Socialism

Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, and the creation of an egalitarian society. "Newman, Michael". (2005) "Socialism: A Very Short Introduction", Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-280431-6] [ [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/socialism "Socialism"] "Merriam-Webster". Merriam Webster Online.] Modern socialism originated in the late nineteenth-century working class political movement. Karl Marx posited that socialism would be achieved via class struggle and a proletarian revolution, it being the "transitional" stage between capitalism and communism. [Marx, Karl, "Communist Manifesto, Penguin (2002)] [ [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9109587 "Socialism"] "Encyclopedia Britannica". 2006. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.]

Socialists mainly share the belief that capitalism unfairly concentrates power and wealth into a small section of society who control capital, and creates an unequal society. All socialists advocate the creation of an egalitarian society, in which wealth and power are distributed more evenly, although there is considerable disagreement among socialists over how, and to what extent this could be achieved.

Socialism is not a discrete philosophy of fixed doctrine and program; its branches advocate a degree of social interventionism and economic rationalization, sometimes opposing each other. Another dividing feature of the socialist movement is the split on how a socialist economy should be established between the reformists and the revolutionaries. Some socialists advocate "complete" nationalization of the means of production, distribution, and exchange; while others advocate state control of capital within the framework of a market economy. Social democrats propose "selective" nationalization of key national industries in mixed economies combined with tax-funded welfare programs; Libertarian socialism (which includes Socialist Anarchism and Libertarian Marxism) rejects state control and ownership of the economy altogether and advocates "direct collective ownership" of the means of production via co-operative workers' councils and workplace democracy.

In the 1970s and the 1980s, Yugoslavian, Hungarian, Polish and Chinese Communists instituted various forms of market socialism combining co-operative and State ownership models with the free market exchange. ["Market socialism," "Dictionary of the Social Sciences". Craig Calhoun, ed. Oxford University Press 2002; and "Market socialism" "The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics". Ed. Iain McLean and Alistair McMillan. Oxford University Press, 2003. See also Joseph Stiglitz, "Whither Socialism?" Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995 for a recent analysis of the market socialism model of mid–20th century economists Oskar R. Lange, Abba P. Lerner, and Fred M. Taylor.] This is unlike the earlier theoretical market socialist proposal put forth by Oskar Lange in that it allows market forces, rather than central planners to guide production and exchange. ["Market socialism," "Dictionary of the Social Sciences". Craig Calhoun, ed. Oxford University Press 2002; and "Market socialism" "The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics". Ed. Iain McLean and Alistair McMillan. Oxford University Press, 2003. See also Joseph Stiglitz, "Whither Socialism?" Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995 for a recent analysis of the market socialism model of mid–20th century economists Oskar R. Lange, Abba P. Lerner, and Fred M. Taylor.] Anarcho-syndicalists, Luxemburgists (such as those in the Socialist Party USA) and some elements of the United States New Left favor decentralized collective ownership in the form of cooperatives or workers' councils.

Historical precedents

Socialist thought and organization predate "Socialism" as ideology, which emerged in the first-half of the nineteenth century. In fifth-century Persia, the Mazdak proto-socialists challenged Noble and Clerical privilege, criticized private property to achieve an egalitarian society. ["The Cambridge History of Iran" Volume 3, [http://www.derafsh-kaviyani.com/english/mazdak.html The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian Period] , edited by Ehsan Yarshater, Parts 1 and 2, p1019, Cambridge University Press (1983)] In sixteenth-century literature, "Utopia" (1519), by Thomas More, posits a socialist utopia. [ [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9109587/socialism "Encyclopedia Britannica", entry on Socialism] ] In the nineteenth century, as socialist thought coalesced to formal ideology and programme, William Morris denoted the priest John Ball (1331–1381) as the "first socialist" in England, for having been a leader of the Peasants' Revolt (1381); moreover, Ball is credited the saying: "When Adam delved and Eve span, who was, then, the gentleman?" [ [http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/357 Morris, William, "Dream of John Ball: A King's Lesson"] Project Gutenberg, accessed 11 July 2007] [ [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/John_Ball_(Priest) 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica] "Gentleman" denotes "Man of property", living on a landlord's income or capital: rent, dividend, et cetera.← unlike Eve and Adam, who toiled without landlord.] In the mid-seventeenth century English Civil War, the contemporary political socialists include the Levellers, and the Diggers, advocating common tenancy of land. In eighteenth-century France, Enlightenment criticism of enforced socio-economic inequality is Jean Jacques Rousseau's gist in the "Social Contract", that begins: "Man is born free, and he is everywhere in chains". [Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, "Social Contract", p2, Penguin, (1968)] After the French Revolution, François Noël Babeuf advocated common land-ownership and politico-economic equality of Citizens.

Origins of socialism

Etymologically, the English coinage socialism (1839) derives from the French socialisme (1832), the mainstream introduction of which usage is attributed, in France, to Pierre Leroux [ Leroux: socialism is “the doctrine which would not give up any of the principles of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” of the French Revolution of 1789. "Individualism and socialism" (1834)] and to Marie Roch Louis Reybaud; and in Britain to Robert Owen in 1827, father of the cooperative movement. [Oxford English Dictionary, etymology of socialism] [Russell, Bertrand (1972). A History of Western Philosophy. Touchstone. p. 781]

Western European social critics were the first, modern socialists.
* Michael Lebowitz, " [http://www.monthlyreview.org/builditnow.htm Build It Now: Socialism for the 21st Century] ", [http://www.monthlyreview.org Monthly Review Press] , 2006. ISBN 1-58367-145-5.
* Marx, Engels, "The Communist Manifesto", Penguin Classics (2002) 978-0140447576
* Marx, Engels, "Selected works in one volume", Lawrence and Wishart (1968) 978-0853151814
* Ludwig von Mises, "" [http://www.mises.org/books/socialism/contents.aspx] , Liberty Fund, 1922. ISBN 0-913966-63-0.
* Joshua Muravchik, [http://www.pbs.org/heavenonearth/resources.html "Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism"] , San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2002. ISBN 1-893554-45-7.
* Michael Newman, "Socialism: A Very Short Introduction", Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-19-280431-6.
* Bertell Ollman, ed., "Market Socialism: The Debate among Socialists", Routledge, 1998. ISBN 0-415-91967-3.
* Leo Panitch, "Renewing Socialism: Democracy, Strategy, and Imagination". ISBN 0-8133-9821-5.
* Emile Perreau-Saussine, "What remains of socialism ?", in Patrick Riordan (dir.), Values in Public life: aspects of common goods (Berlin, LIT Verlag, 2007), pp. 11–34
* Richard Pipes, "Property and Freedom", Vintage, 2000. ISBN 0-375-70447-7.
* John Barkley Rosser and Marina V. Rosser, "Comparative Economics in a Transforming World Economy". Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004. ISBN 9780262182348.
* Maximilien Rubel and John Crump, "Non-Market Socialism in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries". ISBN 0-312-00524-5.
* David Selbourne, "Against Socialist Illusion", London, 1985. ISBN 0-333-37095-3.
* James Weinstein, "Long Detour: The History and Future of the American Left", [http://www.westviewpress.com/about.html Westview Press] , 2003, hardcover, 272 pages. ISBN 0-8133-4104-3.
* Peter Wilberg, [http://www.newgnosis.co.uk/deep.html "Deep Socialism: A New Manifesto of Marxist Ethics and Economics"] , 2003. ISBN 1-904519-02-4.
* Edmund Wilson, "To the Finland Station: A Study in the Writing and Acting of History", Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1940. LCCN|4|00|34338.

External links

;Resources on socialism
* [http://www.marxist.com In Defense of Marxism]
* [http://www.marxists.org The Marxists Internet Archive] (online library of Marxist writers)
* [http://www.marxist.com/rircontents-5.htm Reason in Revolt: Marxism and Modern Science By Alan Woods and Ted Grant]
* [http://www.marxist.net/sciphil/reasoninrevolt/index.html Science, Marxism & the Big Bang: A Critical Review of Reason in Revolt by Peter Mason]
* [http://www.marxist.net Marxist.net] - a resource on socialist writers
* [http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/socialism.htm History of socialism at Spartacus Educational]
* [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook33.html Modern History Sourcebook on socialism]
* [http://www.whatnextjournal.co.uk/Pages/History/Articles.html Socialist history at "What Next?"]
* [http://www.pbs.org/heavenonearth/ PBS' "Heaven on Earth: the Rise and Fall of Socialism"]
* [http://www.ecn.wfu.edu/~cottrell/socialism_book/new_socialism.pdf "Towards a New Socialism"] by W. Paul Cockshott and Allin Cottrell
* [http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Users/ssfa2/newideas.pdf "New Ideas of Socialism"] by Luke Martell
* [http://web.gc.cuny.edu/Anthropology/faculty/INTL-ENC.doc Katherine Verdery: Anthropology of Socialist Societies]
* [http://21stcenturysocialism.com/ 21st Century Socialism] web magazine

;Introductory articles
* [http://www.monthlyreview.org/598einst.htm "Why Socialism?"] by Albert Einstein
* [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/soc-utop/index.htm "Socialism: Utopian and Scientific"] by Friedrich Engels
* [http://libcom.org/library/soul-of-man-under-socialism-oscar-wilde "The Soul of Man under Socialism"] by Oscar Wilde
* [http://www.sps.cam.ac.uk/pol/staff/eperreausaussine/what_is_left_of_socialism.pdf "What remains of Socialism"] by Emile Perreau-Saussine
* [http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/shaw/works/guide2.htm "Socialism and Liberty"] by George Bernard Shaw
* [http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/contemp/pamsetc/twosouls/twosouls.htm "The Two Souls of Socialsm"] by Hal Draper
* [http://www.monthlyreview.org/0705magdoffs2.htm "Approaching Socialism"] by Harry Magdoff and Fred Magdoff
* [http://www.socialism.com/ Socialism website]
* [http://counterhegemonic.blogspot.com/ The Counterhegemonic Blogspot Socialism in Action]

;Critical appraisals
* [http://www.econlib.org/LIBRARY/Enc/Socialism.html "Socialism"] , by Robert Heilbroner
* [http://www.mises.org/etexts/ecopol.asp#_Socialism "Socialism"] "Economic Policy" 2nd Lecture, by Ludwig von Mises
* [http://www.mises.org/etexts/hayekintellectuals.pdf "The Intellectuals and Socialism"] , by Friedrich A. Hayek
* [http://www.mises.org/etexts/Soc&Cap.pdf "A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism"] , by Hans-Hermann Hoppe
* [http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/at/freud.htm Lecture XXXV "A Philosophy of Life"] includes a critique of marxist socialism by Sigmund Freud
* [http://flag.blackened.net/daver/anarchism/tucker/tucker2.html "State socialism and anarchism"] by Benjamin Tucker
* [http://www.mises.org/journals/qjae/pdf/qjae7_1_6.pdf "Towards a New Socialism?"] Review Essay by Len Brewster
* [http://www.polyarchy.org/essays/english/socialism.html Socialism/Antisocialism] A survey and a critical appraisal
* by Simon Newcomb (1890)

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