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Politics: Core Political Ideas > socialism > Flashcards

socialism Flashcards

1
Q

What does collectivism maintain?

A
  • humans can achieve their political, social and economic objectives more effectively through collective action than through individual effort
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2
Q

Why do socialists endorse collectivism?

A
  • the interests of the group should take priority over individual self-interest, collective effort encourages unity and a sense of responsibility towards others
  • collectivism utilises the capabilities of the whole society efficiently, avoids wastefulness and limited impact of individual effort in the capitalist economy
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3
Q

Where is the emphasis of collectivism rooted?

A
  • the view of human nature
  • which argues that humans are social animals
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4
Q

How do socialists argue human nature is moulded?

A
  • through social conditions
  • the experiences of a person’s life
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5
Q

What does the pursuit of collectivism involve?

A
  • the growth of the state
  • the expansion of the state services + responsibilities
  • increase in state spending
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6
Q

What is the Marxists and state socialists view of collectivism?

A
  • advocate collective action through a centralised state that organises all production and distribution
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7
Q

What is the moderate socialists view of collectivism?

A
  • pursue collectivism in a more limited way
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8
Q

What are the most common forms of socialist collectivism?

A
  • housing = subsidised homes provided by local government
  • education = the state runs the school system, which is free and available to everyone
  • industry = key industries under state control to operate in the national interest
  • health care = national health service, funded from general taxation, provided free care based on need
  • industrial relations = workers organised in trade unions with bargaining rights over terms and conditions
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9
Q

What are the two basic criticisms of collectivism?

A
  • collectivism emphasises group action and common interests which suppresses human individuality and diversity
  • collectivist objectives can only really be advanced through the agency of the state, it leads to the growth of arbitrary state power and the erosion of individual freedoms
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10
Q

Why have socialists attached less importance to collectivism since the 1970s?

A
  • due to growing perception that collectivism in developed countries was producing a dependency culture and a sluggish, noncompetitive economic sector
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11
Q

How do socialists advocate cooperation?

A
  • based on their positive view of human nature
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12
Q

What do socialists argue about cooperation?

A
  • humans are naturally inclined to work together for the common good
  • co-operative effort produces the best results for society
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13
Q

What happens to people that cooperate rather than compete?

A
  • form connections based on understanding, respect and mutual support
  • channel the capabilities of the whole group/community rather than just the potential of a single individual
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14
Q

What do socialists think about competition?

A
  • wasteful
  • promotes social divisions
  • generates conflict, hostility and resentment
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15
Q

What do socialists think about capitalist economic competition?

A
  • it sets one person against another
  • encourages people to reject or disregard their common humanity rather than accept it
  • encourages humans to be self-centred and belligerent
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16
Q

What does the moral incentive to improve society rest on?

A
  • acceptance of a common humanity
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17
Q

What do socialists think about peoples role in society?

A
  • people should work hard in order to improve their society or community because they have a sense of responsibility for other humans
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18
Q

What do most contemporary socialists accept about the economy functioning?

A
  • there will need to be some material rewards to motivate people, but also stress these should be linked to moral incentives
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19
Q

What do marxists and state socialists argue about the role of the state?

A
  • the agency of the state can be used to control economic production and distribution for the benefit of everyone
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20
Q

What do social democrats argue about the role of the state?

A
  • advocate for state intervention, in the more limited form of welfare and redistribution programmes, to help those in the greatest need
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21
Q

What is the fundamental value of socialism?

A
  • pursuit of social equality or equality of outcome
22
Q

How does social equality ensure fairness?

A
  • economic inequality is due to the structural inequalities in a capitalist society rather than innate differences of ability among people
  • some socialists tend to reject equality of opportunity because such a concept justifies the unequal treatment of people on the grounds of innate ability
  • other socialists think that inequality in the form of differential rewards is inevitable to some extent, they tend to endorse an egalitarian approach to ensure that people are treated less unequally
23
Q

What are Marx and Engels key ideas?

A
  • social class is central to socialism
  • human nature is socially determined and can only be expressed under communism
24
Q

What do Marx and Engels think about human nature?

A
  • capitalism has corrupted what was originally fraternal and altruistic
25
Q

What do Marx and Engels think about the state?

A
  • the existing Liberal-Bourgeois state is a tool of the dominant capitalist class and must be destroyed and replaced by a socialist state called the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’
26
Q

What do Marx and Engels think about society?

A
  • capitalist society is fatally defined by class conflict. A communist society would be the perfect ‘end of history’
27
Q

What do Marx and Engels think about the economy?

A
  • Capitalism is corrupt, inefficient and self destructive. It should and will be replaced by an economy based on collective ownership.
28
Q

What does Rosa Luxemburg think about the state?

A
  • The capitalist state must be destroyed by a revolution arising from strike action
  • The replacement state must be a genuine democracy with free speech and free elections
29
Q

What are Rosa Luxemburg’s key ideas?

A
  • evolutionary socialism is not possible as capitalism is based on economic exploitation
  • struggle by the proletariat creates the class-consciousness needed to overthrow the capitalist state
30
Q

What does Rosa Luxemburg think about human nature?

A
  • It’s less damaged than Marx claims
  • altruism and fraternalism still flourish in working class communities punished by capitalist economics
31
Q

What does Rosa Luxemburg think about society?

A

Capitalist society is class ridden and morally indefensible
- Alternate societies and sub-cultures exist within proletariat communities

32
Q

What are Beatrice Webb’s key ideas?

A
  • the ‘inevitability of gradualness’ = establishing socialism peacefully by passing democratic reforms through existing parliamentary institutions
  • the expansion of the state will deliver socialism
33
Q

What does Beatrice Webb think about human nature?

A
  • Violent revolution will only worsen the damage caused by capitalism
  • Humanity needs to be slowly guided back to it’s original co-operative condition
34
Q

What does Rosa Luxemburg think about the economy?

A
  • Capitalism is more resilient than Marx thinks
  • It’s destruction is necessary, and will require determination and solidarity among the proletariat
  • It will be replaced by an economy based on workers control
35
Q

What does Beatrice Webb think about the state?

A
  • If harnessed to universal suffrage the existing state could be used to effect a gradual transition to Socialism
36
Q

What does Beatrice Webb think about society?

A
  • Poverty caused by the inequalities of capitalist society depress human potential and foster regressive competition
37
Q

What does Beatrice Webb think about the economy?

A
  • A chaotic capitalist society will gradually be replaced by one which secures the workers the full fruits of their labour based upon a common ownership of the means of production
38
Q

What are Anthony Croslands’s key ideas?

A
  • the inherent contradictions in capitalism
  • state-managed capitalism
39
Q

What does Anthony Crosland think about the state?

A
  • Democratic socialist governments (such as Labour 1945-51) prove that the existing state can be used to effect radical socialist change
40
Q

What does Anthony Crosland think about human nature?

A
  • Has a powerful sense of fairness and an innate objection to huge inequalities of outcome
41
Q

What does Anthony Crosland think about society?

A
  • It’s increasingly complicated, altered by the emergence of new social groups comprising ‘meritocratic’ managers and ‘classless’ technocrats
42
Q

What does Anthony Crosland think about the economy?

A
  • A mixed economy underpinned by limited public ownership and Keynesian capitalism will finance the greater public spending needed to ensure equality
43
Q

What are Anthony Giddens key ideas?

A
  • the ‘third way’ = a new political approach to social democracy
  • the rejection of state intervention
44
Q

What does Anthony Giddens think about human nature?

A
  • Shaped by socio-economic conditions. It is pro-fairness but that competes with sharpened individual aspiration
45
Q

What does Anthony Giddens think about the state?

A
  • The existing liberal state should be improved, redistributing and decentralising political power, whilst encouraging greater political participation
46
Q

What does Anthony Giddens think about society?

A
  • Society has undergone embourgeoisement -egalitarians must harness, rather than, deny these forces
47
Q

What does Anthony Giddens think about the economy?

A
  • A neo-liberal economy, propelled by privatisation and de-regulation will provide huge tax yields, which can be used to increase public spending to secure greater equality of opportunity
48
Q

What is Marxism?

A
  • an ideological system
  • drew on the writings of Marx and Engels
  • has at its core a philosophy of history that explains why it is inevitable that capitalism will be replaced by communism
49
Q

What does fraternity mean?

A
  • literally a ‘brotherhood’
  • humans bound together by comradeship and a common outlook because they share the same basic nature and interests, while differences due to class, religion, nationality and ethnic background are far less significant
50
Q

What is communism?

A
  • an economic and political system advocated by Marx
  • private ownership means of production is abolished in favour of common ownership
  • classless society is established, production is based on human need and the state withers away
  • Marxists think that only under this system can realise their full potential
51
Q

What is capitalism?

A
  • wealth is privately owned and goods and services are produced for profit, as determined by market forces
  • capitalist system has developed over the last five centuries to become the economic driving force of the modern global economy

Politics: Core Political Ideas (3 decks)

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