Socialism

• At heart, we are all social animals
• "No man is an Island entire of itself; each man is a part of the continent, a part of the main".
• In other words,we all should belong in an fraternity of sorts.
• It's our nurutre and not our nature that makes us who we are, and thus to see us as individuals is absurd.
• But rather, the behaviour of human beings tells us about the society that we ive in, rather than the human beings themselves.
• Africa have a sort of "tribal socialism".
• Charles Fourier, Rober Own and the "New Harmony" and the kibbutz.

• Competition ultimately promotes selfishness and agression and resentment and conflict etc.
• We should be motivated by moral incentives rather than that of "material" incentives, because we want to contribute to the "common good".
• i.e we haave the economic motivation in that a good economy can helo finace the welfare state etc, showing a balance of material and moral incentives.
• Cooperative buisness and enterprises.
• And too the extreme--> COLLECTIVE FARMS (SORT OF).

• Arguably an defining factor of Socialism.
• Human inequality relects the unequalness of society, and not how we're just born in that way etc.
• Social inequality leads to instablity and conflict/ resentment etc.
• It underpins the community and our cooperation.
• It believes that we should distribute wealt on the basis of "need satisfaction", in other words "from each according to his ability, to each according to his nees".
• However, today it is no longer equality of Outcome but rather, Equality of Oppurtunity.

• Arguablly the deepst and most politically significant for socialist- SOCIAL DIVISION.
• 1 type argues that we can understand social change by looking at our social classes throughout history.
• THIS IS A MARXIST BELIEF.
• Another type is that we can focus specifically on the working class, or rather specifically the emancipation of the working class.
• BUT, A Class Society isn't necessary in an socialist society etc.

• Different from Liberalism or Conservatism in their belief about common ownership.
• Property is unjust because wealth and labour is produced by a collective effort, therefore property should be owned by the COMMUNITY.
• Property encourages people to be MATERIALISTIC, and they are never SATISFIED, constantly wanting to aqquire MORE.
• It fosters  conflict in society, simply between the rich and the poor and the employer and the employee etc etc.
• MARK AND ENGLES visioned the COMPLETE ABOLITION of Private Property.
• The Soviet Union developed a certain form of STATE SOCIALISM in which the state controls and directs ultimately all aspects of life eg like like economic life etc.
• CLEMENT ATLEE (1945-51)- NATIONALIZING THE "Commanding Heights" Of Britain's society!!.

• MARK AND ENGLES envisioned a "proletarian revolution", which was first successful in 1917, BY LENIN.
• REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALISM WAS ATTRACTIVE BCOS.: 1. Of how the Working Class were treated throughout the age of mass industrilisation etc. 2. And Secondly, because the Working Class were ultimately excluded from every other walk of life i.e through the limited voting franchise, and Russian Autocratic Monarchies etc.
• Gradual change and Political Reform are pointless because the state is a BOURGEOIS STATE, and so is inevitably biased in favour of captial.
• POST 1945: Most revoultions took place in those DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, i.e. the Chinese Revolution of 1949, Vietnam in 1975, the Cuban Revolution of 1959 and Algeria's gain of independence in 1962.
• ADVANTAGES: in that it completely destroys any remnants of a capitalist society, i.e when the Khmer Rouge seized power in Cambodia in 1975 and they declared the "YEAR ZERO"etc.
• Nearly always FUNDAMENTALIST, VIOLENT, MILITARISTIC AND POLITICALLY REPRESSIVE.
• However, this collapses in 1989--1991 with the Collapse of the Soviet Union etc.

• Ultimately, by the end of The First World War, the need for revolution had practically gone, in that now it was not as much of a seperate society for the Working Class. (In that they created certain bodies that protected their rights. i.e Trade Unions and Working men's clubs, greater poliical parties etc).
• THE FABIAN SOCIETY IN 1884.- Believed that socialism would develop naturally and out of liberal capitalism via certain political action.
• A SOCIALIST PARTY WOULD BE FORMED- which would compete for power in the same way as all of the other Politcal Parties. They believed also that elite groups could potentially be turned towards Socialism through the use of educating these groups etc.
• INFLUNCED SEVERAL OTHER POLITCAL PARTIES!!!!: i.e. the GERMAN SDP in 1875, THE AUSTRALIAN LABOUR PARTY in 1891, and the UK LABOUR PARTY in 1900 etc.
• GRADUALISM- Progress brought about by gradual, small imporvements, rather than dramatic upheaval; and change through legal and peaceful reform.
• EUROCOMMUNISM- A form of deradicalized communism, most influential in the 1970's which attempted to blend Marxism with liberal-democratic principles.

• The Working Class no longer constitures the majority of the electorat ein advanced industrial societies--> i.e. through the growth in technology etc.
• So Socialists would have to modify their ideological commitments if they wanted to appeal to the masses and the working class etc.
• Since the Second World War, other capitalist parties have been able to "deliver the goods" on the working classes, something which the socialist parties have had to admit to.
• MARXISTS Argue that it's the governmen't fault because their "bourgeois ideology" pervades society, preventing the working class for percieving the realit of its own exploitation.
• They will only be able to gain a notion of a "trade union consciousness", rather than a "class consciousness" that they need to gain in which to pursue a course of socialism.
• Furthermore they also believe that there is still a capitalist hold of the government even when it is a democratic socialist party, and the socialists are in power BECAUSE of the capitalist individuals and the power of big buisness, i.e. in the courts and the judges are more likely to be CAPITALIST than they are SOCIALIST!!!!. I.E POLITICAL ELITES IN THE MILITARY ETC ETC!!!!.

• DIALECTICAL MARXISM: BASED ON:
• FRENCH SOCIALISM- He was impressed with Rousseau's work in terms of nationalism
• THE ENGLISH POLITICAL ECONOMY- The work or Adam Smith and David Ricardo
• GERMAN IDEOLOGY- The Theory of history largely based on the work of Hegal
• ECONOMIC MATERIALISM- Believed that our political beliefs are shaped by our economic/ material values.
• Our whole history is a product of the rise in production, economic forces at work which transform society.
• TRIBAL-->SLAVE-->FEUDALISM-->CAPITALISM-->SOCIALISM-->COMMUNISM.
• The means of production was IMPORTANT, the power changed from those who owned land in Feudal economy to those that owned factories in capitalism, so it's inevitable that powere will go to the workers in Communism.
• CLASS STRUGGLE= Marx and Engles wrote THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO"" in 1848 saying that history is a history of a class struggle.
• And therefore there will be an inevitable struggle between the bourgeousie and the proletariat.
• They ridiculed the idea that capitalism could be reformed, they believed that it could only be destroyed.

• It suggests that it is inevitable but it proved incorrect with mature capitalist economics like the UK still progressing and society progressing.
• It underestimated capitalism in the role of the state providing welfare, i.e. the NHS and Benefits etc.
• The Working Class have benefitted from capitalism and social democracy had provided an oppurtunity in many ways to raise our economy- benefitting all of our sections of society!!.
• It's incorrect to predict a more impoverished working class, it didn't forsee a growing middle class, especially in the UK!! (The embourgeousiement) etc!!

• Took form arund the mid twentieth century.
• It resulted from the general strategy of the sociaist politicians to adobt more parlimentary strategies etc.
• THE MAJOR FEATURES ARE:
• Endorsing liberal- democratic principles and accepting that political change can and should be brought about peacefully, and constitutionally.
• Capitalism is the only reliable means of generating wealth; socialism is not quantitively different from capitalism.
• However capitalisms in still viewed as morally defective, particuarly as a means for distributing wealth; capitalism is assosciated with structural inequality and poverty.
• The defects of the capitalist state can be rectified by the state through a process of economic and social engineering, the state is the custodian of public or common interest.
• The nation state is a meaningful unit of political rule, in the sense that states have a significant capacity to regulate economic and social life within their own borders.

• The creation of New Labour and its third way was ultimately a response to the post- Thatcher consensus that had dominate Britian from the mid 1980's.
• CHANGES:
• ACCEPTING FREE MARKETS, BUT CONTROL OF MONOPOLY POWER THROUGH STATE REGULATION.
• PROMOTING COMPETITION, EVEN WITHIN THE PUBLIC SERVICES.
• ACCEPTING THE DECLINE OF SUBSIDIES RENTED HOUSING.
• ACCEPTING PRIVITISATION- BUT ALSO INTRODUCING PARTNERSHIPS BETWEEN THE PUBLIC AND THE PRIVATE SECTORS.
• NO ATTEMPTS TO MAKE ACTIVE CONTROL OVER THE ECONOMY- BUT THEY DID INTRODUCE MEASURES TO ENSURE DISIPLINERY OVER THE PUBLIC FINANCE!!
• STRENGTHENING THE RIGHT OF THE WORKERS BUT NOT RESTORING UNION POWERS.
• ACCEPTING INNEQUALITY BUT ESTABLISHING A MINIMUM STANDARD OF LIVING WHICH NO ONE SHOULD LIVE UNDER ETC.
• ALLOWING CERTAIN TAXATIONS TO DRIFT ON UP.
• SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS SHOULD ONLY GO TO THOSE WHO ARE MOST NEEDY AND AT THOSE WHO ARE WORKING, UNABLE TO WORK, OR ARE SEEKING WORK ETC.

• Socialism in terms of it's top down state intervention is dead; we must now embrace globalisation and an information society or an knowledge economy etc.
• Key emphasis on community and moral responsibility.
• A consensus view of society in contrast to an conflict view of society.
• Equality of Oppurtunity rather than that of Outcome, no longer the social democratic belief of the state seeing us from "cradle to grave", but rather follows the more modern approach of "helping people help themselves".
• The Third Way embraces the idea of a competition state or market state. Education rather that social security should be the government's main priority etc.

• SOCIAL MOBILITY became arguablly more important than that of poverty reduction i.e through the use of education and a great availability of training and employment etc.
• Brown re- emphasised the need to target welfare benefits far more accurately i.e to reduce the tax burden on the public and the tax payers and furthermore to be a more just settlement concentrating on those are most in need, especially those who are poor pensioners and families with children.
• Anxious to involve the private sector as much as possible in the operations of the welfare state, and public services in general!!.
• Labour became more a pragmatic movement and thus even less attached to dogmatic "New Labour" principles.

(HOWEVER THE FINANCIAL CRISIS IN 2007 OBVIOUSLY HAD SOME AFFECT ON THIS!!!!.

• THE PARTY REMAINS COMMITTED TO THE REDUCTION OF POVERTY
• SOCIAL EXCLUSION POLICY IS ATTEMPTING TO CREATE A GREATER SOCIAL EQUALITY.
• THE PRINCIPLES OF THE WELFARE STATE HAVE BEEN PRESERVED.
• THERE IS SOME REGULATION OF LARGE- SCALE INDUSTRIES IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST- I.E. NOTABLY THE BANKING SYSTEM FOLLOWING THE 2008 FINANCIAL CRISIS.
• THE LABOUR GOVERNMENT SIGNED THE EUROPEAN SOCIAL CHAPTER, WHICH EXTENDS CONSIDERABLE EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS TO ALL WORKERS.
• THE RHETORIC OF NEW LABOUR IS THAT THE WEALTH BEING CREATED IN SOCIETY SHOULD BE SPREAD MORE WIDELY.
• THE EMPHASIS ON EDUCATION AIMS TO WIDEN OPPURTUNITY.