Socialism - Key thinkers - final Flashcards
When was The Communist Manifesto published?
1848
When was Das Kapital published?
1867
What were Marx and Engels the first socialist thinkers to do?
Offer an analysis of how humans were social and economic beings.
What did Marx and Engels consider to be capitalism’s impact on human nature?
Turning us into selfish, ruthless, and greedy individuals.
What were capitalist societies inherently like according to Marx and Engels?
Unstable
What would capitalism’s inherent instability inevitably lead to according to Marx and Engels?
An ‘historically inevitable’ proletarian revolution.
What did Marx and Engels believe capitalism planted in workers?
The seeds of its own destruction.
How did Marx and Engels view the state?
As serving the interests of the ruling bourgeoisie, and could therefore never provide socialism.
What new state would arise. according to Marx and Engels, once the capitalist one had been overthrown?
The dictatorship of the proletariat.
Once the alternative state had been formed, what did Marx and Engels believe would eventually happen?
That it would ‘wither away’ and a communist, stateless society would mark the ‘end of history’.
What sort of society would a communist one be?
A stateless one.
What principle would govern a communist society?
‘from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.’
Whose ideas did Rosa Luxemburg seek to uphold and develop?
Marx and Engels
What did Marx believe must happen before revolution could occur?
Advanced stage capitalism - his version of historicism.
How did Luxemburg envisage revolution coming about and whose ideas did this go against?
She believe the proletarian revolution would arise ‘spontaneously’ which contradicted Lenin’s belief that revolution would occur only through planning and leadership by a revolutionary elite.
