The term socialism is commonly used to refer both to an ideology--a comprehensive set of
beliefs or ideas about the nature of human society and its future desirable state--and to
a state of society based on that ideology. Socialists have always claimed to stand above
all for the values of equality, social justice, cooperation, progress, and individual
freedom and happiness, and they have generally sought to realize these values by the
abolition of the private-enterprise economy (see CAPITALISM) and its replacement by
"public ownership," a system of social or state control over production and distribution.
Methods of transformation advocated by socialists range from constitutional change to
violent revolution.
ORIGINS OF SOCIALISM
Some scholars believe that the basic principles of socialism were derived from the
philosophy of Plato, the teachings of the Hebrew prophets, and some parts of the New
Testament (the Sermon on the Mount, for example). Modern socialist ideology, however, is
essentially a joint product of the 1789 French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution
in England--the word socialist first occurred in an English journal in 1827. These two
great historical events, establishing democratic government in France and the conditions
for vast future economic expansion in England, also engendered a state of incipient
conflict between the property owners (the bourgeoisie) and the growing class of
industrial workers; socialists have since been striving to eliminate or at least mitigate
this conflict. The first socialist movement emerged in France after the Revolution and
was led by Francois BABEUF, Filippo Buonarrotti (1761-1837), and Louis Auguste BLANQUI;
Babeuf's revolt of 1796 was a failure. Other early socialist thinkers, such as the comte
de SAINT-SIMON, Charles FOURIER, and Etienne CABET in France and Robert OWEN and William
Thompson (c.1785-1833) in England, believed in the possibility of peaceful and gradual
transformation to a socialist society by the founding of small experimental communities;
hence, later socialist writers dubbed them with the label utopian.
THE EMERGENCE OF MARXISM
In the mid-19th century, more-elaborate socialist theories were developed, and eventually
relatively small but potent socialist movements spread. The German thinkers Karl MARX and
Friedrich ENGELS produced at that time what has since been generally regarded as the most
sophisticated and influential doctrine of socialism. Marx, who was influenced in his
youth by German idealist philosophy and the humanism of Ludwig Andreas FEUERBACH,
believed that human beings, and particularly workers, were "alienated" in modern
capitalist society; he argued in his early writings that the institution of private
property would have to be completely abolished before the individual could be reconciled
with both society and nature. His mature doctrine, however, worked out in collaboration
with Engels and based on the teachings of classical English political economy, struck a
harder note, and Marx claimed for it "scientific" status.
The first important document of mature MARXISM, the COMMUNIST MANIFESTO (1848), written
with Engels, asserted that all known human history is essentially the history of social
classes locked in conflict. There has in the past always been a ruling and an oppressed
class. The modern, or bourgeois, epoch, characterized by the capitalist mode of
production with manufacturing industry and a free market, would lead according to Marx
and Engels to the growing intensity of the struggle between capitalists and workers (the
proletariat), the latter being progressively impoverished and as a result assuming an
increasingly revolutionary attitude.
Marx further asserted, in his most famous work, Das KAPITAL, that the capitalist employer
of labor had, in order to make a profit, to extract "surplus value" from his employees,
thereby exploiting them and reducing them to "wage-slavery." The modern state, with its
government and law-enforcing agencies, was solely the executive organ of the capitalist
class. Religion, philosophy, and most other forms of culture likewise simply fulfilled
the "ideological" function of making the working class contented with their subordinate
position. Capitalism, however, as Marx claimed, would soon and necessarily grind to a
halt: economic factors, such as the diminishing rate of profit, as well as the political
factor of increasing proletarian "class consciousness" would result in the forcible
overthrow of the existing system and its immediate replacement by the "dictatorship of
the proletariat." This dictatorship would soon be superseded by the system of socialism,
in which private ownership is abolished and all people are remunerated according to their
work, and socialism would lead eventually to COMMUNISM, a society of abundance
characterized by the complete disappearance of the state, social classes, law, politics,
and all forms of compulsion. Under this ideal condition goods would be distributed
according to need, and the unity of all humankind would be assured because of elimination
of greed.
VARIETIES OF EUROPEAN SOCIALISM
Marxist ideas made a great impact on European socialist movements. By the second half of
the 19th century socialists in Europe were organizing into viable political parties with
considerable and growing electoral support; they also forged close links in most
countries with trade unions and other working-class associations. Their short-term
programs were mainly concerned with increasing the franchise, introducing state welfare
benefits for the needy, gaining the right to strike, and improving working conditions,
especially shortening the work day.
Moderate Socialism
Ideas other than those of Marx were at this time also becoming influential. Such ideas
included moderate socialist doctrines, for example, those of the FABIAN SOCIETY in
England, founded by Sidney WEBB and including among its adherents the writers H. G. Wells
and George Bernard Shaw; those of Ferdinand LASSALLE in Germany; and of Louis BLANC in
France. These moderates sought to achieve socialism by parliamentary means and by
appealing deliberately to the middle class. Fabianism had as one of its intellectual
forebears the utilitarian individualism of Jeremy BENTHAM and John Stuart MILL, and it
became a doctrine that sought to reconcile the values of liberty, democracy, economic
progress, and social justice. The Fabians believed that the cause of socialism would also
be aided by the advancement of the social sciences, especially economics and sociology.
These doctrines, collectively known as social democracy, did not, like Marxism, look
toward the complete abolition of private property and the disappearance of the state but
instead envisaged socialism more as a form of society in which full democratic control
would be exercised over wealth, and production would be controlled by a group of
responsible experts working in the interests of the whole community. The achievement of
socialism was seen by social democrats as a long-term goal, the result of an evolutionary
process involving the growth of economic efficiency (advanced technology, large-scale
organization, planning), education in moral responsibility, and the voluntary acceptance
of equal shares in benefits and burdens; socialism would be the triumph of common sense,
the inevitable outcome of LIBERALISM, the extension of democracy from politics to
industry.
CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM spread from its beginnings in England to France and Germany. Charles
KINGSLEY, John Malcolm Forbes Ludlow (1821-1911), and Frederick Denison MAURICE were
among its founders. They in the main supported moderate social democracy, emphasizing
what they understood as the central message of the church in social ethics, notably the
values of cooperation, brotherhood, simplicity of tastes, and the spirit of
self-sacrifice. Their ideas proved fertile in both the short and the long runs, although
in actual political terms Christian socialism never succeeded in altering the
predominantly secular orientation of most socialist movements.
Radical Socialism
On the other hand, many doctrines and movements were decidedly more militant than
Marxism. Anarchists (see ANARCHISM), influenced mainly by the ideas of the Frenchman
Pierre Joseph PROUDHON and later of the Russian emigres Mikhail Aleksandrovich BAKUNIN
and Pyotr Alekseyevich KROPOTKIN, were intent on immediately overthrowing the capitalist
state and replacing it with small independent communities. Unlike the Marxists, whom they
bitterly criticized, anarchists were against the formation of socialist parties, and they
repudiated parliamentary politics as well as the idea of revolutionary dictatorship.
Their followers, never very numerous, were and are found mainly in the Latin countries of
Europe and America. SYNDICALISM, an offshoot of anarchism, was a movement of militant
working-class trade unionists who endeavored to achieve socialism through industrial
action only, notably by using the weapon of the general strike. Their doctrine was
similar to Marxism in that they also believed that socialism was to be achieved only by
and for the working class, but unlike the Marxists they rejected the notion of a future
centralized socialist state. Their most eminent theorist was Georges SOREL. Syndicalist
ideas also had intermittent success in the British and American trade union movements,
for example, the INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD, an American-based syndicalist union
active around the turn of the century. Guild socialism in England, dominated by George
Douglas Howard Cole (1889-1959), the academic economist and historian, represented a
modified and milder form of syndicalism.
In Russia, where it was impossible to organize openly a popular socialist movement under
the tsarist regime, socialism became mainly the ideology of young militant intellectuals
whose favored means of furthering the cause were secret conspiracies and acts of
individual terrorism. Debate raged between those who believed in the native socialist
ethos of the Russian village community and those who wanted to adopt Western ideas of
modernization. The latter party, which eventually emerged victorious, soon came under
Marxist influence. Among its adherents was V. I. LENIN, who emerged as the leader of a
small but dedicated group of "professional revolutionaries," the Bolshevik (see
BOLSHEVIKS AND MENSHEVIKS) wing of the illegal Russian Social Democratic Workers' party.
Lenin was also the theorist who irrevocably gave a markedly elitist and authoritarian
twist to Marxism: he worked out the theory of the proletarian vanguard--that is, the
Communist party--which was destined to lead the masses toward socialism, irrespective of
the masses' inclinations.
SCHISM AND CONTROVERSY
Throughout the 19th century the socialist movement was beset by a number of
ever-deepening conflicts and doctrinal controversies.
The Internationals
The International Workingmen's Association (First International; see INTERNATIONAL,
SOCIALIST), founded in 1864, was expected to achieve unity among various socialist and
militant trade union organizations, but its efforts were greatly hindered by, among other
things, the conflict between the followers of Bakunin and those of Marx. It came to an
end soon after the suppression of the COMMUNE OF PARIS (1871).
The Second International (1889-1914) assumed for a time at least an outward appearance of
unity, in that it represented the high watermark of classical Marxist influence in West
European socialism. It was dominated by the largest socialist parties then in existence,
the French--led by Jean JAURES, Jules Guesde (1845-1922), and Paul Lafargue
(1842-1911)--and the German--led by August BEBEL, Karl Johann KAUTSKY, and Wilhelm
Liebknecht (see LIEBKNECHT family)--who agreed at least in their broad understanding of
the aims and methods of socialism. Their spokesmen emphasized the need to foster
international solidarity among the mass of the working class and thus to avert the threat
of a major war in Europe. This effort proved singularly unsuccessful: NATIONALISM in 1914
and later proved a much stronger mass emotion than socialism. Apart from a few
exceptions, such as Lenin and his Bolshevik group, socialist movements supported the war
effort of their respective governments. As a result of the general conflagration in 1914
the Second International disintegrated and therewith also the hopes of socialist unity.
Revisionism
Another important controversy broke out in the 1890s within Marxism, involving the German
Social Democratic party. This party was divided then between a militant revolutionary
left wing, an orthodox center that held to the classical Marxist doctrine of economic
determinism, and a right wing moving rapidly toward a position of open reformism. The
right wing had as its most renowned spokesman Eduard BERNSTEIN, a personal friend of Marx
and Engels, who was, however, also influenced by English Fabian ideas.
Bernstein repudiated the notion of violent revolution and argued that conditions in
civilized countries such as Germany made possible a peaceful, gradual transformation to
socialism. He sought to reinterpret Marxist doctrine in the light of fresh advances made
in economic science, such as those also embraced in Fabian doctrine, and argued that
socialism was compatible with individual economic responsibility. He rejected,
furthermore, the idea of "class morality," which judged all actions according to their
revolutionary import. Instead he advocated a code of individual morality, derived from
Kant's moral philosophy. Consequently, Bernstein asserted the need for socialists to
concentrate on immediate tasks instead of ultimate and remote objectives; the movement,
he wrote, was everything; the goal, nothing.
This doctrine, henceforward called revisionism, immediately became the subject of bitter
attacks by the revolutionary left wing, represented above all by Rosa LUXEMBURG, which on
this issue was supported by the orthodox center and its principal theorist, Karl Kautsky.
The terms of the debate on revisionism centered on the facts, noted by Bernstein, of
considerable improvement in the living standards of the working class, its resultant
political integration in the constitutional (republican or monarchical) state, the purely
reformist stance of trade unions, and the virtual absence of any desire for a radical
change on the part of the great majority of workers.
The opponents of revisionism, while acknowledging these tendencies, argued that material
improvements were insufficient and ephemeral. They felt that if the working class and its
organizations accepted the constitutional state they were merely postponing indefinitely
the change to socialism. According to them, the principal tasks of the socialist leader
are to arouse dissatisfaction with existing conditions and to reemphasize constantly the
worth of the ultimate goal. The arguments on both sides continue with only slight changes
in the debate between reformist and revolutionary socialists everywhere. In Marxist
jargon the term revisionism became synonymous with treason. Ironically--but in a way that
pointed toward the subsequent fate of Marxist doctrine--the orthodox center in the German
party was soon to be denounced by left-wingers as revisionist. Lenin, too, came to
condemn sharply the German social democrats and the "renegade" Kautsky. The latter, in
turn, vehemently denounced Lenin and the Bolsheviks for their adoption of terrorist
methods in the consolidation of their revolutionary gains in Russia. Marxist unity, like
the Second International, thus also fell victim to World War I and its aftermath: from
then on Marxists have tended to be either Marxist-Leninists--that is, communists
embracing the elitist doctrine of the vanguard party--or moderate revisionists moving
ever closer to reformist social democracy.
MODERN MARXIST SOCIALISM
Modern socialism owes its shape and fortune at least as much to secular events as to the
continuing attraction of its various doctrines. The major upheavals caused by two world
wars greatly contributed to the success of the Russian (1917) and Chinese (1949)
revolutions, and the governments of these two powerful countries thereafter endeavored by
diverse means to spread the Marxist revolutionary doctrine further afield, resorting to
military methods (as in Eastern Europe), economic pressures, and military and economic
aid, as well as subversion and propaganda. Indigenous Marxist movements also succeeded in
gaining and maintaining power in Cuba (1959) and Nicaragua (1979). During most of the
20th century, Marxist socialism meant the dictatorial rule of the Communist party,
intensive industrialization, central state direction of the economy, and the
collectivization of agriculture. These were accompanied, particularly during the
dictatorship of Joseph STALIN in the USSR, by a reign of terror and the general absence
of individual freedom. The Stalinist system, though shorn of some of its worst
brutalities, essentially remained in place until the rise to power of Mikhail GORBACHEV
in 1985. In a few short years, Gorbachev's policies of GLASNOST (openness) and
PERESTROIKA (restructuring) created irresistible demands for liberalization in both the
USSR and Eastern Europe. As the Soviet regime loosened its grip, the countries of Eastern
Europe threw off the Communist governments that had been imposed on them after World War
II. In the USSR itself long-cherished doctrines of Leninism were jettisoned with
bewildering speed, and, following an abortive coup by party hard-liners in 1991, the
Soviet regime collapsed.
EUROPEAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY
In Western Europe, despite the presence of large Marxist parties (as in Italy and France)
and the Marxist influence among intellectuals, socialism was, and still is, principally
represented by widely based social democratic and labor movements, which generally enjoy
the active support of trade unions. This predominance of reformist trends over
revolutionary aspirations undoubtedly was occasioned by economic stability and the
deterrent example of Marxist rule in the East. The social democratic parties of Sweden,
Britain, France, and the Federal Republic of Germany (the former West Germany and present
reunified state), in particular, governed their respective countries for lengthy periods
during the postwar era through constitutional means, fully accepting the principles of
parliamentary liberal democracy. The spirit of these Western European parties has tended
to be pragmatic and tolerant, seeking accommodation rather than confrontation. Their
programs repudiate the doctrines of the class war, revolution, and communism. Instead,
they have relied on the expedients of progressive taxation, deficit financing, selective
nationalization, the mixed economy, and vast welfare programs in order to bring about
socialism; their political success has depended on considerable middle-class support.
Although most of these parties have recently accommodated themselves to free-market
reforms, they remain committed to the social democratic vision of a "middle way" between
the extremes of communism and unfettered capitalism.
Social democratic foreign policy has generally been pacific and until recently was mainly
concerned with defusing the cold war and accelerating the processes of decolonization and
the banning of nuclear weapons. In domestic politics, European social democrats generally
refused to cooperate with communist parties and other extremist socialist groups. The
Social Democratic party (SPD) in Germany, although at one time the citadel of orthodox
Marxism, has since 1959 been a purely reformist party, abandoning its original goals. The
British LABOUR PARTY, socialist in its aims (its constitution since 1919 has had
reference to "public ownership"), has never had any serious doctrinal or organizational
links with Marxism, although its powerful left wing consistently advocates radical
policies. A dispute with the leftists prompted a group of Labour moderates to secede
(1981) and found the Social Democratic party, which later merged (1988) with the Liberal
party to form the Social and Liberal Democrats (later, Liberal Democrats). The French
Socialist party, which had long since abandoned its orthodox Marxism, allied itself with
the Communists during the 1960s, but under the leadership of Francois MITTERRAND, it won
the presidency on its own and gained a majority in the National Assembly in 1981. In the
same year, the Greek Socialists came to power under Andreas PAPANDREOU, and in 1982,
Felipe GONZALEZ MARQUEZ formed Spain's first Socialist government since the Spanish Civil
War. Bettino CRAXI became Italy's first Socialist premier, heading a coalition government
from 1983 to 1987. Although Scandinavia's social democrats suffered electoral defeats in
the late 1980s and early 1990s, the political parties of Europe's moderate left retained
broad popular support.
The French Communist party was long known for its subservience to the USSR and its rigid
Stalinism. The Italian Communist party, on the other hand, relied on an indigenous
Marxist tradition associated mainly with the teaching of Antonio GRAMSCI, one of the
party's founders, who is widely regarded as one of the most significant of European
Marxist thinkers. The Italian party, at one time the largest in Western Europe,
frequently obtained the highest percentage of the popular vote in Italy's parliamentary
elections and continuously governed a number of Italian municipalities (Bologna is a
prime example).
During the 1970s the Italian Communists under Enrico BERLINGUER, the French Communists
under Georges Marchais, and the Spanish Communists under Santiago Carillo embraced a
doctrine known as Eurocommunism. The Eurocommunists, breaking not only with Stalinism but
with some aspects of the Leninist tradition, began moving toward full acceptance of
parliamentary democracy and the multiparty system, in many ways prefiguring the
glasnost-perestroika reforms that dramatically changed the Communist world in the
Gorbachev era. To the left of the Communists were a number of new groups of militant
revolutionaries, such as West Germany's Red Army (Baader-Meinhof) Faction and Italy's Red
Brigades, which carried out campaigns of abduction, subversion, and terrorism in the
1970s and 1980s.
SOCIALISM IN THE UNITED STATES
In North America, Marxist influence never spread very far. In the United States no
socialist movement ever held a very large following, and although the country has
produced renowned socialist authors and popular leaders, they have not been distinguished
for their originality or for their impact on the worldwide development of socialism.
Socialism has not taken a firmer root in the United States for several reasons, of which
the country's cultural traditions and its wealth in natural resources are the most
important. Whereas in Europe the distribution of wealth was a pressing problem,
facilitating the rise of socialist movements, in the United States the moving "frontier"
meant the constant creation of new land and wealth and its accessibility for those
endowed with initiative and a spirit of individual enterprise. Thus in the United States
even radical thinkers tended to be "individualists" and "anarchists," rather than
socialists. In this development the country's tradition of republican self-government and
its ethos of egalitarianism and democracy also played a decisive role: unlike Europe, the
United States had no entrenched aristocratic privileges or monarchical absolutism and
consequently no need for democratic aspirations to be combined with the socialist demand
for economic equality and security. LABOR UNIONS also, for the most part, concentrated on
the achievement of higher earnings and were not greatly interested in economic and social
organization.
Numerous, although small, utopian socialist communities did flourish, however, in the
United States, mostly during the early 19th century. Also, a celebrated economist, Henry
GEORGE, and writers of repute, such as Edward BELLAMY, advocated socialism, and socialist
political leaders, such as Victor L. BERGER, Eugene V. DEBS, Daniel DE LEON, and Norman
THOMAS, had at one time considerable popular appeal. The U.S. SOCIALIST PARTY, founded in
1901, reached its greatest strength in the 1912 and 1920 presidential elections, when its
candidate, Debs, received more than 900,000 votes. In 1932, Norman Thomas, running on the
Socialist ticket, polled more than 800,000 votes. Thereafter the party's strength ebbed.
The New Deal in the 1930s, although not socialist in inspiration, also tended to draw
votes away from the party. The New Deal's policies of economic redistribution seemed to
meet demands of those who previously supported the Socialists.
In the economic boom following World War II and especially in the cold-war era of the
1950s and 1960s, U.S. socialism was at a low ebb. Later, however, socialist ideas made
considerable, although indirect, impacts on various radical (see RADICALISM) and liberal
movements. In the United States many people no longer discuss socialism in its
conventional political and economic sense, but rather as a remote ethical and social
ideal.
SOCIALISM IN THE THIRD WORLD
Socialism has assumed a number of distinct forms in the Third World. But only in Israel
has moderate social democracy proved successful for long periods, mainly as a result of
the European socialist tradition brought in by immigrants. There the Labor party in
various forms has had a large following and has governed the country longer than any
other party. Israel has other socialist parties as well, including a militant Marxist
party. At least of equal significance, however, are the cooperative agricultural communes
(kibbutzim), which have flourished since 1948. Commentators have argued that kibbutzim
more than anything else show the viability of socialist principles in practice; however,
the peculiarities of Israeli conditions (for example, religious tradition and constant
war readiness necessitated by the hostility of Israel's Arab neighbors) could not easily
be duplicated.
Elsewhere in the Third World, Marxism and various indigenous traditions have been
predominant in socialist movements. In developing countries socialism as an ideology
generally has been fused with various doctrines of nationalism, also a European cultural
import but enriched by diverse motifs drawn from local traditions and cast in the idiom
of indigenous cultures. In India, for example, the largest socialist movement has
partially adapted the pacifist teaching of Mahatma Gandhi, and distinct native brands of
socialism exist in Japan, Burma (Myanmar), and Indonesia. Similarly, in black Africa
native traditions were used in the adaptation of socialist, mainly Marxist, doctrines and
political systems based on them. Noteworthy instances were the socialist system of
Tanzania (decentralized under an internationally supported economic reform program of the
early 1990s) and the socialist theories of intellectual leaders such as Kwame NKRUMAH of
Ghana, Julius K. NYERERE of Tanzania, Leopold Sedar SENGHOR of Senegal, and Sekou TOURE
of Guinea. Socialism in these theories is usually understood as a combination of Marxism,
anticolonialism, and the updated tradition of communal landownership and tribal customs
of decision making. Most of sub-Saharan Africa's socialist countries adopted free-market
reforms in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Arab socialism likewise represents an effort to combine modern European socialist
ideology with some Islamic principles. The BAATH PARTY in Iraq and Syria and the Destour
party in Tunisia have held power for considerable periods; Algeria also has had a
socialist system since its independence. In the Third World, however, socialism has often
been simply an ideology of anticolonialism and modernization. Overtly Marxist movements,
aided by the USSR, China, or Cuba, nevertheless seized power in such African countries as
Angola, Ethiopia, and Mozambique. South Africa's AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS (ANC) was also
strongly influenced by Marxist ideas.
THE NEW LEFT
In the West in the 1960s a radical socialist movement, known as the New Left, arose
principally out of the disaffection of young people with the way of life of advanced
industrial society, and not least with its prosperity and conformism. The movement, which
was apolitical in nature, sought to expose the growing "alienation" of the individual in
advanced industrial conditions, castigating the values of the "consumer society" and
attacking many prevailing social institutions. The beliefs of this movement, particularly
strong in France, West Germany, and the United States, sprang from many diverse sources.
Most important among these were the ideas found in Marx's early writings; the idea of
"alienation," as interpreted by such contemporary socialist philosophers as Gyorgy LUKACS
and Herbert MARCUSE; EXISTENTIALISM; romantic and utopian ideas adapted from earlier
socialist writers (for example, Fourier); sexual radicalism derived from the teaching of
Sigmund Freud; and some aspects of Eastern religious traditions, such as ZEN BUDDHISM.
Despite its initial appeal and successes, however, the New Left did not prove to be a
significant or lasting influence on socialism in its worldwide context or even within
advanced industrial societies where conventional varieties still dominated.
It could well be argued that socialism as an alternative system of society and government
failed to live up to its promises; by and large it is today no more than a dream or at
best a set of ideal criteria whereby to judge the shortcomings of existing institutions.
Socialist ideology, however, remains a popular and
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