Socialism- The State Flashcards
What do all socialists say about the state
They all see a greater role for the state in engineering a more equal society and managing the harmful effects of capitalism.
What do fundamentalist socialists like Marx and Luxembourg believe about the state
They said that the existing capitalist state existed entirely to support the dominant bourgeois class, and that it must be overthrown and replaced by a new socialist state: the dictatorship of the proletariat.
How did Luxembourg think this could be achieved, and how did she differ from Marx
Luxembourg’s “dialectic spontaneity” said that the state would be overthrown by people with a class-consciousness, who were naturally aware of the evils of the bourgeois state.
Unlike Marx, she thought the new state shouldn’t be a dictatorship, but a genuine democracy. Hence why she didn’t like USSR
What to do evolutionary socialists like Webb think of the state
Webb spoke of the “inevitability of gradualism”, that if tied to universal suffrage, the existing state could be used to effect a gradual change to socialism
What did Webb think of the nature of the state
Unlike Marx, Webb thought that the state was neutral, and that elected experts, guided by the moral aims of socialism, could run the state in the interests of the workers
What do SDs like crossland think about the state
Rather than overthrowing it completely(Marx) or using it to effect a gradual change to socialism (Webb), the state could reform capitalism.
How did crossland think that the state could reform capitalism
With a mixed economy, keynsian economics and the welfare state. The societal goods provided by these methods would allow the state to run public services of such high quality, there would be no differences w/ private sector
What do 3rd way socialists think about the state
Influenced by the neo-lib economics of the thatcher era, giddens argued for a “market state”, which would act as a facilitator of growth
What did society need instead of a welfare state?
A “social investment state”, that provided positive welfare (hand up not hand out”), that invests in human capital and creates jobs
