Socialism Flashcards
What are the key strand of socialism?
Revolutionary socialism
Democratic socialism
Social democracy
Third Way
Who are socialist key thinkers?
Marx + Engels + Luxemburg - RS
Webb - DS
Crosland - SD
Third Way - Giddens
What are the core ideas/principles of socialism?
Common humanity
Collectivism
Equality
Social class
Workers’ control
What are socialist ideas of common humanity?
-Optmistic view of human nature, individuals share a common humanity, are rational and predisposed to cooperate.
-Human nature sin’t fixed but easily shaped by environment.
-Percieve society as a collection of broadly equal individuals who share common identity/collective purpose.
Differing ideas within socialism of their vision of common humanity?
RS - M/E argue individuals are deformed by capitalism as power of money corrupts them, must be abolished by revolution so a classless communist society and common humanity can emerge.
DS - W argued for society via ballot box, common ownership, extensive state nationalism run by socialist bureaucratic elite.
SD - reform capitalism (not replace), C had vision of mixed economy, Keynesian economics to ensure permanent full employment and welfare state to redistribute wealth.
TW - G argued for emphasis on equality of opportunity via public services, specifically education, move away from universal welfare to means-tested welfare.
What are socialist ideas of collectivism?
-People are naturally social creatures.
-Collectivism prioritises group over individual.
-Believe individuals prefer to work together rather than independently, and work more effectively within groups.
Shown in reformed Clause IV ‘by the strength of our collective endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone’.
Differing ideas on collectivism within socialism
M/E - larger scale, workforces collectively own all industry (Soviet Union).
W - (Atlee gov) use of nationalisation and top-down state management.
C - suspicious of collectivism advocate by M/E/W.
G - TW ideas influenced New Labour.
Examples to show differing ideas of collectivism between SD and TW
Healthcare:
-SD = NHS provides universal care provided to all and funded by tax.
-TW = cost of universal healthcare unsustainable, supports private healthcare for rich to ‘jump the queue’.
Education:
-SD = widespread comprehensive state education is available for all, providing equality of opportunity.
-TW = more equality of opportunity/education spending, New Labour introduced academies but expected students to pay for uni tuition.
Wankers
What are socialist ideas of equality?
-Agree on three aspects: foundational equality, rejection of natural hierarchies, equality of opportunity.
Differing socialist ideas on equality of opportunity.
RS - can only be achieved after revolution.
DS - only achieved by reforming capitalism until it is a truly socialist society.
SD - mixed economy, state management, Keynesian ideas. Progressive taxation with expansive welfare state would widen opportunity and break down class barriers.
TW - equality of opportunity needs to target neediest in society. Abandon universal welfare for means-tested benefits.
Differing socialist ideas of equality of outcome
RS - dismissed it as it presupposed that capitalism could be rid of exploitation.
DS - gradual, incremental process so income would eventually be more evenly distributed.
SD - felt it would weaken economy by acting as discentive to wealth creators.
TW - impractical, discentive, damaging to economy.
Differing socialist ideas of absolute equality
RS - in economy of common ownership/collectivism, material reqard based on needs.
DS - high tax to flatten class dfferences but envisaged some wage differences.
SD - dismissed it as utopian, accepted those who contributed more would be awarded accordingly.
TW - flawed concept, inequality a natura; consequence of society.
Socialist ideas of social class
-Capitalism creates and reinforces harmful social class divisions that result in societal heirarchies.
-Agree on broad critique of social class.
-Disagree on how to rectify the problems of social class.
How do M/E/L believe social class should be dealt with?
-Revolution.
-Capitalists are parasites profiting from exploitation.
-Social class differences cannot be rectified within capitalism.
-State actively reinforces the oppression of worker via laws, bureaucracy, police and army.
How does Webb believe the issue of social class should be dealt with?
-State can be altered from serving capitalism to delivering socialist state.
-Universal nationalisation, equality of outcome, progressive taxation and welfare state would significantly narrow divisions.
How does Crosland believe issues with social class should be dealt with?
-Critical of Webb’s collective ideas arguing it would compromise freedom and be dysfunctional.
-Argued education reinforced class division, wanted to create comprehensive schools catering for all abilities and breaking down social segregation.
What is meant by ‘paradox of class’?
-Boterro
-Idea that class is central to all life chances despite the decline of the concept.
-E.g. while only 7% attend independent schools, they dominate higher paid professions.
RS ideas of workers’ control
-In immediate aftermath of revolution, Marx and Engels envisage transtitional period where formerly exploited workers are in control.
-Short period between revolution and stateless society.
-Re-embracing forgotten, cooperative, collective and fraternal values.
-No need after stateless society emerges as no longer exploited.
DS ideas on workers’ control
-Dismissed workers as incapable of such responsibility.
-Webb had most negative view of human nature, believing they were intellectually inferior and in need of guidance from professional expert.
-Evils of capitalism wouldn’t be solved by workers but by professional experts voted for.
SD + TW ideas on workers’ control
-Outdated notion.
-Capitalism has been reformed of its most exploitative traits.
-Crosland comfortable with mixed economy.
-Giddens argued average worker lacked skills/expertise to lead or manage effectively.
-Giddens argued against mixed economy because nationalised companies couldn’t compete with wealth of free market.
Giddens inspired Blair’s amendment of Clause IV 1995
What are the main ideas of revolutionary socialism + its two main schools?
-Earliest form of S.
-Sought to abolish capitalist state, society and economy and replace them with communism.
Main schools:
-Utopian socialism
-Marxism
What are the ideas of Utopian socialism?
-Despised exploitation and the greed/selfish individualism of capitalism.
-Dislike free market, proposed small-scale cooperative communities.
-Marx named it utopian as deemed it too idealistic.
What are the ideas of Marxism?
-Marx + Engels
-Human nature has been distored by capitalism.
-Critique capitalist economics + place social class at heart of ideas.
-State isn’t neutral, it’s a puppet of the ruling class.
-Need revolution.
What are marxist theories of revolution based on?
Historic materialism - economic conflict is the driver of struggle between groups in society e.g. slave, feudal, capitalist.
Dialectic - drives historical development, chain of contradiction between opposing forces (exploited v exploiters).
Social class
Class consciousness -
