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CHAPTER 4
Reformist socialism The original, fundamentalist goal of socialism was that productive wealth should be owned in common by all, and therefore used for the collective benefit. This required the abolition of private property and the transition from a capitalist mode of production to a socialist one, usually through a process of revolutionary change. Capitalism, in this view, is unredeemable: it is a system of class exploitation and oppression that deserves to be abolished altogether, not merely reformed. However, influenced by both the steady integration of the working class into society and the gradual advance of political democracy, from the late nineteenth century onwards a growing number of socialist groups and parties embraced reformism . At the heart of this was the goal of ‘taming’ capitalism rather than abolishing it. A major influence on this process in the UK was the Fabian Society, formed in 1884. Led by Beatrice Webb (1858–1943) and Sidney Webb (1859–1947), and including noted intellectuals such as George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells, the Fabians took their name from the Roman General Fabius Maximwho was noted for the patient and defensive tactics he had employed in defeating Hannibal’s invading armies. In their view, socialism would develop naturally and peacefully out of liberal capitalism via a very similar process. Placing their faith in the belief that the spread of democracy guarantees the ultimate victory of socialism, the Fabians embrace the idea of ‘the inevitability of gradualism ’. Fabian ideas also had an impact on the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), formed in 1875. While committed in theory to a Marxist strategy, in practice SPD adopted a reformist approach, influenced by the ideas of Ferdinand Lassalle (1825–64). Lassalle had argued that the extension of political democracy could enable the state to respond to working-class interests, and he envisaged socialism being established through a gradual
process of social reform, introduced by a benign state. Such ideas were developed more thoroughly by Eduard Bernstein, whose Evolutionary Socialism ([1898] 1962) was the first major work of Marxist revisionism . Bernstein suggested that capitalism was becoming increasingly complex and differentiated. In particular, the ownership of wealth had widened as a result of the introduction of joint stock companies, owned by a number of shareholders, instead of a single powerful industrialist. The ranks of the middle classes had also been swollen by the growing number of salaried employees, technicians, government officials and professional workers, who were neither capitalists nor proletarians. In Bernstein’s view, this meant that capitalism could be reformed by the nationalization of major industries and the extension of legal protection and welfare benefits to the working class, a process that could be achieved peacefully and democratically. EDUARD BERNSTEIN (1850–1932) A German socialist politician and theorist, Bernstein attempted to revise and modernize orthodox Marxism in the light of changing circumstances. In Evolutionary Socialism (1898), Bernstein argued that economic crises were becoming less, not more, acute, and drew attention to the ‘steady advance of the working class’. On this basis, he drew attention to the possibility of a gradual and peaceful transition to socialism, and questioned the distinction between liberalism and socialism, later abandoning all semblance of Marxism.
Reformism: The advocacy of improvement through reform, as opposed to fundamental revolutionary change. Gradualism: Progress brought about by gradual, piecemeal improvements, rather than dramatic upheaval; change through legal and peaceful reform. Revisionism: The revision or reworking of a political theory that departs from earlier interpretations in an attempt to present a ‘corrected’ view.
KEY FIGURE
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