Socialism Flashcards

1
Q

When did socialism become a popular phrase?

A

1840s

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2
Q

Example of early socialists

A

Charles Fourier and Robert Owen

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3
Q

Under which idea was the overthrowing of capitalism inevitable

A

Laws of history (Marx)

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4
Q

Example of anti-colonial socialist party

A

Indian Congress Party

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5
Q

First democratically elected Marxist

A

Salvador Allende of Chile

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6
Q

2 tenets of socialism as an economic model

A

Collectivisation and planned economy, for some using socialism as a means of harnessing capitalism for all

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7
Q

Ideas of socialism as a force on labour

A

Labourism as a policy is supported where desires of organized labour more important than actual ideology

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8
Q

John Donne (1571-1631) on human nature

A

‘No man is an Island entire of itself’ and idea of one of mankind dies, so does it pain him as we are all linked

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9
Q

Overall socialists on human nature

A

Affected by nurture not nature as society shapes individuals ie language, and that individuals and society are inseparable as individuals can be only understood through knowledge of society, and you can learn about society through the individual

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10
Q

Radical socialist view of human nature

A

Individuals should be seen in terms of what they can become, a fulfilled state akin to the utopian beliefs of such radicals

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11
Q

Example of socialism being part of human nature due to nurture

A

Julius Nyerere, President of Tanzania 1964-85 saying ‘We, in Africa, have no more real need to be ‘converted’ to socialism, than we have of being ‘taught’ democracy’ and ‘tribal socialism’

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12
Q

What is collectivism?

A

The idea that we benefit most from the collective work of many as this is most useful, practical and moral, so support for social groups such as class is seen

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13
Q

Divide over collectivism by some socialists

A

Anarchists like Bakunin see this as self-governing associations of free people, while others see it as placing the interest of the group above the individual

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14
Q

Victorian examples of collectivism

A

Fourier with phalansteries of 1800 people and Owen with communities like New Harmony in Indiana (1820s)

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15
Q

Modern example of collectivism

A

Kibbutz system in Israel, though practices of collective childrearing have been diluted since the 60s

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16
Q

Why is cooperation supported?

A

Humans are social beings so proffer more in a system where caring for others is placed above competition and selfishness

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17
Q

Peter Kropotkin (Russian anarchist) on cooperation

A

‘Mutual aid’ is the principal method through which humans have proffered

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18
Q

What do socialists see as important in the desire for rewards of humans?

A

They be not merely materialistic, but for a moral purpose as well, therefore one does not work hard just for themselves but for the welfare of all such as with the benefits of a strong economy going to the poor

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19
Q

Examples of cooperation

A

Rochdale Pioneers of 1840s which bought in bulk to spread cheaply among workers, similar to producer cooperatives where workers self-manage in northern Republican Spain

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20
Q

3 reasons to support egalitarianism

A

Upholder of justice, community and need satisfaction

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21
Q

Why is equality fair?

A

Unequal abilities are exacerbated in a capitalism model where the skills are differentiated more due to society rather than nature, and therefore all individuals are deserving of rewards

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22
Q

Why is equality good for community?

A

In such a society individuals identify with others more and therefore are sympathetic to their needs, inequality leads to conflict

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23
Q

RH Tawney on equality of opportunity

A

Tadpole philosophy

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24
Q

Marx on equality of needs

A

From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs

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25
Q

Divide over reaching equality

A

Marxists for collectivisation while others for progressive taxation

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26
Q

Divide over class politics

A

Marxists seeing bourgeoisie and proletariat while social democrats supporting narrowing white-collar and blue-collar divide

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27
Q

How has class politics changed in recent years?

A

De-industrialization has led to less class fraternity and so socialist appeal less to class and more to gender divides or peace

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28
Q

3 reasons to support common ownership

A

Unjust as wealth is made by all, morally corrupting as encourages materialism and divisive as fosters conflict between owners and workers

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29
Q

What did Stalin do with common ownership?

A

Second Revolution of 1930s where nationalism and state socialism came into being

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30
Q

What did Attlee do with common ownership?

A

Nationalisation of the ‘commanding heights’ such as major industries

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31
Q

Early socialist revolutionary

A

Auguste Blanqui (1805-81)

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32
Q

Why was revolution supported by Victorian Marxists?

A

Capitalism of this time shows naked oppression with grinding poverty, as well as bourgeoisie state not offering other alternatives like voting apart from as an oppressor (unlike liberals who see neutral state)

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33
Q

3 examples of different revolutions in different places

A

1949 China with Mao Zedong, Che Guevara up to 1967 including 1959 in Cuba, and 1962 in Algeria

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34
Q

Example of fundamentalism of socialist revolutionaries

A

Pol Pot Year Zero

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35
Q

3 reasons why socialist states end up as dictatorships

A

Violence is normalized, parties have discipline and military structures, and all opposition is removed in revolution

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36
Q

Mao Zedong on revolution and dictatorships

A

Power resides in the barrel of a gun

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37
Q

History of Fabians

A

Beatrice and Sidney Webb create Fabians in 1884 to support natural revolution through liberal capitalism where elite classes begin to support socialism through education and permeate ideas as a result

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38
Q

What did the Fabians influence during it’s time?

A

Labour Party (1918 Constitution) with state less oppressive as under Marxism, as well as SDP

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39
Q

History of SDP

A

Created in 1975, majority in 1912, supportive of Marxism but also reformist Ferdinand Lassalle who supported extending the franchise to end with socialism

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40
Q

Eduard Bernstein book

A

Evolutionary Socialism (1898)

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41
Q

What was the new socialism of the 70s called?

A

Eurocommunism, mixing communism with liberal ideas within democracy

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42
Q

Fabian opinion on their overall stance

A

The inevitability of gradualism

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43
Q

Why has a democratic socialist revolution not occurred?

A

Power has never been guaranteed and often mandates not overwhelming as expected from working class (such as SDP 1972 46% of vote all time high) so reforming occurred more than revolution

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44
Q

JK Galbraith (1992) on classless society

A

The Culture of Contentment showed how ‘contented majority’ were of economic affluence and wanted security so socialists had to stand in coalition or reform to New Left to succeed

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45
Q

Division over why socialism does not win elections

A

Either acceptance of capitalist success of 50s and 80s or Lenin’s opinion that workers limited to ‘trade union consciousness’ not ‘class consciousness’ without revolution due to bourgeoisie ideology

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46
Q

Gramsci on failures of social democrats

A

Cannot break ‘ideological hegemony’

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47
Q

Why do socialist parties still fail when in power?

A

Entrenched interest groups such as wealth and civil service work against them

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48
Q

Who created dialectical materialism and what is it?

A

Plekhanov, version of determinist Marxism supported by Soviet communists in terms of economy

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49
Q

3 forms of Marxism

A

Classical, orthodox communism and neo-Marxism

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50
Q

Why did Marx disagree with early socialists?

A

Fourier and Owen only cared for a societal transformation, not one forced by class struggle

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51
Q

How does Marx work to find his historic materialism?

A

Empirical evidence of past history and current from which he created laws of history

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52
Q

What is, as Engels would say, the ‘materialist conception of history’?

A

Economic base (whatever system used such as feudalism or socialism) from which the Legal and Political superstructure grows (politics, culture and arts) so that from the primer the latter can be explained

53
Q

What is dialecticism?

A

Idea of Hegel and Marx that two opposing forces drives history to a higher state

54
Q

Why is Hegel and Marx a different breed of dialectical thought?

A

While Hegel says this drives people to a higher state through a synthesis of ideas, Marx takes this to ‘world spirit’ of class conflict where the higher state is communism, which is a result of the proletariat and bourgeoisie

55
Q

Marx on proletariat

A

Grave digger of capitalism

56
Q

How is Marxism teleological?

A

It gives history a purpose or meaning with that being the end of such antagonism of dialecticism and the creation of communism, the ‘pre-history of mankind’

57
Q

Which book of Marx looks at history as the oppressor and the oppressed?

A

The German Ideology (1846)

58
Q

How did Marx’s writings on the worker change through age?

A

Originally merely criticising the alienation of the worker under capitalism, his work became more about class conflict later

59
Q

How do economic crises show the issues of capitalism?

A

Overproduction embodies the evils of surplus value where workers are paid less than what their labour generates, and through these increasingly bad crises revolution will occur

60
Q

What is the role of the dictatorship of the proletariat?

A

Safeguard against counter-revolution and then wither away when antagonisms of system end leading to stateless and classless society

61
Q

When was the Comintern created?

A

1919

62
Q

Why did the location of revolutions change Marxism to orthodox communism?

A

Unlike the expected developed state to revolt, undeveloped ones with a small urban elite took power so a class revolution was not possible

63
Q

What are the key tenets of Leninism?

A

‘Vanguard of the proletariat’ to work, and democratic centralism of freedom of discussion alongside strict unity of action

64
Q

What are the key tenets of Stalinism?

A

‘Socialism in One Country’ with Five Year Plans of industrialisation and collectivisation, with State Planning Committee controlling production and NKVD police force taking dictatorial rule

65
Q

How was the membership of the Communist Party changed in the 30s?

A

It has almost halved by the Stalinist purges

66
Q

What are the key tenets of neo-Marxism?

A

Rejection of determinism in economics and privileged status of proletariat

67
Q

Why were neo-Marxists separate from others?

A

No revolution so base/superstructure idea changed to ‘Man the creator’ with less importance on class struggle, alongside hatred of orthodox communism

68
Q

Georg Lukács on Marx

A

More emphasis on ‘reification’ where dehumanising aspect of capitalism is focussed upon, key new aspect of neo-Marxism

69
Q

What was the Frankfurt School of neo-Marxism?

A

Creator of critical theory, ideas of Hegel, Marx and Freud to support need for decentralisation, participation and personal liberation

70
Q

Laclau and Mouffe on post-Marxism

A

Idea that ‘moments’ of Marx-like struggle will occur, such as women’s movement and gay rights movement, in a postmodern world without class politics

71
Q

Robert Owen on overall critical replacement of capitalism

A

Rational system of society

72
Q

Bernstein on class politics

A

Steady advance of the working class

73
Q

What is Trotskyism?

A

Opposition to Stalinism, international revolution skipping the bourgeois stage of history and avoiding bureaucratization

74
Q

What did Tawney support?

A

A ‘moral ideal’ with humanist and ethical socialism more important than Marx class struggle, desire for equality under Christian values

75
Q

What were the ideas of Gramsci?

A

Proletariat hegemony must challenge a capitalist one instead of any scientific determinism

76
Q

What were the ideas of Marcuse?

A

Idea of society as absorber of debate leading to repression, therefore repressed like females and gays must force a more developed world under Marxist revolution idea, Eros and Civilisation (1958)

77
Q

What are the supporting ideas of ethical socialism?

A

Humans are more ethical and caring for one another than the materialistic and class hatred nature of Marx, based on Christianity

78
Q

Tawney in The Acquisitive Society (1921) on ethics

A

‘Sin of avarice’ to be replaced with ‘common humanity’

79
Q

Example of religious ethical socialism

A

Roman Catholic bishops meeting in Colombia in 1968 to call for a ‘preferential option for the poor’

80
Q

2 sides of social justice

A

Equality and collective ownership of wealth against the rights support of market efficiency and self-reliance

81
Q

How did Bernstein come to reject Marx?

A

Historical materialism had proved to be wrong as society had become more complex with middle class between the ‘two great classes’, joint stock companies sharing means of production around and democracy leading to some worker protections

82
Q

Key wording of Clause IV

A

The common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange

83
Q

Examples of failures of planning

A

Swedish Social Democratic Labour Party formally abandoning planning in 30s, as did SDP in West Germany in 1959 with ‘competition when possibly; planning when necessary’

84
Q

3 tenets of social democracy

A

Mixed economy, economic management of Keynes and welfare state (humanist)

85
Q

Ideas of Crosland in The Future of Socialism (1956)

A

Managerialism with divide between worker and owner in terms of a manager who seeks to mediate tensions and advertise the company as peaceful, leading to need for more emphasis on social justice than conflict

86
Q

Why did social democracy fail in the 70s and 80s?

A

Mix of higher want for welfare and less tax revenues, both due to unemployment and weak economies

87
Q

Anthony Giddens on the state

A

Cybernetic model where the state is the brain and principal agent of change, decreased with New Left in potency

88
Q

Terms for Third Way

A

Radical center, active center and Neue Mitte

89
Q

What is the top-down approach of old socialism replaced with in the Third Way?

A

Belief in ‘a dynamic market economy’ (Clause IV) and support of knowledge economy where knowledge is the source of productivity

90
Q

How does the Third Way tackle fraternity?

A

Support of communitarian liberalism such as Blair Project, similar to modern liberals with balance of rights and responsibilities, where inter-dependence is supported alongside individualism to avoid immorality of free market

91
Q

How does the Third Way tackle class conflict?

A

It sees the system as more one of harmony, more non-dualistic where both sides of the coin are supported, such as enterprise and fairness, often seen as one class system than two

92
Q

How does the Third Way tackle welfare?

A

Support for social inclusion, where aid is given most to those at the bottom who need it as well as those who are willing to work (workfare) with importance of self-reliance

93
Q

How does the Third Way tackle the role overall of the state?

A

Competition state, where state attempts to aid society through making it more productivity and better within markets, based on ideas of knowledge economy, so education is placed above welfare

94
Q

Why are international companies worrying and not so for socialists?

A

They lead to inability of national Keynesianism (with pressures put on governments to drop taxes) but Marx pointed capitalism out as an international evil which would lead it to ‘conquer the whole Earth for its market’

95
Q

Immanuel Wallerstein (70s) on capitalism

A

Core nations of developed North exploit those in periphery South with them having same issues as proletariat, so anti-capitalism may be new-born socialism

96
Q

Rousseau on human nature

A

‘Nobility’ idea is based upon the previous nature of man hundreds of years ago, a brand of utopian socialism

97
Q

Proudhon on common ownership

A

As an early utopian he saw ‘all property is theft’ and that property is no natural right as it is a ‘creation of something out of nothing’ - human industry is more important

98
Q

Rousseau on mankind and equality

A

‘Man is born free and everywhere is in chains’ taken as man has great potential but the vices of inequality and background hold them back

99
Q

3 tenets of Marx

A

German idealism (derived Hegel), French socialism (utopian Rousseau ideals on property but scientific methods taken instead of altruism of humankind) and English political economy (Smith’s competitive exchange to labour value)

100
Q

What did Marx say the proletariat would be able to overcome?

A

False consciousness, or the idea of supporting capitalism

101
Q

Nicolas Poulantaz (1936-79) on state

A

State takes semi-autonomous role where it attempts to reproduce capitalist system, similar to late Marx works

102
Q

Lenin on capitalism in communism

A

Best parts shall be taken so that structure of revolutionary order can be stable, rejected harshly by anarchists

103
Q

Stalin on bureaucratic methods

A

‘Administrators of historical necessity’ to take control with ‘production for the sake of the plan’

104
Q

2 wings of Labour postwar

A

Bevanites and Gaiskellite

105
Q

Sympathetic critics of Third Way

A

Seen as more ethical socialism of past or perhaps managerial consensus style politics

106
Q

Philosophers of Third Way communitarianism

A

Etzioni and Selznick and Hutton (stakeholder society with mutuality of rights)

107
Q

Example of New Labour redistribution and social justice

A

Means-testing of welfare in order to give to the poorest and minimum wage in 1998

108
Q

Marx on history overall

A

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle

109
Q

Example of unorthodox socialists and their views

A

Daniel Ricardo - idea of class struggle as a fight over limited resources such as land (pre-industrial)

110
Q

Term for collectivism with government rule

A

Bureaucratic socialism

111
Q

Ethical socialists on social justice

A

Seen immoral to not offer services just due to poverty ie healthcare

112
Q

Conservative criticism of social justice

A

Seen as a metaphysical or abstract concept that cannot be reached

113
Q

How did Bernstein see democratic socialism as working in practice?

A

Socialists winning on the coat-tails of liberals before taking over

114
Q

How is the state seen in social democracy?

A

A powerful tool for good, regulator of economic and social matters inside of borders

115
Q

What is the Third Way overall?

A

A plan for more popular policies in order for electability

116
Q

Welfare criticism of Third Way

A

Responsibility deficit

117
Q

Example of community UK

A

4,000 homes for rough sleepers put forward in 2017 Labour Manifesto - for all

118
Q

Example of cooperation UK

A

2017 Labour Manifesto ‘double co-operative sector’ and new National Investment Bank to facilitate such enterprises

119
Q

Example of political equality UK

A

2017 Labour Manifesto plan to further 2010 Equality Act for those with disabilities

120
Q

Example of class politics UK

A

2017 Labour Manifesto pledge to repeal Trade Union Act and begin sectorial collective bargaining

121
Q

Example of equality of opportunity UK

A

2017 Labour Manifesto plan to introduce new school funding formula to redress issue of underfunding in certain areas

122
Q

Example of common ownership UK

A

Labour 2017 Manifesto nationalization of rail services and water companies

123
Q

Example of ethical socialism UK

A

Importance of social justice in ethical socialism paralleled by calls in Manifesto 2017 of Labour for building ‘human rights and social justice into trade policy’ with Brexit

124
Q

Example of mixed economy UK (SD)

A

2017 Labour Manifesto continuation of £200bn spending on private sector procurement

125
Q

Example of economic management UK (SD)

A

2017 Labour Manifesto £250bn invested by new National Transformation Fund

126
Q

Example of welfare state UK (SD)

A

2017 Labour Manifesto call for ‘dignity for those who cannot work’ with Housing Benefit brought back for under-21s

127
Q

Example of knowledge economy UK

A

Blair March 2000 speech about knowledge economy with announcement of 1000 IT learning centres opening in 2001 - preparing country for future tech

128
Q

Example of competition state UK

A

Labour 1997 Manifesto ‘education will be our number one priority’