socialism

Question 1

what is social democracy

Answer 1

• humanise capitalism.
• can be achived by parliamentary socialism
• amelerioting damages done by capitalis without moving to a non democratic socialist state

Question 2

how did beatrice webb think socialism would happen?

Answer 2

• the inevitability of gradualness- gradualist parliamentary strategy for achieving revolutionary socialism. inevitable anyway because universal suffrage leads to political equality which favors democracy in the interests of the working people

Question 3

what role does beatrice webb think the state plays?

Answer 3

the expansion of the state is critical in delivering socialism not overthrowing the state. there needed to be a technocratic elite organised by the state to organise socialist society

Question 4

what does beatrice webb think of capitalism’s effect on human nature?

Answer 4

capitalism erodes humanity because it encourages competition and so does poverty because it means people cannot live like humans. revolution would harm people but humans still have the basic desire to work together

Question 5

what does beatrice webb (social democracy) think of society?

Answer 5

society under a socialist state will produce equality of outcome

Question 6

what does crossland think about capitalism?

Answer 6

inherent contradictions in capitalism- doesn’t drive social change- managed capitalism can deliver social justice and equality

Question 7

what does crossland (social democracy) think about capitalism?

Answer 7

inherent contradictions in capitalism- doesn’t drive social change- managed capitalism can deliver social justice and equality
move on from a socialist state, capitalism is a vital part of human life that has lead to many achievements but it has not improved conditions for everyone and therefore social democarcy exists to ameliorate the worst excesses of capitalism

Question 8

what is the purpose of revolutionary socialism?

Answer 8

socialism needs to be brought about with the overthrow of the existing political and societal structures leading to a perfect communist/socialist state (without democracy)

Question 9

what do marx and engles ( revolutionary socialists) think about human nature?

Answer 9

hn is plastic it has been deformed into competing with one another when their natural state is to work together, the heat of the revolution was needed to bring human nature back to its altruistic self
economic relations affect how humans treat each other, humans are naturally social and they work better together. economic forces like profit force them to compete, they like competition because of “false consciousness” they have been trained to believe that it is good

Question 10

what does revolutionary socialism think about the state?

Answer 10

state: the state= capitalism and it must be destroyed, first needs to be a dictatorship of the proletariat

Question 11

how did rosa luxembourg (revolutionary socialist) think that a revolution would come about?

Answer 11

• criticised lenin’s idea of a vanguard elite to guide the population towards a revolution
  she believed that class consciousness would develop spontaneously and mass action would take place. there needs to be a struggle by the proletariat for reform, class consciousness is necessary for the overthrow of the state
• didn’t agree with historical materialism as she believed that revolutions could happen in less economically developed countries - don’t need to wait for final stage capitalism

Question 12

what is the role of the sttae according to Luxembourg?

Answer 12

capitalism should be destroyed by a revolution and replaced with a genuine democracy

Question 13

what does giddens (third way) think about the economy?

Answer 13

• we should embrace capitalism
• • the free market enriches and empowers society.
    
    • free market generates more revenue than state managed economies which could be used for public spending
• capitalism is irreversible
• should embrace the competitive state - blair amended clause iv of the party constitution - no more common ownership
  
  • promote investment in education and infrastructure
• moved away from high level of taxation because it inhibited wealth creation and economic growth

Question 14

What does giddens (3 way) think about human nature?

Answer 14

shaped by socioeconomic conditions and therefore should be more focused on humans as individuals and collective creatures
- capitalism can bring out the best in humanity, encourage people to innovate and create
- humans need to depend on communities and this can be harmed by capitalism

Question 15

what does giddens think about society?

Answer 15

• there is no class struggle, society has moved on from being working class ‘embourgisement’ of society
• communities are important and capitalism can have negative effects on them

Question 16

what is the third way?

Answer 16

a middle-ground alternative route to socialism and free-market capitalism. Blairism. Combining a contradictory approach, after social democracy seems to have failed in the the face of the New Right

Question 17

what did beatrice webb think of revolution?

Answer 17

• didn’t like revolution as she saw it to be counterproductive and unpredictable

Question 18

to what extent do socialists agree on common humanity?

Answer 18

DISAGREEMENT

• all agree that capitalism harms people to an exent.
  RS: humans are naturally cooperative and capitalism forces them to compete with each other, this distorts their human nature because of false conciousness. marx believes that humans are naturally fraternal and therefore the heat of the revolution will fix human nature
  3Way believes that human nature harms communities and human nature is dependent on communities

DISAGREEMENT: third way believes that human nature can benefit from capitalism as it forces them to be innovative and creative which can contribute to society and the economy
rs believe that capitalism installs a false consciousness within worked and makes them think they are better as competitive. marx says that the heat of the revolution will restore people to their natural state which is cooperative.

AGREEMENT; social democrats think that a revolution would harm human nature as humans cannot cope with such drastic change. beatrice webb therefore thinks that humans will be drawn to socialism through gradual parliamentary change.

Question 19

to what extent do socialists have conflicting views over how the economy should operate?

Answer 19

• agreement: ALL SOCIALISTS WANT A GREATER DEGREE OF EQUALITY WITHIN THE ECONOMY
• social democrats advocate for equality of welfare. for example anthony crossland wanted private and grammar schools to be abolished so that students would have greater welfare
• the third way wants greater equality of opportunity, this could be through ensuring

Question 20

to what extent do socialists agree on equality?

Answer 20

Socialists largely disagree on equality.

AGREEMENT: WANT TO ACHIEVE A CERTAIN DEGREE OF EQUALITY.
Social democrats and 3Way seek to embrace capitalism and work to fix the flaws of capitalism by achieving greater equality.
Social democrats believe that capitalism creates a society that is inevitably unequal but everyone should be entitled to an equal minimum standard of living which the state should provide. for example crossland believed that the state should reduce class conflict by introducing universal public services. crossland wanted to abolish grammar schools to give everyone an equal chance as a means of redistributing
3Way believes that capitalism damages society to an extent and therefore this should be reduced by means tested benefits
giddens was a strong advocate for equality of opportunity as he believes that the government should promote education. not only will this lead to economic growth but it will promote a more independent yet socialist society

Question 21

to what extent do socialists agree on workers’ control?

Answer 21

workers should own the industries that they work in, not the exploitative capitalistic owners. all socialists agree that unchecked free market capitalism will exploit workers

DISAGREEMENT: revolutionary socialists believe that workers should dominate industries. this may be due to revolutionary socialism’s positive view of human nature, they believe that humans will work best together and they arent naturally competitive and thus they should all have absolute equality. marx believes that in the transitional period between capitalism and pure socialism there will be the dictatorship of the proletarit who will organise and own industries. private property should also be abolished as any profit is excess wealth stolen by the workers and profit should either be returned to the workers or to the industry.
however, social democrats would disagree and they have a more pessimistic view of human nature. they believe that workers should have minimised control over industries -one of the few forms of control tey should have is trade unions. workers arent educated enough to be able to manage industry and thus most of the control should be in the hands of a technocratic elite.

AGREEMENT ON TRADE UNIONS
- socialists agree on trade unions. to an extent. social democrats believe that unions should exist to amelerioiate the damages of capitalism and protect workers form exploitation. crosslnd believes that workers should have some degree of control, this is through the power of trade unions
third way agrees that trade unions should exist to an extent. they do provide workers with greater equality and power
giddens believes that ultimately trust and power should be with the free market which should decide wages. therefore unions cannot demand pay rises unilaterally, their pay is determined by market forces

AGREEMENT THAT WORKERS CONTROL IS UNNECESSARY AND COUNTERPRODUCTIVE SD AND 3W
- social democrats see no need for workers control. anthony crosland thinks that capitalism is mainly the most efficient form of market, however there should be state owned utilities in order to ensure a minimum standard of living.
3way thinks that workers control would be inefficient form of market as the free market is most successful. lassiez faire capitalism with state intervention to redistribute income will ensure equality.

overall most strands agree over workers control. rs is the only strand that believes that after a capitalist revolution there will be a dictatorship of the proletariat and after this the state will be abolished and all workers will collectively own industries. social democrats - webb thinks tat this cannot happen as human nature is flawed and people don’t have the expertise for control.

Question 22

to what extent do socilaits agree on class in a future society?

Answer 22

• DISAGREE CAPITALISM CREATES CLASS CONFLICTS THAT SHOULD BE REFORMED WITH REVOLUTION. rs thinks that there should be absolute equality in society. this is because capitalist profit off of exploiting workers.
• rs believe that class should not exist in a utopian socialist future society. luxembourg criticised the vanguard elite that led the Bolshevik revolution in russia. she believes that the proletariat will spontaneously develop class consciousness and move to overthrow capitalism
• sd believe that class is inevitable in a future society and should be maintained to deliver a functioning state. for example, webb believes that there needs to be a technocratic elite to manage the economy

disagreement:
3way is more comfortable with class divisions and accepts this as a natural consequence of capitalism. giddens therefore advocated for equality of opportunity and thought that equality of outcome was impractical in a free market society. he also thinks that society is less concerned about class as the working class no longer identify themselves as working class because of embourgisement.
social democrats are slightly more concerned with class and therefore want to ameleriote the damages of capitalism and ensure a minimum standard of living through a welfare state. for example, crossland wanted to abolish grammar schools and have state - owned comprehensive schools in order to standardise education, since education is the biggest indicator of social class.