Communism

Ideologists

François Babeuf was chief ideologist and leader of a group of disillusioned revolutionaries who strenuously advocated economic equality—the right of all men to work and to share in the products of the economy. The form of communism desired by the conspirators referred mainly to the distribution of goods rather than to the means of production. He founded a political journal, the Journal de la liberté de la presse (later the Tribun du peuple), and formed a secret society known as the Conspiracy of the Equals that plotted to overthrow the government.

His plans included compulsory labor and public distribution of the product according to individual needs. The plot was betrayed to the government and Babeuf was guillotined. His doctrines, however, known as Babouvism, were kept alive by secret revolutionary societies and by his coconspirators.

Count Henri de Saint-Simon did not demand common ownership of all property. In that regard his ideas, as exposed in his Nouveau Christianisme (1825), are socialist rather than communist. A founder of utopian socialism, he was the first to emphasize the division of modern society into employers and workingmen. His writings contain ideas of positivism (Auguste Comte was his pupil at the time), socialism, federation of the nations of Europe, and many other modern trends. Saint Simon envisioned the role of state as the manager of industry, assuring that particular tasks are assigned according to capacity and rewards are accrued in proportion to work. In his model, the state and central government, rather than local authorities and/or voluntary associations, played the pivotal role in arranging the economic life of the society.

Charles Fourier, Saint-Simon's contemporary and author of Traité de l’association domestique-agricole (1822), advocated a different approach. According to Fourier the organization of economic life was carried out by local communities called phalanxes. The members were to live a common life and dwell in one large building called the phalansterie. Individual preferences played an important role in determining working assignments, although frequent changes of occupation were envisioned. A minimum wage that ensured a comfortable livelihood was guaranteed to every worker. The surplus product would be divided among labor and capital, but the least desirable work would obtain the highest compensation.

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