13.5: Socialism

Socialism was a specific historical phenomenon born out of two related factors: the social disorder that occurred with the French Revolution and the growth of industrial capitalism. It sought to address both the economic repercussions of the industrial revolution, especially in terms of the living conditions of workers, and to provide a new moral order for modern society.

Created in 1834, the movement was more about ethics than economics. The opposite of individualism and egoism, socialism proposed a new and better moral order, where the members of a society would care not only for themselves but for one another.

By the middle of the 19th century, the word socialism came to be used more widely to describe several different movements. A more economic definition developed: Material goods should be held in common, and producers should keep the fruits of their labor to promote a better, happier, more healthy community. Now, the concept straddled moral and social disintegration, as well as industrialization and economics.

Until 1848, socialism consisted of movements that shared a concern with the plight of working people and the regrowth of social bonds. This kind of socialism was fundamentally optimistic – early socialists thought that almost everyone in European society would eventually become a socialist once they realized its potential. This kind of socialism is often referred to as "utopian socialism."

After 1848, socialism was increasingly militant. Socialists realized that a major restructuring of society could not happen peacefully, given the strength of both conservative and liberal opposition. The most important militant socialism was Marxism, named after its creator Karl Marx. (See Chapter 13.3 and below.)

Three early socialist movements stand out as examples of so-called "utopian" socialism:

• Saint-Simonians--called egoism, the selfish pursuit of individual wealth, “the deepest wound of modern society”; were mostly highly educated young elites in France; the first "technocrats," people who believe that technology can solve any problem
• Owenites--believed that productivity was tied to happiness; created a number of cooperative, communalist “utopian” communities (many in the United States)
• Fourierists--believed that 810 specific kinds of personalities existed in the world; if 1,620 people (one man and one woman of each type) came together in a community, and each did the kind of work they "should" do, perfect happiness became possible

Figure 3.8.1: Illustration of a Fouriest phalanx (community). The heading simply reads “The Future.”

In general, the broad “Utopian” socialism of the 1840s was peaceful in orientation, democratic, believed in the “right” to work, and hoped that the higher orders might join it.

In 1848, from Paris to Vienna to Prague, Europeans rose up and, temporarily as it turned out, overthrew their monarchs. In the end, however, the revolutions collapsed. The awkward coalitions of socialists and other rebels soon fell to infighting, and kings eventually reasserted control. As a result of the revolutions, socialism became increasingly militant, focused on the necessity of confrontational tactics, even outright violence, to achieve a better society. Two post-Utopian and rival forms of socialist theory matured in this period: state socialism and anarchist socialism.

• State socialism believed that social reform had to come from above. It was unrealistic to imagine that groups could somehow spontaneously organize themselves into self-sustaining, harmonious units. One method of reform could come through universal manhood suffrage, which would lead to a government capable of implementing necessary economic changes, primarily by guaranteeing work for all citizens.
• In stark contrast was anarchist socialism. (Anarchism means the rejection of the state, not the rejection of all forms of social organization or even hierarchy.) There were two major thinkers: the French Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and the Russian Mikhail Bakunin. Both discussed the importance of cooperatives of workers but differed on whether a violent revolution was needed.

In the end, the most influential socialist was a German: Karl Marx. You learned about his connections to communism in Chapter 13.3.

Figure 3.8.2: The best-known portrait of Marx, dating from 1875.

According to Marx, history is a story of class struggle. From ancient pharaohs to feudal kings and their nobles, the rich and powerful had always abused and exploited the poor and weak. This struggle was between two main groups: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The bourgeoisie were the rising middle classes, the owners of factories and businesses, the bankers, and all of those with direct control over industrial production. The proletariat was the industrial working class.

In the pre-modern era, workers generally had direct access to their livelihood: a small parcel of land, access to the common lands, the tools of their trade in the case of artisans. In the modern era, those rights and those tools were systematically taken away. The common lands were closed off and replaced with commercial farms. Artisans were rendered obsolete by the growth of industry. Peasants were pushed off the land or owned plots so small their children had to look for work in the cities. The net effect was workers had "nothing to sell but their labor".

At the same time, the people who did own property, "the bourgeoisie," were under pressure themselves. In the climate of the new capitalism, of unregulated markets and cutthroat competition, it was easy to fall behind and go out of business. Thus, former members of the bourgeoisie became proletarians themselves.

Meanwhile, industry produced more and more products. Eventually, there was simply too much out there and not enough people who could afford to buy it. This resulted in a "crisis of overproduction" and a massive economic collapse. Thanks to the Industrial Revolution, products need consumers more than consumers need products.

In the midst of one of these collapses, the proletariat could realize their common interests in seizing the unprecedented wealth that industrialism had made possible and using it for the common good. Instead of a handful of super-rich bourgeoisie, everyone could share in material comfort and freedom from scarcity, something that had never been possible before. According to Marx, given the inherent tendencies of capitalism, a revolution was inevitable. In turn, revolutions did happen, most spectacularly in 1848.

After the revolutions of 1848 failed, Marx shifted his attention away from revolution and towards the inner working of capitalism itself. In fact, his great work Capital is a vast and incredibly detailed study of how England’s capitalist economy worked and what it did to the people “within” it.

In some of his writings, Marx indicated that the proletariat would revolt spontaneously, without guidance from anyone else. In the second section of his early work The Communist Manifesto, he alluded to the existence of a political party, the communists, who would work to help coordinate and aid the proletariat in the revolutionary process. Toward the end of his life, Marx was increasingly worried that socialists, including self-styled Marxists, would try to stage a revolution “too early” and it would fail or result in disaster.

In sum, Marx did not leave a clear picture of what socialists were supposed to do, politically, nor did he describe how a socialist state would work if a revolution was successful. After his death, socialist revolutions were successful, and those nations had to try to figure out how to govern in a socialistic way. However, these stories are part of the World History B course.