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Socialism Principle Beliefs - Coggle Diagram
Socialism Principle Beliefs
Human Nature
Socialists have an optimistic view on human nature, but contrast to Liberals as to why.
Both are ‘progressive’ ideologies
Most liberals think they are naturally self sufficient
Socialists believe that individuals are
naturally cooperative, generous and altruistic
Individuals seek
solidarity
‘No man is an island’
According to socialists, human nature has been diluted by time and circumstance
Human nature is malleable rather than fixed, opposing liberalism who believes that human nature is viewed optimistically as it is, socialists are more optimistic about what it could be.
This means that socialists believe human nature can be adjusted, ensuring men and women can fulfil their potential contributing to a cooperative community.
Socialists believe that in order to understand human nature, a clear understanding of society is required.
Tensions
All socialists believe that human nature is malleable- not permanent.
Marx
believes it is especially susceptible to whichever economic system it lives under.
People suffer a 'false consciousness' that can be cured only by revolution and authoritarian rule.
Revisionists like
Giddens
human nature can prosper under capitalism still appreciating the core beliefs of fraternity, collectivism and cooperation.
Society
Unlike liberalism, socialism focuses more on the individual’s social environment on determining human nature.
Liberals see society as the sum of autonomous individuals,
socialists view individuals as the product of the society
into which they were born
In keeping faith in human potential, socialists argue if society can be improved, there will be improvement on the prospects of individuals.
Socialists argue in order to prescribe a better society we must first diagnose the society we have today, where the importance of
class
to socialism is addressed.
Marx and Engels
alongside more modern socialists thinkers like
Crosland
noted society’s classes tend to be profoundly unequal.
Power and influence differs between classes.
Individuals in some sections of society will have more opportunities to exploit their potential than individuals in other sections of society.
Class defines an individual’s circumstances, prospects and attitudes. It denotes a certain type of employment, while indicating status and wealth within society.
Class was the major consequence of the industrial revolution, based primarily on employment and an indivdual’s source of income.
Socialists believe that class is central tot he determination of their fate, contrary to the liberal view of individuals as autonomous carving out their own identities.
Socialists argue the
forms of equality
liberals praise (foundational equality, formal quality and equality of opportunity for social justice) are
meaningless
without greater equality of outcome.
A greater equality of outcome will produce a greater equality of opportunity.
Socialists seek to narrow the gap between society’s social groups, irrespective of character, ability and intelligence, an individual born into lower classes have fewer opportunities.
Until a society which allows for greater equality of outcome, the noble objectives of the Enlightenment and liberalism will never be realised.
Socialists disagree with the likes of Rawls and DIsraeli who say to focus only on the poor to improve the condition of society, but unless a narrowing of the gap between social class, society will lack fraternity, cooperation and solidarity.
Otherwise, society will nurture qualities of greed, envy, resentment and
division
Equality of outcome is represented by socialists’ economic perspectives.
Society is an independent construct of the economy (
Marx and Engels
)
Society is determined by the distribution and determination of the means of production
This means by implication, the economy has a crucial impact on human nature.
If they are a product of only economic forces, socialists disagree with classic liberals who believe individuals are the product of their own destiny.
Tensions
All socialists see the social environment as the determinant of our personalities.
Socialists disagree with how society is improved, gradually or radically.
Marx
believes in 'shock therapy'
Other fundamentalists like Webb believe it can be improved gradually through social reform curtailing private ownership.
Revisionists like
Giddens
and
Crosland
argue society can be improved alongside private property and capitalism.
The Economy
Socialists have always recognised that an economic system based on private propoerty and capitalism can be hugely problematic.
The attributes of human nature are threaded by private property and capitalism which are said to encourage competitiveness, ruthless egotism, and callous pursuit of self-interest.
Free market capitalism generates huge inequalities of outcome, incompatible with equality of opportunity, self-determination and social justice.
Socialists seek to rectify the problems caused by capitalism by championing workers’ control in employment with a
redistribution of wealth
and resources.
‘Redistributionist doctrine’ , practising what Tony Benn described as the ‘politics of Robin Hood’
This involves two key principles:
Emphatic rejection of the lassez-faire capitalism advocated by classic and neoliberalism
Greater collectivism where the economy focuses on the needs of the society as w hole, opposed to merely enterprising individuals.
Economic collectivism can take various forms:
Progressive taxation
Progressive public spending
Extensive public services
Extensive state regulation
Common ownership (
Webb
controversial in a more collectivist economy , but nationalisation of industries like coal and steel gives effect)
Economic collectivism is an expression of a more cooperative society.
Economic collectivist policies are though to make the economy more efficient as
Marx and Engels
capitalism and market forces are inherently volatile.
Tensions
Fundamentalist socialists believe socialism is incompatible with a capitalist economy.
Revisionists believe that socialism is possible within a capitalist economy.
Social democrat revisionists like
Crosland
believe the economy should be mixed following Keynesian lines by governments.
Third way socialists like
Giddens
believe the economy should be neo-liberal, privatised and deregulated, producing greater tax yield thus more public spending.
The Role of The State
Socialists and anarchists shared core values such as collectivism and equality.
However, socialism advocates for a strong state, differing from anarchism.
Socialists argue that without a state it is impossible to bring about a fairer society, as well as a redistribution of wealth and greater social justice.
Marx
argues the state will eventually wither away, but all socialists agree that for the foreseeable future, a strong state is essential.
But it must be a different state to the one that preceded the Enlightenment.
Socialists reject the monarchical state, the theocratic state, the aristocratic state, advocating one where political power, as well as economic power, is redistributed and where decisions making reflect the principle of equality and an ‘empowerment of the people’.
Socialists agree the
state should be extensive
Socialisst contest any reduction of state power which would produce increased social and economic inequality.
There are differences about the structure of the ideal state between socialists, and the central of it and its emergence.
Tensions
State is vital to the promotion of core socialist values.
Marx
and orthodox communists believe in the demolition of the capitalist state, replaced by dictatorship of the proletariat, which would wither away to produce stateless communism.
Democratic socialists like Webb and revisionists like Crosland and Giddens believe the state can be used to promote socialist values and the traditional state requires constitutional reform not abolition.