Socialism - Key thinkers - final

Question 1

When was The Communist Manifesto published?

Answer 1

1848

Question 2

When was Das Kapital published?

Answer 2

1867

Question 3

What were Marx and Engels the first socialist thinkers to do?

Answer 3

Offer an analysis of how humans were social and economic beings.

Question 4

What did Marx and Engels consider to be capitalism’s impact on human nature?

Answer 4

Turning us into selfish, ruthless, and greedy individuals.

Question 5

What were capitalist societies inherently like according to Marx and Engels?

Answer 5

Unstable

Question 6

What would capitalism’s inherent instability inevitably lead to according to Marx and Engels?

Answer 6

An ‘historically inevitable’ proletarian revolution.

Question 7

What did Marx and Engels believe capitalism planted in workers?

Answer 7

The seeds of its own destruction.

Question 8

How did Marx and Engels view the state?

Answer 8

As serving the interests of the ruling bourgeoisie, and could therefore never provide socialism.

Question 9

What new state would arise. according to Marx and Engels, once the capitalist one had been overthrown?

Answer 9

The dictatorship of the proletariat.

Question 10

Once the alternative state had been formed, what did Marx and Engels believe would eventually happen?

Answer 10

That it would ‘wither away’ and a communist, stateless society would mark the ‘end of history’.

Question 11

What sort of society would a communist one be?

Answer 11

A stateless one.

Question 12

What principle would govern a communist society?

Answer 12

‘from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.’

Question 13

Whose ideas did Rosa Luxemburg seek to uphold and develop?

Answer 13

Marx and Engels

Question 14

What did Marx believe must happen before revolution could occur?

Answer 14

Advanced stage capitalism - his version of historicism.

Question 15

How did Luxemburg envisage revolution coming about and whose ideas did this go against?

Answer 15

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.

Question 16

What two ideas of Lenin did Luxemburg reject?

Answer 16

• The need for a planned revolution.

- Socialist nationalism.

Question 17

How did Beatrice Webb believe poverty and inequality should be eliminated?

Answer 17

Vigorous trade unionism and extensive state intervention.

Question 18

What sort of socialist was Beatrice Webb?

Answer 18

Democratic socialist

Question 19

What sort of socialist was Rosa Luxemburg?

Answer 19

Marxism-Leninism (orthodox)

Question 20

What belief did Beatrice Webb help to develop?

Answer 20

The inevitability of gradualism

Question 21

What did Webb help to draft?

Answer 21

Clause IV of Labour’s constitution.

Question 22

When was Labour’s constitution published?

Answer 22

1918

Question 23

What is Anthony Crosland’s seminal work?

Answer 23

The Future of Socialism (1956)

Question 24

What sort of socialist was Anthony Crosland?

Answer 24

Social democrat

Question 25

What sort of socialist were Marx and Engels?

Answer 25

Classical Marxist

Question 26

What did Crosland say about public ownership and socialism?

Answer 26

That it was never the aim of socialism but the method of achieving it.

Question 27

What did Crosland claim was the true objective of socialism?

Answer 27

Equality

Question 28

How did Crosland believe the true objective of socialism could be achieved?

Answer 28

Through a state-managed capitalist economy.

Question 29

What did Crosland believe Keynesian economics had done?

Answer 29

Changed capitalism for ever, creating state-managed economies that would enjoy economic growth and full employment.

Question 30

What did Crosland believe constant economic growth under Keynesian capitalism would lead to?

Answer 30

An expansion of the welfare state and therefore the diminishing of inequality - in other words, socialism.

Question 31

What sort of economy did Anthony Crosland favour?

Answer 31

A mixed economy comprising private ownership alongside key services and industries provided by the state.

Question 32

For Crosland, what was the future task of socialist governments?

Answer 32

Not public ownership but more public spending and better public services.

Question 33

What did Anthony Giddens argue in his seminal work?

Answer 33

That capitalism was 'corrosive' but also irreversible, and any form of socialism would have to take account of this.

Question 34

What was Anthony Giddens' seminal work?

Answer 34

Beyond Left and Right

Question 35

When was Giddens' seminal work published?

Answer 35

1994

Question 36

What sort of socialist is Anthony Giddens?

Answer 36

Revisionist, social democrat

Question 37

What sort of economy did Giddens favour?

Answer 37

A free-market economy without the sort of state intervention argued for by Crosland.

Question 38

Why did Giddens want to allow inequality of outcome?

Answer 38

Because it would drive economic growth, in turn generating greater tax revenue for socialist governments to then use to promote more equality of opportunity through public services.