Socialism

THE ORIGINS OF SOCIALISM are obscure. Historians have traced its roots to the religious utopias of the Old Testament, the principles of Mosaic Law, the antiindividualism of radical sects that emerged from the French Revolution, and the publication of the Communist Manifesto.

The word socialism made its first appearance in print in Italian in 1803, although its meaning at that time appeared to differ somewhat from current interpretations. For this reason, the origin of the term is usually attributed to a latter publication, in English. The word socialist was used in 1827 in the London Cooperative Magazine to designate followers of Robert Owen. In 1832, a French periodical, Le Globe, used it to characterize the writings of Saint-Simon. Despite such murky beginnings, by 1840 the concept was commonly used across Europe and was making its way across the Atlantic to the United States. By the early 1920s, the Soviet Union had already become a “socialist republic.” Some 260 definitions of this term were available in the social-scientific literature. Since then, further refinement of the concept has appeared; for instance, we now differentiate among Chinese socialism, corporatist socialism, democratic socialism, radical socialism, and others.

Socialism was brought into existence by the rise of industrial production and the intensification of wage labor in handicraft enterprises. Prior to the large-scale existence of workshops, factories, and machines, most radical conceptions of reorganization of society were agrarian, as in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's constitution for [Page 400]an imaginary republic of Corsica. Socialist doctrines sought to organize society in order to replace the anarchy of the marketplace and large-scale poverty with an orderly system. Organization offered a rational solution to the social question, the problems of mass poverty and poor urban living conditions. Thus, most of the early socialists were middle-class reformers, concerned philanthropists who eagerly sought to improve the lot of the poor by changes in social organization rather than charitable activities.

It is hard to define what constitutes the common core of socialist doctrine. To be sure, all socialists were critical of the competitive and unequal nature of capitalist society and without fail they envisioned a more egalitarian and just future. At the same time, their visions regarding the organization of a socialist future were sufficiently diverse to render a single definition of the term practically impossible. It is assumed that the socialist doctrine demands state ownership and control of the fundamental means of production and distribution of wealth, to be achieved by reconstruction of the existing capitalist or other political system of a country through peaceful, democratic, and parliamentary means.

The doctrine specifically advocates nationalization of natural resources, basic industries, banking and credit facilities, and public utilities. It places special emphasis on the nationalization of monopolized branches of industry and trade. It views monopolies as inimical to the public welfare. It also advocates that smaller and less vital enterprises would be left under private ownership, and privately held cooperatives would be encouraged.

Given the nature of the doctrine, a single definition of socialism is likely to conceal more than it might illuminate. Thus, it may be better to analyze the bestknown schools of socialist thought.

...