Socialism

Question 1

Socialism emerged in the 19th century as a response to

Answer 1

The socioeconomic conditions created by industrial capitalism

Question 2

Influenced by the ideas of Charles Fourier and Robert Owen

Answer 2

Advocated for utopian working class communities based on co-operation

Question 3

Marx and

Answer 3

Engels had a more in depth critique

Question 4

5 core values of socialism

fabregas C

Answer 4

Community
Equality 
Social Class
Co-operation
Common Ownership

Question 5

Community

Answer 5

Humans are social beings who have the capacity for collective action , they are willing and able to peruse goals by working together , rather than striving for their own self intrest

Question 6

Co-operation

Answer 6

Co-operation makes moral and economic sense

Individuals who work together will develop bonds of solidarity and mutual aid , thus harnessing energies of the whole communities

Question 7

Equality

Answer 7

Defined as equality of OUTCOME

Formal equality is inadequate , it fails to address the structural and material inequalities of capitalistic society

Question 8

Social Class

Answer 8

Most politically significant of social divisions

The working class would provide the organisational vehicle through which socialism would be achieved

Question 9

Common or social ownership

Answer 9

Concerned with ownership of the “means for production” rather than personal belongings

Question 10

Revolutionary Road to capitalism

Answer 10

Socialism can only be achieved by the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism

October revolution provided a template for revolutionary socialists

KEY CLAIM: The state is an agent of class oppression acting in the interests of capital against labour

So, parliamentary democracy is a “Bourgeois Democracy” and needed to be replaced by a “Dictatorship of the proletariat

Question 11

The evolutionary road to socialism

Answer 11

latter half of the 19th century, the growth of trade unions and working class political parties provided greater economic security.

As the franchise was extended to working class men, West European socialists sought to achieve their goals through legal, political and constitutional means

By 1914 the socialist divided into democratic socialists and revolutionary socialists

Question 12

Revolutionary socialism has 3 strands

Answer 12

Classical Marxism
Marxism - Leninism
Neo-Marxism

Question 13

Classical Marxism

Answer 13

Based on philosophy of history that outlines why capitalism is doomed and why socialism is destined to replace it

Marx’s approach was distinguished from that of other socialists by
• his materialistic conception of history
• his theory of historical change

Question 14

Historical materialism

Answer 14

• Material factors are fundamental to historical development
• Economic factors determine the political, legal, cultural and intellectual aspects of social life , hence changes to the economic mode of production will generate social political and intellectual changes
• change is driven by the internal contradictions (conflicts) that emerge during each historical period

Question 15

Historical materialism 2

Answer 15

• Class conflict is the engine of historical change
• dialect is a conflict between a thesis , and antithesis and a synthesis
• the transition from feudalism to capitalism can be explained by the emergence of new modes of production and the rise of a new merchant class
• capitalism creates its own antithesis (the industrial working class) and following the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism , the dictatorship of the proletariat will be established

Question 16

Marxism - Leninism

Answer 16

• the character and direction of communism was shaped primarily by the Russian revolution of 1917
• When the Bolsheviks seized power, they did so as a vanguard party in the name of the working class
• If the Bolsheviks we’re acting in the true intrests of the workers then any opposition must represent the intrests or classes hostile to the proletariat , therefore the revolution needed protection from its class enemies
• By 1920 the distinction between the party and state and between state and society had been largely obliterated in Soviet Russia
• Under the banner of orthodox Marxism - Leninism , the communist party was invested with a monopoly of political power and ideological authority

Question 17

Neo Marxism

Answer 17

Two principle factors shaped the character of neo Marxism

1. the continuing existence of capitalism led to reexamination of Marx’s theory: human beings came to be seen as agents of historical change , not the products of their environment
2. Opposition to the Bolshevik model of orthodox communism

This re-evaluation gave way to the new left in the 1960’s and 1970’s
Influences: the work of the young Marx on human alienation and anarchist and social libertarian thinking
•the new left rejected soviet style state socialism and western social democracy
• Common themes included a disillusionment with the working class as the agent of revolutionary change along with issues surrounding identity