Choose your Socialism!
Utopian
Marxist
Democratic Socialist
The Socialist Struggle
Obstacles:
Class divisions,
Economic inequalities,
Unequal life chances
False consciousness
Agent:
Common working
People
Goal:
Fulfillment of
Human needs such
As satisfying work,
Fair share of production
Utopian (Eu-Topia) Socialism
• Defined:
1. Idealistic schemes
to create perfect
societies, often
literary or
experimental
• A phrase used by
Marx and Engels to
criticize precursors to
their ideology
It’s a Small World, After All!
Utopian Socialist Ideas
• The Classic: Plato’s Republic: A Society composed of
Guardians, Soldiers, and everyone else. The wisest
become the rulers
• Thomas More (1478-1535): Utopia: Communal
ownership
• The Diggers (early 1600s): God created the earth for all
people to share in common.
• August Comte (early 19th century): Apply science to
society-technocratic control.
• Robert Owen (early 19th century): A benevolent textile
factory owner—New Lanark, Scotland with shorter
working hours, child labor laws, health insurance, etc..
• Small self-sufficient communities –cooperative
production for public profit, created New Harmony,
Indiana which ultimately failed
Communism
• : a totalitarian system
of government in
which a single
authoritarian party
controls state-owned
means of production
Source: Merriam-Webster’s
•
Historical Materialism: Marx’s Materialist Interpretation of History
Ideological Superstructure: morality,
Law, religion, ‘false consciousness’
Organization of society
around work: division
Of labor
Technology
Tools
Raw materials
etc
Ideas
Social Relations
Of Production
Material Forces
of Production
The Dialectic in
Motion…Forced to be Free…!
Marx’s Theory of Dialectical
Materialism: History is a clash
of forms that lead ultimately to
revolution
Capitalism is a necessary step…
• The opiate of the people:
religion (communist
ideology is atheistic)
• Capitalism is preparing
the way for communism
– Capitalism is outmoded
– Capitalism creates
alienation
• Forced to sell what they
produce, alienated from
the product of their labor
• Mass production kills
the creative spirit
• Dulled by the monotony
of industrial society
• Workers are distanced
from each other
– Capitalism is selfsubverting: inevitably
leads to monopoly
Marx on capitalism
• "Do not be deluded by the abstract word
Freedom. Whose freedom? Not the
freedom of one individual in relation to
another, but freedom of Capital to crush
the worker."
Free Trade
The Revolutionary Sequence
• The Revolutionary
Sequence: Dialectic of
bourgeoisie and
proletariat in opposition to
one another
– Economic crisis
– Immiseration of the
proletariat
– Revolutionary class
consciousness
– Seizure of State Power
– Dictatorship of the
Proletariat
– Withering away of the state
– “True” communism
• For Marx, which
countries are most
likely to experience
communist
revolution?
After the state has withered away:
Marx’s vision of communism
• In communist society, where nobody has one
exclusive sphere of activity but each can
become accomplished in any branch he wishes,
society regulates the general production and
thus makes it possible for me to do one thing
today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the
morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the
evening, criticize after dinner, just as I please,
without every becoming hunter, fisherman,
shepherd or critic.”
•
The German Ideology
Vladimir Lenin’s contribution
• Reject the utopian
aspects of Marx
– “You cannot make an
omelette without
breaking eggs”
• The Workers will not
revolt on their own
– The Communist Party must
instill class consciousness
and lead them to revolution
• The vanguard
• Imperialism is the Highest
Stage of Capitalism
(1916)
– Revolution can come from
peripheral nations that are
being immiserated by
imperialism
• (1917 Revolution)
Lenin: The Party must lead the
Revolution
• The scientific concept, dictatorship,
means neither more nor less than
unlimited power resting directly on
force, not limited by anything, not
restrained by any laws or any
absolute rules. Nothing else but that.
V.I. Lenin, A Contribution to the
History of the Question of
Dictatorship
The Influence of Stalin (Stalinism)
• The Party needs a
great leader—”Cult of
Personality
• “Socialism in one
Country” – consolidate
the revolution in the
USSR
Mao’s variant
• Embraced a practical
vision of Marxism
• Harness the peasants
rather than urban
workers
• See China itself as a
proletariat country
Democratic Socialism or Social
Democracy or Welfare Liberalism
• Socialism which is compatible with
conventional democratic processes
including competitive free elections and
the protection of civil rights.
• Fabian Philosophy: Peaceful
Parliamentary Path to Socialism
influenced the founding of the British
Labour Party
Two kinds of liberty
• Negative Liberty: freedom
from government restraint
Classical democracy
“cowboy capitalism”
• Positive Liberty: Freedom to
realize your potential as
defined by government
Democratic Socialism
“the nanny state”?
Comparative Ideologies:
Dealing with the Depression
Communists
Fascists
Capitalism doesn’t
Work
Alienation
Proletariat should
Revolt: bring in
communism
Hoover Republicans:
Hands-off policy
Roosevelt Democrats
New Deal: govt. spending
To respond to economy
Glorify nation
And Persecute
Out-groups
John Maynard Keynes and the
Great Depression
• John Maynard Keynes argued that prices and
wages are not sufficiently flexible to ensure the
full employment of resources
• Furthermore, Keynes argued that when
resources (especially labor) are not fully
employed (due to a lack of private investment
expenditures), the government could provide
offsetting expenditures as a means of stabilizing
the economy
• Thus, Keynesian economics places emphasis on
planned expenditures and all its components
Key elements of Social Democracy
• Unions: workers' self-management,
• Universal Suffrage: industrial
democracy
• Regulatory institutions: big
government
The British Labour Party
•
social justice
• strong community and strong values
• reward for hard work
• decency
• rights matched by responsibilities
From the Labour Party website
So, what do you think?
• Read the quotations. Which ones do you
agree with? Can you identify the kind of
socialism?
Socialist Quotations
What is the future of Chinese
communism?
“Reform is China's second revolution.”
Deng Xiaoping
Convergence: The End of Ideology Thesis?
Cornell Notes Questions
• For each section:
develop critical
thinking questions
(analysis, synthesis,
evaluation)
Cornell Notes: Questions
• How do socialists understand the world? What
common goals do they have?
• How did Marx draw upon the work of Hegel?
• Is Historical Materialism an accurate view of how
society works?
• How does Marx understand history? Is his
historical sequence generalizable to all
societies? Is it accurate?
• Is Marx’s theory of history valid? Why didn’t it
turn out to be true?
• What use is Marxism today?
Recall…
• The Revolutionary Sequence that leads to
communist revolution
Review of Marxism-Leninism:
Read “Socialism and Communism” More to Marx
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1.
Hegel
2.
Historical materialism
3.
Dialectical materialism
4.
Alienation
5.
Bourgeoisie :
6.
Proletariat
7.
Immiseration
8.
False consciousness
9.
Marx’s revolutionary
sequence
• 10. Lenin’s contribution to
Marx’s revolutionary
sequence: the vanguard of
the proletariat
1.
2.
3.
4.
Identification/Definition
Significance
Example
Your evaluation: strengths
and weaknesses
What use is socialism today?
• Considering the
• Write a few
different kinds of
paragraphs. Be sure
socialism, to what
to express your
extent do you believe
opinion using some
this ideology is
examples.
relevant today?
• Give examples of
situations or policies
where socialism might
provide some insight
or plan.