Key Themes and Key Thinkers

Question 1

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels - Human nature

Answer 1

Human nature, originally fraternal and altruistic, has been contaminated by capitalism, instilling the ‘false consciousness’ of bourgeois values. Revolutionary socialism, however, will repair this.

Question 2

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels - The state

Answer 2

The existing liberal-bourgeois state is a tool of the dominant capitalist class; it must be destroyed by revolution and replaced by a new socialist state: the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Question 3

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels - Society

Answer 3

Capitalist society is sickeningly, yet fatally, defined by class interests and class conflict. A communist society will be the perfect ‘end of history’.

Question 4

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels - The economy

Answer 4

Capitalism is corrupt, inefficient and ultimately self-destructive. It should - and will - be replaced by an economy based on collective ownership.

Question 5

Beatrice Webb - Human nature

Answer 5

The damage inflicted by capitalism upon the human psyche will be compounded only by violent revolution. Humanity needs to be guided back, gradually, to its original co-operative condition.

Question 6

Beatrice Webb - The state

Answer 6

If harnessed to universal suffrage, the existing state could be used to effect a gradual transition to socialism.

Question 7

Beatrice Webb - Society

Answer 7

The poverty and inequalities of a capitalist society continue to depress human potential while fostering regressive competition.

Question 8

Beatrice Webb - The economy

Answer 8

A chaotic capitalist economy will gradually be replaced by one which secures for workers the full fruits of their labour, based upon a common ownership of the means of production.

Question 9

Anthony Crosland - Human nature

Answer 9

Human nature has a powerful sense of ‘fairness’ and an innate objection to huge inequalities of outcome.

Question 10

Anthony Crosland - The state

Answer 10

Democratic socialist governments (for example, Labour 1945-1951) prove that the existing state can be used to effect radical, socialist change.

Question 11

Anthony Crosland - Society

Answer 11

Society is increasingly complicated, altered by the emergence of new social groups comprising ‘meritocratic’ managers and ‘classless’ technocrats.

Question 12

Anthony Crosland - The economy

Answer 12

A mixed economy, underpinned by limited public ownership and Keynesian capitalism, will finance the greater public spending necessary to secure equality.