Socialism Flashcards
What are the 5 core ideas and principles of socialism?
Collectivism and community Cooperation Equality Satisfaction of needs Common ownership
What does Marx say about needs?
“From each according to his ability, from each according to his needs”
What are needs, wants, and ‘false needs’?
Needs - basic and fundamental to human existence
Wants - matter of personal judgement
False needs - capitalism translates wants into needs (Marcuse)
Why do socialists see private property as unjust?
Wealth is produced by collective endeavour not individual efforts
Property encourages materialism
Property is divisive an produces conflict between groups
What is revolutionary socialism?
Only possible to achieve socialism via an overthrow of the existing economic and political system (capitalism)
What is evolutionary socialism?
Working towards socialism through a socialist government, that would be built on the pre-existing idea of parliamentary sovereignty. The government would implement a programme of nationalisation etc
Who are the Fabians?
Named after Roman general Fabius Maximus, the Fabians advocated a gradual transformation of capitalism into socialism. This would be through a process of political action and education. They were instrumental in the creation of the Labour Party.
Why has the gradualism suggested by the Fabians failed?
Watering down of ideology to accommodate capitalism instead of seeking transformation such as the abolition of private property Working class are no longer the majority group ‘Culture of contentment’ from rising affluence
What is social democracy?
An ideological view that wishes to humanise capitalism in the interests of social justice
What is the Third Way?
Middle-ground alternative route to socialism and free-market capitalism
What are the stages of history according to Marx?
Primitive communism Slavery Feudalism Capitalism Socialism Communism
What is the ‘Theory of Surplus Value’? (Marx)
The value of a commodity is determined by the amount of labour that goes into producing it, though the worker never receives the full value of their labour because it is extracted by the bourgeoisie.
What is the ‘fetishism of commodities’? (Marx)
People view products as having inherent value, rather than understanding value as a function of the proletarian labor utilized to produce a commodity
How are workers alienated in the workplace?
They are alienated from the product of their labour as they must sell it to survive
They are alienated from one another as capitalism encourages self-interest, material acquisition and consumption as the route to happiness
Why will capitalism lead to its own destruction according to Marx?
Prone to periodic crisis
Ownership of capital would become centralised in fewer and fewer hands due to tendancy for monopolisation
Size of the proletariat would increase
