Politics: Socialism - Society

-Despairing of capitalism's volatility, she looked forward to a more planned and 'rational' society where 'matters may be resolved sensibly...by rational, educated and civic-minded officials'.

-Thus, the mayhem associated with revolution did not seem the ideal starting point for a bright and orderly future.

-She and other democratic socialists believed, that the extension of the suffrage, from the late 19th century onwards, had facilitated a more orderly, election-based progression towards post-capitalist society.

-In a scenario she and other Fabians dubbed 'the inevitability of gradualism', democratically elected socialist governments would steadily transform society via the existing parliamentary system, gradually replacing a society based on private ownership with one based on common ownership and public control.

-They were the first socialist thinkers to explain the centrality of social class.

-They explained that an individual's social class is determined by their status within society's economy.

-They argued that capitalism created 2 conflicted economic classes: the bourgeoisie (in effect the ruling-class, which owned and managed the economy) and the proletariat (in effect, the working-class, which sold its labour to the bourgeoisie in return for wages).

-However, they also argued that class differences were far from harmonious: they involved harsh inequalities of wealth and power and the exploitation of the proletariat.

-For this reason, capitalist societies were also unstable and would eventually be overthrown by a 'historically inevitable' proletariat revolution.

-After revolution and the 'dictatorship of the proletariat', which would cement socialist values, the state would 'wither away' and be replaced by communism: a stateless society involving common ownership and the principle, 'from each according to his ability to each according to his needs'.

-They saw society as an independent construct, formed by impersonal forces and thereafter shaping the individuals inside it - they thought these forces were primarily economic, with the 'means of production' - that is, the way society's resources are determined and distributed - having a crucial impact upon the nature of society and, by implication, human behaviour.

Views on History:

They also argued that history was a series of stages, moving towards an inevitable and final destination ('historicism'):

-Within each historical 'stage' there was - eventually - an intellectual clash which Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) described as 'dialectic'.

-This dialectic occurred when the 'official' narrative about a society's aims and character - as propounded by its ruling classes - no longer corresponded to the perceptions of the majority, who then experienced what Hegel described as 'alienation'.

-These key thinkers, however, made a crucial adjustment to Hegel's historicism - for them, the prevailing mentality would always be defined by economics and the way a society's resources were generated and dispersed ('the mode of production').

-For them, history was thus a series of economic stages, a process they termed 'historical materialism'.

-The dialectic was not so much a clash of ideas as a clash of economic interests - a process they termed 'dialectical materialism'.

-Within their dialectic, one particular class would be economically dominant, while others would be exploited for economic purposes - it was this logic that led them to believe that capitalism was 'historically doomed', given the class consciousness it would produce among an economically exploited and therefore 'alienated' workforce (or proletariat).

Historical materialism and dialectical change:

1. Primitive societies with no economic organisation.

2. Slave-based societies - slaves are the main mode of production.

3. Feudal societies - land owned by the monarch is leased to lords, tenants and eventually serfs.

4. Emergence of capitalism.

5. Emergence of proletariat and class consciousness.

6. Revolution and destruction of capitalism.

7. Socialism (dictatorship of the proletariat).

8. Withering away of the socialist state.

9. Communism.

10. 'End of history'.

-Thanks to Keynesian principles, he argued, advanced societies could now enjoy permanent economic growth and full employment, without requiring any serious extension of public ownership.

-Thanks to constant growth, these societies could enjoy a steady expansion of the welfare state which, in turn, would diminish inequality and advance socialism.

-He also noted similarly to Marx and Engels that society's classes tend to be profoundly unequal in terms of power and influence: those in the working-class, for example, are seen to earn less and therefore exercise less influence within their society.

-He also noted an important change in society - owing to economic change, society was less 'binary', less polarised between employers and employees, and 'infinitely more complex than Marx could ever have imagined'.

-In particular, he cited 'new classes', such as 'managers' and 'technocrats', whose perspectives were likely to be different to those of traditional workers.

-He believed comprehensive schools would break down class divisions far more effectively than any extension of public ownership while ensuring all pupils had equality of opportunity.

-Thanks to Keynesian economics, capitalism was no longer vulnerable to 'peaks and troughs' and could now be relied upon to finance a richer, fairer and more classless society.

-She had little sympathy for Marx's 'historicism' and denied that for revolution to occur, capitalism would have to reach an advanced stage of development, where the proletariat was well developed.

-Like Lenin, for her, the unacceptable implication was that less developed countries would have to endure many more decades of oppressive rule, plus all the horrors of a developing capitalist economy, before the salvation of socialism could arrive.

-She upheld Marx's internationalism by dismissing Lenin's interest in socialist nationalism, claiming Lenin overlooked the transnational character of both capitalism and proletarian interests.

-Her concerns about nationalism were brought to a head by the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, which she stoutly opposed.

-Disgusted by the SPD's support for the German war effort, she left the party and began organising anti-war demonstrations, certain that the war provided optimum conditions for revolution, while proclaiming that 'the enemy of socialism remains in our own country'.

-In 'The Third Way: The Renewal of Social Democracy' (1998), he argued that the survival of social democracy required recognition that free-market capitalism had an unmatched capacity to empower individuals economically.

-However, he also argued that capitalism functioned best when there was a strong sense of social cohesion, which neo-liberalism seemed to overlook.

-So a triangulation - reconciling neo-liberalism's view of economics with social democracy's view of society - was required to make centre-left politics relevant in the 21st century.

-He also aimed to reconcile the task of socialist parties seeking office (such as Labour in the UK) with an electorate that was increasingly propertied, suburban and individualistic.

-He claimed this was especially important given the emergence of 'post-Fordist' capitalist societies.

-During the mid-20th century, Fordist capitalism, based on huge industrial units of mass production, had spawned tightly knit urban communities, based on a uniformity of income and employment.

-These communities, he explained, complemented human nature's yearning for solidarity and fellowship by giving their members a strong sense of support and identity, which might then encourage them to challenge both economic and cultural elites (traditional trade unionism being one expression of this).

-Yet, the post-Fordist capitalism of the late 20th and early 21st centuries - involving the decline of heavy industry - had fragmented such communities, 'atomised' the modern workforce and left individuals feeling alienated.

-He accepted that in many respects, this post-Fordist capitalism was liberating for individuals - they were now freer than ever to 'self-actualise' and carve out individual identities.

-Yet, those individuals would also find it harder to develop, precisely because society was becoming increasingly amorphous and ill-defined.

-Stripped of the communities that once gave them confidence, human beings were likely to be less sure-footed and more likely to be influenced by both economic and cultural elites.

-He also found that because globalisation made governments less influential in the economic sphere, it was fitting that Third Way Governments should address other, 'less economic' examples of inequality within society.

-As such, governments like Blair's passed various measures promoting greater racial, gender and sexual equality; the legalisation of civil partnerships for gay couples is one example.

-Blair's government also brought in measures designed to redistribute political influence, such as devolved government and a Human Rights Act.

-For him and other Third Way exponents, these reforms - with their aim of equalising social and political power - were perfectly appropriate to socialism in a modern setting.