Socialism

Question 1

Socialism: core themes

Answer 1

Community

cooperation

equality

class politics

common ownership

Question 2

Utopianism

Answer 2

A belief in the unlimited possibilities of human development, typically embodied in the vision of a perfect or ideal society, a utopia

Question 3

Capitalism

Answer 3

An economic system in which wealth is owned by private individuals or businesses and goods are produced for exchange, according to the dictates of the market.

Question 4

Communism

Answer 4

The principle of the common ownership of wealth, or a system of comprehensive collectivization; communism is often viewed as ‘Marxism in practice’

Question 5

Social democracy

Answer 5

A moderate or reformist brand of socialism that favours a balance between the market and the state, rather than the abolition of capitalism.

Question 6

Labourism

Answer 6

A tendency exhibited by socialist parties to serve the interests of the organized labour movement rather than pursue broader ideological goals.

Question 7

Fraternity

Answer 7

Literally, brotherhood; bonds of sympathy and comradeship between and among human beings.

Question 8

Cooperation

Answer 8

Working together; collective effort intended to achieve mutual benefit.

Question 9

Egalitarianism

Answer 9

A theory or practice based on the desire to promote equality; egalitarianism is sometimes seen as the belief that equality is the primary political value.

Question 10

Collectivization

Answer 10

The abolition of private property and the establishment of a comprehensive system of common or public ownership, usually through the mechanisms of the state.

Question 11

Progressive taxation

Answer 11

A system of taxation in which the rich pay a higher proportion of their income in tax than the poor.

Question 12

Social class

Answer 12

A social division based on economic or social factors; a social class is a group of people who share a similar socioeconomic position.

Question 13

Bourgeoisie

Answer 13

A Marxist term denoting the ruling class of a capitalist society, the owners of productive wealth.

Question 14

Proletariat

Answer 14

A Marxist term denoting a class that subsists through the sale of its labour power; strictly speaking, the proletariat is not equivalent to the manual working class

Question 15

Fundamentalist socialism

Answer 15

A form of socialism that seeks to abolish capitalism and replace it with a qualitatively different kind of society.

Question 16

Nationalization

Answer 16

The extension of state or public ownership over private assets or industries, either individual enterprises or the entire economy (often called collectivization).

Question 17

State socialism

Answer 17

A form of socialism in which the state controls and directs economic life, acting, in theory, in the interests of the people.

Question 18

Mixed economy

Answer 18

An economy in which there is a mixture of publicly owned and privately owned industries.

Question 19

Revisionist socialism

Answer 19

A form of socialism that has revised its critique of capitalism and seeks to reconcile greater social justice with surviving capitalist forms.

Question 20

Revolution

Answer 20

A fundamental and irreversible change, often a brief but dramatic period of upheaval; systemic change.

Question 21

Bourgeois state

Answer 21

A Marxist term denoting a state that is bound to the interests of the bourgeoisie, and so perpetuates a system of unequal class power.

Question 22

Gradualism

Answer 22

Progress brought about by gradual, piecemeal improvements, rather than dramatic upheaval; change through legal and peaceful reform.

Question 23

Eurocommunism

Answer 23

A form of de-radicalized communism, most influential in the 1970s, which attempted to blend Marxism with liberal-democratic principles.

Question 24

Underclass

Answer 24

A classification of people who suffer from multiple forms of deprivation, and so are socially, politically and culturally marginalized.

Question 25

Bourgeois ideology

Answer 25

A Marxist term denoting ideas and theories that serve the interests of the bourgeoisie by disguising the contradictions of capitalist society.

Question 26

Class consciousness

Answer 26

A Marxist term denoting an accurate awareness of class interests and a willingness to pursue them; a class-conscious class is a class-for-itself.

Question 27

Dialectical materialism

Answer 27

The crude and deterministic form of Marxism that dominated intellectual life in orthodox communist states.

Question 28

Historical materialism

Answer 28

A Marxist theory that holds that material or economic conditions ultimately structure law, politics, culture and other aspects of social existence.

Question 29

Dialectic

Answer 29

A process of development in which inter action between two opposing forces leads to a further or higher stage; historical change resulting from internal contradictions within a society.

Question 30

Alienation

Answer 30

To be separated from one’s genuine or essential nature; used by Marxists to describe the process whereby, under capitalism, labour is reduced to being a mere commodity.

Question 31

Ruling class

Answer 31

A Marxist term denoting the class that owns the means of production, and so wields economic and political power.

Question 32

Surplus value

Answer 32

A Marxist term denoting the value that is extracted from the labour of the proletariat by the mechanism of capitalist exploitation.

Question 33

Social revolution

Answer 33

A qualitative change in the structure of society; for Marxists a social revolution involves a change in the mode of production and the system of ownership.

Question 34

Dictatorship of the proletariat

Answer 34

A Marxist term denoting the transitionary phase between the collapse of capitalism and the establishment of full communism, characterized by the establishment of a proletarian state.

Question 35

Leninism

Answer 35

Lenin’s theoretical contributions to Marxism, notably his belief in the need for a revolutionary or ‘vanguard’ party to raise the proletariat to class consciousness.

Question 36

Democratic centralism

Answer 36

The Leninist principle of party organization, based on a supposed balance between freedom of discussion and strict unity of action.

Question 37

Stalinism

Answer 37

A centrally planned economy supported by systematic and brutal political oppression, based on the structures of Stalin’s Russia.

Question 38

Neo-Marxism

Answer 38

An updated and revised form of Marxism that rejects determinism, the primacy of economics and the privileged status of the proletariat.

Question 39

New left

Answer 39

An ideological movement that sought to revitalize socialist thought by developing a radical critique of advanced industrial society, stressing the need for decentralization, participation and personal liberation.

Question 40

Humanism

Answer 40

A philosophy that gives moral priority to the satisfaction of human needs and aspirations.

Question 41

Social justice

Answer 41

A morally justifiable distribution of wealth, usually implying a commitment to greater equality.

Question 42

Revisionism

Answer 42

The revision or reworking of a political theory that departs from earlier interpretations in an attempt to present a ‘corrected’ view.

Question 43

Managerialism

Answer 43

The theory that a governing class of managers, technocrats and state officials – those who possess technical and administrative skills – dominates both capitalist and communist societies.

Question 44

Third way

Answer 44

The notion of an alternative form of economics to both state socialism and free-market capitalism, sought at different times by conservatives, socialists and fascists.

Question 45

Knowledge economy

Answer 45

An economy in which knowledge is supposedly the key source of competitiveness and productivity, especially in the form of information and communication technology

Question 46

Social inclusion

Answer 46

The acquisition of rights, skills and opportunities that enable citizens to participate fully in their society.

Question 47

Competition state

Answer 47

A state whose principal role is to pursue strategies for national prosperity in conditions of intensifying global competition.

Question 48

Robert Owen (1771–1858)

Answer 48

A British socialist, industrialist and pioneer of the cooperative movement, Owen’s A New View of Society (1816) envisaged a transformation in human nature consequent on a change in its environment, suggesting that progress requires the construction of a ‘rational system of society’. Owen advanced a moral indictment of market capitalism, which he proposed should be replaced with a society based on small-scale cooperative communities in which property would be communally owned and essential goods freely distributed.

Question 49

Karl Marx (1818–83)

Answer 49

A German philosopher, economist and life-long revolutionary, Marx is usually portrayed as the father of twentieth-century communism. The centrepiece of Marx’s thought is a ‘scientific’ critique of capitalism that highlights, in keeping with previous class society, systemic inequality and therefore fundamental instability. Marx’s materialist theory of history holds that social development will inevitably culminate in the establishment of a classless communist society. His vast works include the Communist Manifesto (1848) (written with Friedrich Engels (1820–95)) and the three-volume Capital (1867, 1885 and 1894).

Question 50

Eduard Bernstein (1850–1932)

Answer 50

A German socialist politician and theorist, Bernstein attempted to revise and modernize orthodox Marxism in the light of changing circumstances. In Evolutionary Socialism (1898), Bernstein argued that economic crises were becoming less, not more, acute, and drew attention to the ‘steady advance of the working class’. On this basis, he drew attention to the possibility of a gradual and peaceful transition to socialism, and questioned the distinction between liberalism and socialism, later abandoning all semblance of Marxism.

Question 51

Vladimir Ilich Lenin (1870–1924)

Answer 51

A Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Lenin was the first leader of the Soviet state (1917–21). In What Is to Be Done? (1902), he emphasized the central importance of a tightly organized ‘vanguard’ party to lead and guide the proletarian class. His Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916), he developed an economic analysis of colonialism, highlighting the possibility of turning world war into class war. The State and Revolution (1917) outlined Lenin’s firm commitment to the ‘insurrectionary road’ and rejected ‘bourgeois parliamentarianism’.

Question 52

Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)

Answer 52

A Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Trotsky joined forces with Lenin in 1917 but after Lenin’s death was driven from power and eventually murdered by Stalin. Trotsky’s chief theoretical contribution to Marxism was the theory of permanent revolution, which suggested that socialism could be established in Russia without the need for the bourgeois stage of development. Trotskyism is usually associated with an unwavering commitment to internationalism and an anti-Stalinism that highlights the dangers of bureaucratization, as outlined in The Revolution Betrayed (1937).

Question 53

Richard Henry Tawney (1880–1962)

Answer 53

A British social philosopher and historian, Tawney championed a form of socialism that emphasizes (moral) equality, a common humanity and service, firmly rooted in a Christian social moralism that is unconnected with Marx’s class analysis. Stressing the basic value of fellowship and a sense of community, Tawney argued that the disorders of capitalism derived from the absence of a ‘moral ideal’, leading to unchecked acquisitiveness and widespread material inequality. Tawney’s major works include The Acquisitive Society (1921) and Equality (1931).

Question 54

Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937)

Answer 54

An Italian Marxist and revolutionary, Gramsci tried to redress the emphasis within orthodox Marxism on economic and material factors. In his major work, Prison Notebooks (1929–35), Gramsci rejected any form of ‘scientific’ determinism by stressing, through the theory of ‘hegemony’ (the dominance of bourgeois ideas and beliefs), the importance of political and intellectual struggle. While he did not ignore the ‘economic nucleus’, he argued that bourgeois assumptions and values needed to be overthrown by the establishment of a rival ‘proletarian hegemony’.

Question 55

Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979)

Answer 55

A German political philosopher and social theorist, Marcuse portrayed advanced industrial society as an all-encompassing system of repression that subdues argument and debate, and absorbs all forms of opposition. Drawing on Marxist, Hegelian and Freudian ideas, Marcuse held up the unashamedly utopian prospect of personal and sexual liberation, looking not to the conventional working class as a revolutionary force but to groups such as students, ethnic minorities, women and workers in the developing world. His key works include Eros and Civilization (1958) and One- Dimensional Man (1964).