Socialist Thinkers: State Flashcards
Giddens on the size of the state
Smallest state in accordance with his ‘Third Way’ thinking in which welfare should be restructured to give people a ‘hand-up, not a hand-out’; this is rooted in his criticisms of the leftist approach to welfare policy, with emphasis on universality and recipients claiming something for nothing.
Marx on the size of the state
No state because in the post-capitalist society, the state “withers away” as humans become prone to want the common good rather than the individual good. Therefore, the social institution of a state will eventually become obsolete and disappear as society will be able to govern itself without the state and its coercive enforcement of the law.
Webb on the size of the state
Large technocratic state as “we have little faith in the ‘average sensual man’ (i.e. the worker) and so a technocratic (highly skilled and trained) elite can be shaped to prioritise the common good; this is something which is in the interests of the proletariat.
Crosland on the role of the state
State managed Capitalism; Crosland’s proposal of a more egalitarian society depended on the state spending high levels on welfare services and the redistribution of income and wealth.
Giddens on the role of the state
Rejection of state intervention. The ‘left-should get comfortable with markets’ because the free-market economy was not only the most efficient system of production but also encouraged desirable personal qualities such as responsibility.
Webb on the role of the state
Expanded state role as she believed that an incremental approach to change on the basis of socialist principles is preferable to the bloodshed and chaos implied by far-left revolutionaries like Marx and Lenin. Therefore, she firmly believed that the risk of blood and tears could be avoided when a technocratic elite was allowed to “impregnate all the existing forces of society”
Marx and Luxemburg on criticisms of the state
The state would always serve the interests of whichever class controlled the economy. Consequently, the liberal state was ‘merely a committee’ for the ruling capitalist class and could therefore never provide an evolutionary road to socialism. Therefore, it must be destroyed by revolution and replaced with a dictatorship of the proletariat, before it withers away.
Giddens on criticisms of the state
The state should operate in a system of mainly private ownership this was the best way to generate sustained economic growth. He also argued that survival of social democracy requires recognition that free-market capitalism had an unmatched capacity to empower individuals economically. However, he also argued that capitalism functioned best when there was a strong sense of social cohesion.
