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Socialism, Collectivism: Human nature
Collectivism is rooted in the…
Socialism
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Human nature
- Views human nature very positively and regards progress and human development as natural
- Human nature is malleable and shaped by experiences
- Cooperative social life is seen as the natural condition of human nature
The state
- Revolutionary socialists see the state in a capitalist system as an instrument of oppression supporting the ruling, but the state will 'wither away' in a post-revolutionary society
- Evolutionary socialists (social democrats and Third Way supporters) see the state in a capitalist system as having the potential to intervene in all aspects of life to create a fair and equitable society
Society
- All socialists believe social interaction is natural to humans - that 'no man is an island entire unto himself'
- Therefore they address the needs of the group before the individual
- All socialists see society as currently unfair and unequal towards different classes, with the most exploited in society being the working class
- This inequality leads to revolutionary socialists to call for a radical and fundamental shift in how society is run, whereas evolutionary socialists believe society can be changed incrementally
Economy
- Revolutionary socialists call for wealth created by the economy to be equally distributed and owned commonly, rather than privately, and therefore support the abolition of the capitalist economic system
- Evolutionary socialists are less hostile towards capitalism, believing it can be reformed and/or harnessed to work for the good of all in society
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- Socialism emerged as an attempt to find an alternative to capitalism, seeking to find a more humane economic system
- It it often seen as the ideology of the working classes, as it seeks to reduce or remove class divisions in society
Collectivism: Human nature
- Collectivism is rooted in the socialist view of human nature, which argues humans are social animals and prefer to live in social groups than alone
- Humans have the capacity for collective action and can work together in order to achieve their goals
-They are tied together by the bonds of fraternity
- Socialists argue human nature is moulded by social conditions - people can only be defined or understood in terms of the social groups they belong to
- Socialists believe membership of a community or society offers humans true freedom and fulfilment
Collectivism: The state
- Most socialists call for some form of state intervention and state planning to promote collectivist goals and ensure that the distribution of goods and services is not left to free-market forces
- The pursuit of collectivism is seen to to involve the growth of the state, the expansion of state services and responsibilities and increased state spending
- Marxists and state socialists advocate collective action through a centralised state that organises all production or distribution (eg in the USSR after 1929, most industries were nationalised and all agricultural land was collectivised to transform the state into a modern industrial society)
- Moderate socialists who accept some degree of free-market capitalism in the economy pursue collectivism in a more limited way - eg the 1945-51 Labour government nationalised key industries eg coal, electricity, iron, but much of the economy remained private
Socialist collectivism
Housing: Subsidised homes provided by local government
Education: State-run school system, which is free and available to everyone
Healthcare: National health service, funded from general taxation, provides free care based on need
Collectivism criticisms
- Because collectivism emphasises group action and common interests, it suppresses human individuality and diversity
- As collectivist objectives can only really be advanced through agency of the state, it leads to the growth of arbitrary state power and the erosion of individual freedoms
Disagreements on equality
- Marxists and communists believe in total equality whereby private property is abolished and the state distributes everything according to needs - there is common ownership, the means of production are owned commonly, so everyone benefits from the wealth of society
- Social democrats however believe in the reduction of inequality through progressive taxation and welfare - they do not wish to destroy capitalism but only limit it
- Marxists would reject equality of opportunity, suggesting it does not address the fundamental inequalities created by capitalism
- Opponents of social equality argue that treating everyone in the same way fails to recognise the difference in talents and efforts amongst people - by rewarding everyone similarly, it also reduces motivation to work hard
Disagreements on social class
- Marxists view class as a division between 'capital' and the bourgeoisie, and 'labour' and the proletariat
- Marxist socialists believe these two classes will always come into conflict as they want opposing outcomes
- Eventually, this conflict will result in a revolution in which the proletariat overthrow the bourgeoisie, leading to the establishment of a classless communist society
- Social democrats however focus more on the differences in opportunity and wealth between the middle classes and the working classes, stressing the need to reduce the differences and wealth gap between the two groups for the good of society
- Since the 1970s, the decline in the traditional working class professions has led to less people feeling as if they are working class
- This lack of identification with socialism has resulted in socialist parties having to appeal to the middle classes for electoral support, in many cases moving away from the core principles of socialism
- The creation of New Labour in the 1990s is an example of this
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Social democracy cont.
- Bernstein argued capitalism could be reformed and harnessed for the good of society, through state intervention such as the nationalisation of industry and the creation of legal protections for people
- This process would create both wealth and equality in society
- The theories of Keynesian economics developed as a result
- A more equal society could be created through state redistribution of wealth, so the creation of profit benefitted all involved
- Crosland believed socialism should be achieved through a democratic process because it did not need to overthrow capitalism
- He argued private property was permissible, but the state should manage the economy to ensure fairness through economic intervention - progressive taxation and nationalisation
- After 1945, social democracy appeared to triumph because it combined the economic drive of capitalism with fairness and equality without extremism
- However this success did not last, many believed the compromise between socialism and capitalism was unstable
- During economic depressions in the 1970s, the principle of wealth redistribution became criticised
- As economies began to deindustrialiase many people did not see themselves as working class - causing socialist parties eg Labour to move away from socialism to become elected in the mid-1990s
- In the early 1990s, the main communist nations of Europe collapsed and, despite the social democrats having moved away from Marxism, this led to socialist ideas being discredited