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Socialism refers to a broad array of doctrines, and may also refer to political movements that aspire to put these doctrines into practice. These movements generally envisage a system of social organization in which property and the distribution of income are subject to social control. As an economic system, socialism is usually associated with state or collective ownership of the means of production. This control may be either direct, exercised through popular collectives such as workers' councils, or it may be indirect, exercised on behalf of the people by the state.

The modern socialist movement had its origin largely in the working class movement of the late-19th century. In this period, the term "socialism" was first used in connection with European social critics who condemned capitalism and private property. For Karl Marx, who helped establish and define the modern socialist movement, socialism implied the abolition of markets, capital, and labor as a commodity.

It is difficult to make generalizations about the diverse array of doctrines and movements that have been referred to as "socialist." The various adherents of contemporary socialist movements do not agree on a common doctrine or program. As a result, the movement has split into different and sometimes opposing branches, particularly between moderate socialists and communists. Since the 19th century, socialists have differed in their vision of socialism as a system of economic organization. Some socialists have championed the complete nationalization of the means of production to implement their aims. Others have proposed selective nationalization of key industries within the framework of mixed economies. Stalinists insisted on the creation of Soviet-style command economies under strong central state direction. Others advocate "market socialism" in which social control of property exist within the framework of market economics and private property.

History of socialism

According to Marxists (notably Friedrich Engels), socialist models and ideas are said to be traceable to the dawn of human social history, being an inherent feature of human nature and early human social models.

Some socialist thinkers, such as William Morris, have identified John Ball, one of the leaders of the Peasants' Revolt in England in 1381, as the first socialist. Historians have rediscovered the writings of Gerrard Winstanley in the period of the English Civil War, and the commune set up by the Diggers, as they were called. During the Enlightenment in the 18th century, revolutionary thinkers and writers such as the Marquis de Condorcet, Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, Abbé de Mably, and Morelly provided the intellectual and ideological expression of the discontented social layers in French society. This included not only the bourgeoisie, at that time kept out of political power by the ancien régime, but also the "popular" classes among whom socialism would later take root. The idea of abolition of private property became popular in the early 19th century, and was influenced by new discoveries and the idea of the "noble savage", popularised by Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

The earliest modern socialist groups shared characteristics such as focusing on general welfare rather than individualism, on co-operation rather than competition, and on laborers rather than on industrial or political leaders and structures. They did not generally think in terms of class struggle, but argued that the wealthy should join with the poor in building a new society. Class struggle, the challenge to private property and the accompanying notions of the special role of the proletariat in the revolution find their earliest origins in the Conspiracy of Equals of Babeuf, an unsuccessful actor in the French Revolution. Later, they were greatly developed by the Marxist branch of socialism.

By the time of the Revolution of 1848 there were a variety of competing "socialisms", the most influential being those founded by Saint-Simon, Robert Owen and Charles Fourier. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels by this time were referring to themselves as "communists", in large part to distinguish themselves from the above ideologies, which they described as "utopian socialism". (Engels later used the term "scientific socialism" to describe Marxism.) Depending on the context, the term socialism may refer either to these ideologies or any of their many lineal descendants.

Socialism as an economic system

The term "socialism" is often used is to refer to an economic system characterized by state ownership of the means of production and distribution. In the Soviet Union, state ownership of productive property was combined with central planning. Down to the workplace level, Soviet economic planners decided what goods and services were to be produced, how they were to be produced, in what quantities, and at what prices they were to be sold (see economy of the Soviet Union). Soviet economic planning was touted as an alternative to allowing prices and production to be determined by the market through supply and demand. Especially during the Great Depression, many socialists considered Soviet-style planning a remedy to what they saw as the inherent flaws of capitalism, such as monopolies, business cycles, unemployment, vast inequalities in the distribution of wealth, and the exploitation of workers.

In the West, conservative economists such as Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman argued that socialist planned economies were doomed to failure. They argued that central planners could never match the overall information inherent in the decision-making throughout a market economy. Nor could enterprise managers in Soviet-style socialist economies match the motivation of private profit-driven entrepreneurs in a market economy.

Following the stagnation of the Soviet economy in the 1970s and 1980s, many socialists have begun to accept the critiques of state planning of Western market economists. The economist Oskar Lange, for example, was an early proponents of "market socialism."

Socialism and social and political theory

Marxist and non-Marxist social theorists have both generally agreed that socialism, as a doctrine, developed as a reaction to the rise of modern industrial capitalism, but differ sharply on the exact nature of the relationship. Émile Durkheim saw socialism as rooted in the desire simply to bring the state closer to the realm of individual activity as a response to the growing anomie of capitalist society. Max Weber saw in socialism an acceleration of the process of rationalization commenced under capitalism. Weber was a critic of socialism who warned that putting the economy under the total bureaucratic control of the state would not result in liberation but an 'iron cage of future bondage.'

Socialist intellectuals continued to retain considerable influence on European philosophy in the mid-20th century. Herbert Marcuse's 1955 Eros and Civilization was an explicit attempt to merge Marxism with Freudianism. Structuralism, widely influential in mid-20th century French academic circles, emerged as a model of the social sciences that influenced the 1960s and 1970s socialist New Left.

Criticisms of socialism

Criticisms of socialism range from disagreements over the efficiency of socialist economic and political models, to condemnation of states described by themselves or others as "socialist." Many economic liberals dispute that the more even distribution of wealth advocated by socialists can be achieved without loss of political or economic freedoms. There is much focus on the human rights records of communist states. Some critics identify these examples with socialism, while others reject the categorization of such examples as socialist.

References and further reading

• G.D.H. Cole, History of Socialist Thought, in 7 volumes, Macmillan and St. Martin's Press (1965), Palgrave Macmillan (2003 reprint); 7 volumes, hardcover, 3160 pages, ISBN 140390264X
• Friedrich Engels, The Origin Of The Family, Private Property And The State, Zurich, 1884
• Albert Fried, Ronald Sanders, eds., Socialist Thought: A Documentary History, Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor, 1964.
• Phil Gasper, The Communist Manifesto: A Road Map to History's Most Important Political Document, Haymarket Books, ISBN 1-931859-25-6 paperback, 224 pages, 2005.
• Élie Halévy, Histoire du Socialisme Européen. Paris, Gallimard, 1948
• Michael Harrington, Socialism, New York: Bantam, 1972
• Makoto Itoh, Political Economy of Socialism. London: Macmillan, 1995.
• Michael Newman, "Socialism - a Very Short Introduction", Oxford University Press (2005) ISBN 0-19-280431-6
• Bertell Ollman, Market Socialism: the debate among socialists, ed. (1998) ISBN 0415919673
• Leo Panitch, Renewing Socialism: Democracy, Strategy, and Imagination, ISBN 0813398215
• Selbourne, David, Against Socialist Illusion, London, 1985, ISBN 0-333-37095-3
• James Weinstein, Long Detour: The History and Future of the American Left, Westview Press, 2003, hardcover, 272 pages, ISBN 0813341043
• Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station: A Study in the Writing and Acting of History, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1940.
• Friedrich Hayek (1944). The Road to Serfdom. University Of Chicago Press; 50th Anniversary edition. ISBN 0226320618.
• Ludwig von Mises (1922). Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis. Liberty Fund. ISBN 0913966630. {{cite book}}: External link in |title= (help)

See also

• African socialism
• Anarchism
• Anarchist communism
• Anarcho-syndicalism
• Arab socialism
• Autonomist Marxism
• Bernsteinism
• Capitalism
• Christian socialism
• Communism
• Council communism
• Cultural revolution
• Democratic socialism
• Evolutionary socialism
• Fabian Society
• Fabianism
• Guevarism
• Guild socialism
• History of socialism
• Islamic socialism
• International socialism
• Kautskyism
• Labor Zionism
• Left communism
• Leninism
• Libertarian socialism
• Localism
• List of socialists
• Luxembourgism
• Maoism
• Market socialism
• Marxism
• Marxist humanism
• Marxism-Leninism
• Participatory Economics
• Popular Socialism
• Religious socialism
• Social democracy
• Socialist economics
• Socialist feminism
• Situationism
• Socialism with Chinese characteristics
• Stalinism
• Syndicalism
• Titoism
• Trotskyism
• Utopian socialism

External links

• In Defence of Marxism, news and analysis
• Industrial Workers of the World
• Marxist.net Marxist resource from the Committee for a Workers' International
• [http://www.socialistinternational.org/ Socialist International
• Socialism by Robert Heilbroner
• PBS' "Heaven on Earth: the Rise and Fall of Socialism"
• The Intellectual Cover for Socialism, by Hans-Hermann Hoppe
• "The Impossibility of Economic Calculation Under Socialism", by Ludwig von Mises
• Socialism, by Robert Heilbroner

1. A History of Socialist Thought, Volume 1 (1965) p3
2. A History of Socialist Thought, Volume 1 (1965) pp12-22
3. Engels, Friedrich. Chapter 1 - The Development of Utopian Socialism from Socialism: Utopian and Scientific

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