguard…
More on Lenin…
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Lenin argued that imperialism had made capitalism global (Imperialism the Highest Stage of
Capitalism). This meant that backward countries were subject to capital penetration by the more
advanced. Lenin therefore argued that the first strike against capitalism would happen in its
weakest link of the capitalist chain. As early as 1882, in their preface to the Russian edition of the
Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels noted that revolution in Russia could be the spark for
revolution in the West. Lenin now argued that since world capitalism was no longer able to
contain itself (exported abroad) its survival depended on extract surplus from the periphery and
when exploitation of that ended (revolution) the contradictions inherent in capitalism would
inevitably lead to its collapse elsewhere.
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In the April Theses 1917 he wrote Any day may come the crash of European Imperialism.
The Russian Revolution which you have carried out has laid the foundations for it and
opened a new epoch. Long live the world wide socialist revolution.
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Letters on Tactics (1917) The bourgeois revolution (February 1917) is completed. April
Theses- Russia is passing from the first stage of the revolution which owing to the
insufficient class consciousness and organisation of the proletariat placed power in the
hands of the bourgeoisie to the second stage which must place power in the hands of the
proletariat and the poorest peasants
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In the summer of 1917 he wrote We stand on the threshold of a world wide proletarian
revolution. If we come out now we shall have on our side all proletarian Europe…
Criticisms of Marx (contd)
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Nowhere in classical Marxism is there a developed account of socialist political systems. He
leaves unanswered basic questions of the nature of representation, accountability, organisation of
political compromise and opposition…
The reason for the above vacuum is Marxist belief that a distinct political machinery is only
required in a divided society of classes. In State and Revolution (1917) written on eve of
Bolshevik revolution, Lenin wrote that a Marxist revolution would destroy the state and then be
followed by a system of popular self government on the commune model which would be a
decentralised and participatory democracy all will govern in turn and will soon become
accustomed to no one governing… However in practice Leninism reflected a tradition (Marxist)
which offered democracy without division since class divisions disappear… What exactly did
Marx mean when he wrote of the dictatorship of the proletariat? The actual characteristics of
the revolutionary exercise of power by the proletariat as envisaged by Marx remained a source for
dispute. Even Marx appears to have contradicted himself, in the March Address (1850) he wrote
the task of the revolutionary party is to carry through the strictest centralisation. However
later in 1871 in The Civil War In France he eulogised the decentralised democracy of the Paris
Commune. Therefore, in Lenin’s Russia, behind the account of a self managing society there
lurks the state power of the armed worker, authoritarianism, democratic centralism of rule by a
single party and a repressive state bureaucracy. Where socialist revolutions have been
successful a one party state has invariably emerged. At the beginning of the 20th Century,
Marxism could present itself in terms of universal humanism at the end of century every Marxist
state was a dictatorship.
The dilemma for socialists concerns attempts to retain the working class as the key actor and the
failure of the latter to act in a way expected of it. Feminism is the ideology which has identified the
limited stereotype of socialism’s traditional actor as male, manual and muscular.
How socialists came to deviate
over ways and means
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Pre 1914 English socialism which rejected Marx’s analysis was an exception to the European
socialist tradition.
Pre 1917 in Europe there was an ‘open orthodoxy’ socialists could support parliamentary or
revolutionary means but could still be united under support for Marxist beliefs. European
socialists could all call themselves social democrats. The 2nd International agreement that the
socialist parties would oppose a European war however almost without exception they supported
their governments 1914.
The Bolsheviks in Russia did not and with the seizure of power 1917 Marxism became Marxist
Leninism a closed orthodoxy with an official interpretation and backed by the apparatus of a
totalitarian state.. Social Democracy became distinct from revolutionary socialism- indeed in
1918, to signify his break from the former, Lenin renamed his party –Communist. For Lenin, the
term social democracy became a disparaged term an effective accommodation with capitalism.
Indeed, 1914 and 1917 represented a schism, post war the left became divided into a reformist
right (socialist) and revolutionary left (communist) At the 3rd International 1919, attending parties
were required to adopt the label communist as opposed to social democrat and to declare war
against the entire bourgeois world and its social democrat allies. Social Democracy became
distinct from communism because it was committed to reformism in place of revolution
After 1945, social democrat parties moved further towards reformism and a permanent
accommodation with liberal capitalism ( Bad Godesberg programme of the West German SPD
1959). Post 1945, European social democratic parties out rightly abandoned the use of violence
as a means to power, socialism was defended as a social ideal, inseparable from parliamentary
democracy, abandonment of state property in the means of production in favour of a mixed
economy and finally a total opposition to communism.
Over what do socialists disagree?
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The importance and extent of public ownership
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Socialism is about equality but of what kind and how much?
Industrialisation- Fourier favoured a return to a more organic community, the
populist/social revolutionary tradition in C19 and late Tsarist Russia saw the
peasant commune as the basis of socialism and rejected Max analysis of
the need for industrialisation as the necessary foundations of socialism as
necessitating the immiseration of the people and therefore immoral.
However, Saint Simon was excited by the potential of industrialisation once
released from its individualistic constraints.
Is socialism about libertarian and self managing communities or the
replacement of chaos and waste of unregulated capitalism with socialist
planning. This tends to be statist and centralist. Socialist planning can be
seen as part of the Enlightenment tradition with the triumph of reason over
chaos. This very much encapsulates the Fabian view of elite management
elite of unassuming experts (Beatrice Webb)
Is socialism scientific ( a comprehensive and self contained method of
social analysis yielding a body of truths) or is it utopian (ethical)
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Scientific versus Ethical socialism
• Scientific
• Socialism is immanent
(predicated)
• Socialism builds down from the
state- state socialism
• Organisational socialism of
order, planning and
bureaucracy
• Revolutionary rupture
• Marxism was a repudiation of
socialism as a moral doctrineit was a rigid doctrine of
economic laws and historical
determinism
• Ethical
• Socialism attached to human
energy and will
• Socialism builds up from the
community
• Libertarian and direct
democracy
• Self management
• Reformist tradition of
improvement and persuasion
Why did ideas of evolutionary
socialism develop?
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Rise in wages and living standards from late C19 helped to deradicalise many of the working
class.
Integration of the working class into mainstream society via development trades unions etc which
can campaign for better wages and conditions.
Extension of the franchise.
Revolutionary socialism therefore remains in politically and economically backward areas.
Optimism that socialism was inevitable via the ballot box as working class became an ever larger
% of electorate.. This was based on the presumption that socialist parties were the natural home
of the working class who in turn represented the largest group in the population. Once in power,
socialist parties would be able to transform society alongside socialist lines.
Ideas of evolutionary socialism were known as gradualism. This ballot box socialism found
expression in the tactics of Eduard Bernstein in Evolutionary socialism (1898) who believed that
the German socialist party- SPD would be able to move away from revolutionary tactics.
Another form of gradualism was the Fabian Society founded in UK in 1884. It was elitist being
based on middle class membership. It believed that the way to introduce socialism was by
converting elite groups as socialism which emphasised planning was more rational than
capitalism. Fabians rejected Marx’s strategy of class revolution as wholly inappropriate to English
conditions.
Fabians offered a strategy of resolute constitutionalism (Shaw) based on an alternative
historical analysis to that of Marx in that the state was being captured both locally and centrally for
collectivist purposes. Sidney Webb in Fabian Essays No philosopher now looks for anything
but the gradual evolution of the new order from the old, without break of continuity or
abrupt change of the entire social tissue at any point during the process…
Why did gradualism fail?
• To win elections in order to implement a socialist programme,
democratic socialist parties had to broaden their appeal and
therefore water down socialist policies.
• Working class has declined in developed post industrial societies.
The working class is not monolithic. J.K. Galbraith in The Culture
of Contentment argued that material affluence and economic
security had inclined large sections of the electorate to be politically
conservative.
• Realisation that capitalism is durable and the best means of
producing wealth has led to socialist parties to advocating policies to
make the market work more efficiently rather than to abolish it.
• Even in power, socialist parties confronted with entrenched vested
interests which limit their power to implement change. Miliband
referred to the state system meaning those in state institutions and
from the same backgrounds as business people capable of blocking
radical socialist parties.
What are the main features of
social democracy?
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Social democracy endorses liberal democratic principles believing in change via constitutional means. Social Democracy embraces
liberal democratic values. In the majority of cases, communist regimes came to power not through popular risings- even then nor
parliamentary and dictatorship folowed.but through establishment via outside force or in case of Cuba and Zimbabwe a populist leader
announces Marxist/Leninist principles after assume power.
Capitalism is accepted as the only viable means of producing wealth.
Capitalism is morally defective as it is associated with inequality and poverty.
Defects of capitalism can be rectified by the state through economic and social engineering.
1960-73 esp, the social democratic consensus centred on welfare state, advanced social policy, full employment. I.e. increase the real
income of wage earners and a developed social security system.
Keynesian ideas seemed to offer the rational economic foundations- it seemed to allow the state to simultaneously generate economic
growth and to satisfy the aspirations for social justice. Indeed, Keynesianism the flagship of social democratic parties made possible the
marrying/satisfying three contradictory interests ( sectional interests of the working class, interests of capital, interests of the ‘national
community’ in the general well being.
A key feature of social democracy is equal participation of all members of society in the benefits of education and health (universalism).
Principle behind the NHS free at the point of need.
Improvement in the public infrastructure.
Nation state is a meaningful unit of rule in that it has the capacity to regulate economic and social life within its borders.
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Why was the post war period (1945+) favourable for the social democratic consensus?
a. Laissez-faire capitalism had become discredited by the inter war Great
Depression.
b. There had been acclimatisation to the idea of an active and interventionist state in
war time- note in GB sectors such as mining and transport were nationalised for
the duration.
c. The immense task of post war reconstruction favoured state investment.
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Main features of Social Democracy
(Contd)
• Post 1945, social democrats one after the other
progressively and definitively abandoned their
anti capitalist credo. The state was regarded
less and less as an instrument of a transition to
socialism and increasingly as an instrument for
the regulation of capitalism and social
protectionism. Common throughout the
transformations of social democracy, throughout
its History a common theme- the state and the
promotion of the interests of disadvantaged
groups.
Why did social democracy deviate
from fundamental socialism
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In place of Marxists who offered scientific and theoretical critique of capitalism, social democracy is influenced
more by ethics. Humans are bound together by ties of empathy, compassion etc…whereas Marxists argued that
behaviour determined by economic circumstances.
Ethical socialism often influenced by religious teachings. The latter found a particular resonance in the
development of British socialism in late C19 and C20. This is a significant deviation from Marxist and soviet style
state communism which is secular based seeing religion as a tool by the ruling class to subjugate the proletariat.
There is far less theoretical cohesion in revisionist socialism. Social democracy can mean extending equality and
public ownership or it can mean accepting need for market efficiency and individual self reliance.
Fundamental socialism believes that capitalism is irredeemable whereas revisionist socialism accepted that
capitalism was the best means of generating wealth. Only a selected part of the economy was taken under state
ownership, the focus was on Keynesian style regulation of largely capitalist economies in order to maintain growth
and high employment. The focus was on welfarism as a means of reforming and humanising capitalism.
Fundamental socialists see exploitation as central to capitalism whereas Crosland in The Future of Socialism
(1956) argued that under modern capitalism the old style exploitative relationship owner/manager versus worker
had been replaced by the development of the practice of scientific management- ownership was divorced from
control and professional managers were more interested in efficient running of businesses than in exploitation.
Social democracy or revisionist socialism by embracing liberal democracy is a reaction against the repressive
statist regimes established in Eastern Europe where fundamentalist goals are implemented regardless of
consequences for human rights.
Crosland- The Future of Socialism- we stand in Britain on the threshold of mass abundance…if our
present rate of economic growth continues, material want and poverty and deprivation of essential goods
will gradually cease to be a problem…
Crosland attacked the very notion that the form of ownership was the decisive determinant of the workers
alienated position in society. The argument was directed against those in the Labour Party who dogmatically
asserted the inherent virtues of public as opposed to private ownership- by the mid fifties socialists certainly
understood that a completely nationalised economy in the USSR did not give working people control over the
means of production. Crosland accepted that recognised that someone other than the workers must ultimately
make the production decisions.
What was the crisis of Social
Democracy?
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Social Democracy depended on the ability of capitalism to generate continuous
economic growth and therefore the resources to pay for welfare policies. With the
onset of global recession 1970s onwards, western governments were left with
choices between policies which generated growth e.g. tax cuts or those which
focused on meeting the needs of an expanded welfare budget generated by rising
unemployment. Indeed where western governments met the crisis by traditional
Keynesian policies to stimulate demand- reflationary policies to create more
investment and jobs the effect was capital flight and inflation. Indeed, the failure of
reflationary policies in various western states meant G. Moschonas In the Wake of
Social Democracy the parties of reform previously hegemonic found
themselves without guidebook or compass
Social Democracy was also affected by the declining electoral viability of socialism
with the shrinkage of the traditional working class throughout 1980s ad 90s. Post
1945 the tide of democracy flowed with progressive politics but since 1980s with
what JK Galbraith referred to as the contented majority.
The rise of globalisation and the integration of world economy meant that the ability of
the state to manage the economy was reduced. Capital was fluid and excessive
state controls could see it flowing to more congenial environments.
The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and market reforms in the remaining
socialist states meant that there was no alternative to capitalism. This led to the
decline in confidence in the cybernetic model of the state.
Reasons for collapse of state
socialism in Eastern Europe…
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Economic decline- esp from 1975 falling rates of growth compared with the west,
leads to public dissatisfaction with standard of living a major impetus for reform.
Decline in regime loyalty- By 1960 Russia mainly urban and a rising professional
middle class dependent on rising levels of educational attainment since 1959 leads
to a larger proportion of the population more receptive to the move to a market
economy.
Decline in regime support- the professional classes increasingly disenchanted with
their lowly status in a regime which triumphed the workers. Stalin’s regime peasant
based, Khrushchev the unskilled workers.
Failure of economic resource management and weakening of political support led to
public dissatisfaction and a serious undermining of the ideological justification for the
regime.
A crisis of legitimacy- under Gorbachev economic reforms entailing the growth of
markets undermined the leading role of the party and the system of command
planning. According to David Lane The Rise and Fall of State Socialism- MarxistLeninist ideology was broken by the political leadership under Gorbachev.
External- Communist state falling behind the west- cultural contamination from the
west TV, car, rock music sex….
What are the key elements of the
Third Way?
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Top down state intervention of the old socialist models is no longer viable. The
acceptance of the market over the state and a realisation of the implications of
globalisation.
There is an acceptance that capitalism has mutated into an ‘information society’ or
‘knowledge economy’ which places a premium on IT, individual skills, labour and
market flexibility. It aims to build on rather than reverse the neo liberal revolution
1980s/90s away from Keynesian demand management.
Emphasis on community and moral responsibility. Here it rejects absolute
individualism but is closer to communitarian liberalism of the New Liberalism of the
later C19. Cornerstone belief of which is that rights and responsibilities are
inextricably linked.
Third Way has a consensus view of society over class differences that bind members
of society.
Emphasis is on social inclusion over commitment to equality. There is far greater
stress therefore on equality of access over egalitarianism. Welfare should be
targeted to socially excluded and should follow the modern liberal approach of ‘
helping people to help themselves’ or ‘a hand up not a hand out’ (Bill Clinton).
An enabling state- one which concentrates on investing in infrastructure of the
economy and strengthening skills and knowledge of the workforce. The government
seeks to shape peoples attitudes, values and skills rather than carry out a
programme of social engineering.
G Moschonas on New Labour
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Consistency with left wing social
reform
Measures of social democratic
inspiration to reduce feelings of
insecurity, renew contact party and the
electorate
E.G…
Minimum Wage
One off tax windfall profits privatised
utilities to finance unemployment
programmes including welfare to work
Several New deals e.g. counter youth
unemployment and to counter social
exclusion
Increase spending on health and
education
Family tax credit
Legalisation of recognisation of the
right to unionise
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Consistency with neo liberal macro
economic policy
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Priority given to fight against inflation
Independence given to the Bank of
England e.g. to set interest rates
Accept previous Conservative
government budget controls
Selective withdrawal of the state from
economic and social affairs
Complete absence of an industrial
policy
Deregulation and labour market
flexibility
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Is socialism dead?
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Marx predicted the fall of capitalism however, the state ruled by a socialist
party- China underpins the west by providing consumer goods cheaply for
western markets and bankrolls US debt. The domination of capitalism
globally depends on the existence of a ruling Chinese communist party that
gives de-localised capitalist enterprises cheap labour lower prices and
deprives workers of the right to unionise.
Moschonas In the Wake of Social Democracy the pursuit of the policies of
deregulation and competitive rigour by social democracy has for the first
time in its history directly challenged what was most clear, hallowed and
enduring in all its ideological and political traditions, the socially and
economically active role of the state and the interests of the most
disadvantaged groups in the population.
In its conscious and explicit adhesion to a moderately but clearly neo
liberal mode of regulation, social democracy has made the decisive
ideological leap: for the first time so openly and systematically it has
elevated the market and devalued the utility of the economically active
state
Is Socialism Dead? Contd
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In the race for competitive disinflation and reform, the governmental left has
departed in practice from defence of the interests of wage earners and
particularly the poorest of the poor. Social Democracy has thus been
transformed from a political force for the moderate promotion of equality
within a socio economic system that is by definition inegalitarian into a force
for the moderate promotion of inequality. In other words, it has been
transformed from a force that has long since renounced its anti-capitalist
vocation into a force that today is even abandoning its moderately antiplutocratic vocation.
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Today more than ever social democracy depends on the quality of its
political appeal, leadership candidates, tactical compromises, programme
and record in government.
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It is an electorally unstable force and capable of flexible strategic
responses. Contemporary Social Democracy is slight therefore it lacks
the ambition, the vision and the solid bases (support electoral) to seriously
challenge the established structures of power and influence both national
and international.
Is socialism dead?
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However, what about the capitalist crisis with the credit crunch and global recession? Sales of
Das Kapital and the Communist Manifesto have soared since 2008. In 2008 a Reuters report
showed that 52% of East Germans believed the free market was unsuitable and 43% wanted
socialism back.
The Marxist historian, Eric Hobsbawm has written that the destabilising effects of capitalism
would, at some point, lead to a development which can no longer be described as capitalism, but
very different from the traditional models of socialism of the soviet era, instead involving a shift
from private appropriation to social management on a global scale. Note rise of new employment
practices such as zero hours contracts where people have jobs but wait to be called in by
employers.
Moschonas- modern social democracy a widely neo liberalised social democracy seeks modestly
to mitigate the most extreme effects of neo liberalism… the social counterpart to liberal macro
economic policies would be less easy to conceive and apply without social democracy’s popular
and reformist tradition and without its rootedness in popular classes and the trades’ unions.
Various aspects of contemporary social democracy are more than a mere left wing tint. Social
measures, a more consultative approach to economic policy, some consideration of trades’
union interests, a more environmentally friendly policy, a greater openness to cultural
liberalism
Moschonas I therefore find it difficult to accept as has been said of New Labour that the
new social democracy has no substance and represents nothing but submission to the
right…
Marcuse/Harrington and the New
Left?
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Reflecting on post WW” Marcuse wrote…
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We are struggling against a society that has succeeded in eliminating poverty
and suffering to a degree that the previous stages of capitalism never
attained…
Harrington Socialism Past and Future The people are held enthralled by golden
chains, by the satisfaction of false, manufactured needs; they are victimised by
a technology that manipulates them every moment of the night and day; they
have become visionless, conformist, pragmatic. At the same time, there are
the less subtle more old-fashioned forms of repression turned against the
external politics in the third world and the internal lumpen proletariat of
minorities in the ghettoes…
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Harrington- Since society has become controlled and one dimensional, how would
the liberation come about? Who would accomplish it? Marcuse – peoples from
the opposite ends of the social spectrum, the privileges- the students, the
middle class hippies, the revolutionary and highly educated working class of
technicians- would rebel against a domination that suppressed their interests
and the outcasts, the lumpen would join in the attacks against simpler and
more brutal forms of exploitation. The Third World was where the new
proletariat which would finally accomplish the Marxist purpose was being born