the emergence of modern politics: industrial revolution and expansion of capitalism (1800-1914)

Edmund Burke

Conservatism. Politics should be based on common sense and not principles. Part of the common sense meant that everything exists in a society because it plays an important role, and it shouldn’t be regulated. This also meant that he thought that the state should change through gradual change and not through a revolution. He was for freedom, but a social freedom meaning that people needed to have a social rationality: no rights without duties and responsibilities.

Mary Wollstonecraft

in response to Burke, wrote A vindication of the Rights of Man, arguing for republicanism and attacking the aristocracy called the French Revolution an extraordinary opportunity for greater virtue and happiness in this world. She defended the idea that women were not inherently inferior to men, but due to the lack of education. She was one of the forerunners of feminism by arguing that both men and women were rational beings and that the social order should be based on reason. 

William Godwin

Defended the idea that man could be constantly improved and transform into a better self.

Adam Smith, economics

Defended the idea that the economics would trickle down from the top of the society to the rest of the population

Joseph Townsend

The poor should not be supported by the government, as the weak will have to disappear. By supporting them, you’ll sustain the weakest part of society and encourage population growth.

Thomas Malthus

population grew exponentially and food only by a constant number, so the population growth needed to be stopped. This could only be done through positive checks and moral restraints, and absolutely no form of welfare. If wages rose, workers would have more children, causing food shortages and lowering living standards. Welfare is a social engineering of society, which is not good.

Malthus’ positive checks

war, disease, famine, infant mortality, plagues. Ways in which the population growth could be slowed down.

Mathus’ moral restraints

to curb sexual passions and postpone marriage for the poor. Ways in which the population growth could be slowed down.

Jeremy Bentham

humans are under the influence of two masters – pleasure and pain. People should consciously pursue happiness and this happiness is measurable. Taking money from the rich and give to the poor did not serve the common good as thus redistribution would curtail the security of the rich and reduce the inventiveness and creativity. Also, the transfer of money from ‘a few’ rich people to ‘many’ poor people would only make the rich poorer but the poor not really much richer.

The greatest happiness for the greatest number, Bentham

Formed the idea of Bentham’s utilitarianism, where the greatest happiness for the greatest number is the goal of society and thus the goal of the state.

Moral arithmetic, Bentham

Bentham, people have less pleasure, when they have certain things a lot. But he didn’t transfer this directly to the economy as he advocated for no redistribution from the rich to the poor.

David Ricardo

the nation’s income consisted of interest (landowners), profits (capitalists) and wages (workers). The dispute between the landowners for whom high prices were good and the capitalists who wanted the price of goods down, so they would not have to pay their workers as much, was the main political fault line. He laid the foundation of the labor theory, stating that the value of a good was proportional to how much labor was required to produce it, including the labor required to produce the raw materials and machinery used in the process. He advocated for an open economy.

Theory of comparative advantages, Ricardo

Each country should specialize its production in the areas where it had a comparative advantage, namely that which it produced best in the most inexpensive way

François Noël ‘Gracchus’ Babeuf

Demanded complete abolition of private property and wanted to introduce economic equality. He pursued de facto equality and not only equality before the law. He also believed that we should go back to an agrarian socialism without a state dictating how the production and consumption should be organized.

Robert Owen (1771-1858)

Owned a spinning mill, where he tried creating humane conditions for the workers like giving housing, organizing education. The mill became the most profitable mill in the world. He advocated for trade unionism, where the rights of the workers and how the workers and capitalists should live together should be decided at factory level. He also believed that man needed to become the master of the machines.

Henri de Saint-Simon (1760-1825)

believed that the strength of the state lays in the industry and the industrial class, everyone who engaged in entrepreneurship and did useful social activities. The government should only play a coordinating and technical role and not interfere with political issues. Laid the foundation of positivism (with Comte)

Spiritualism

Suzanne Voilquin (1801-1876/77)

joined the saint-simonists with her husband in 1823. After her divorce in 1832, she became the editor of the first feminist labor magazine, La Tribune de Femmes, in which she championed women’s rights, education, and development for women but also denounced the unfairness of French laws for women and workers and worked for economic independence for women. 

Proudhon

the founder of anarchism as an ideology. He was against private property and opposed interests and rents that people were getting by doing nothing. He believed that everything should be based on voluntary self-organization and not from interference from a centralized government. The state curtailed individual freedom by definition, as it protected private property. He rejected the idea of a revolution, as the state would disappear through mutualism-.

Proudhon, mutualism

the socio-economic transformation would be carried by voluntary associations of workers

Auguste Blanqui (1805-1881)

Revolution could only translate the will of the people through violence. And violence is necessary because any type of legal action is always in the interest of the bourgeoisie, change will simply not happen through the institutions. He advocated for a small, armed group to seize power through harm and thereafter impose change from “above”

Immanuel Kant’s (1724-1804)

the history of philosophy was a debate between empiricists and rationalists. The certainty of knowledge lay not in the world of experience, nor in its origin (the thing in itself) but in the subject, in the thinking person. Our experience provided us with data for knowledge, but it is the intellect that organized this data and formed it into knowledge. It is transcendental idealism.

Hegel

starting point was absolute idealism. His dialectical method said that it is through connections that the content of a thing is determined. This means that the tension, synthesis, between what is (thesis) and what is not (anti-thesis) determines the ting. The synthesis is not the middle way but is bringing together elements from the thesis and anti-thesis at a higher level.

Benjamin Constant (1776-1830)

contrasted the freedom of the ancients with the freedom of the moderns. Freedom of the ancients was based on citizenship with little distinction between public and private whereas freedom of the moderns was a freedom protecting personal privacy. The danger of the moderns is individualism and the masses.

Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)

an irreversible process of increasing equality had begun after the French and American revolution. He feared democracy (the tyranny of the majority) and especially feared the demand for greater equality. He advocated for a decentralization, where the old aristocracy would remain in power by overtaking local political power like being mayors.

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

Freedom is a condition for progress, so it must be obtained. The government shouldn’t impose happiness but should create the conditions under which all citizens could achieve maximum happiness. He also feared the power of the majority and believed that only the “intellectually more valuable” should hold a political office. He defended freedom of speech and saw it as necessary for progress but also said that saying some things could hurt other groups.

Frederick Douglass (1817-1895)

one of the first African American voices for the abolition of slavery. Believed in the equality of all people and believed that equality through dialogue across racial divides was possible. Also actively supported womens rights.

Economic theories during the industrial revolution as inspiration for Marx

Marx was inspired by Ricardos labor value theory and saw the surplus value as the heart of the exploitation between the capitalists and the workers. This is because the worker has here spend half of his time working for the entrepreneur and not for himself.

Early socialism after unfulfilled ideals of the French revolution as an inspiration for Marx

Marx called the early socialist thinkers for utopian thinkers, as they were driven by a morality but didn’t have the means to change society. He himself, he considered a scientific socialist, as he tried to analyze capitalism.

The philosophy of Hegel as an inspiration for Marx

His historical materialism derives from the philosophy of Hegel. For Marx, history is a sequence of economic stages and he considered the class struggle as the engine of history.

Revolution according to Marx

revolution doesn’t just happen but will arrive when the societal dynamics becomes unbearable. The workers will need to gain class consciousness and organize themselves.

Marx: Phase 1 after the revolution

a revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat. Society represents a workers’ democracy but still has defects of the capitalist society. There has not been a complete elimination of inequality yet, therefore the need for the second phase.

Marx: Phase 2 after the revolution

phase of communism. Each according to his needs and the end of class exploitation.

Social anarchism

social anarchism has four main ideas. First, the state structures are oppressive (Anti-statism), the complete rejection of capitalism, the self needs to be seen in relation to others (distinguishes it from selfishness) and the expected goals can and should already be implemented now.

Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876)

social anarchist. He was a man born into the nobility and believed that every institution (except science) was oppressive and an attack on human freedom. He wanted a revolution, but with constant revolutionary action meaning that daily radical changes would break down the oppressive institutions. He thought that the most exploited workers would carry out the revolution. Marx called these workers the lumpenproletariat.  For him, the future of humanity was not a dictatorship of the proletariat or a socialist state but a system of free federations of small, egalitarian, communities.

Creative destruction, Bakunin

term used by Bakunin to describe the breaking down of existing oppressive order but only to make a new society possible.  

Individual anarchism

The individual became the measure of all things and criticized everything that curtailed that freedom. This branch had much more in common with libertarian thought

Max Stirner (1806-1856)

an individual anarchist. He didn’t believe in a social reality independently from the individual, so abstractions like classes, the state or masses shouldn’t be taken seriously. The state was by definition a coercive state that curtailed individual freedom. His most revolutionary idea was the idea that private property was bad and that is was okay to steal because it was better that everyone have something than that there be a small group who have a lot and many who have little.

 

Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921)

offered a way out of violent anarchism, as he believed that people would turn to cooperative ways of producing and exchanging if the state, church and ruling class didn't exist. He wanted a stateless society where people lived in self-organized communes. The cooperation between people was not because of a love for each other but rather the understanding of mutual aid would benefit all.

Clara Zetkin (1857-1933):

important leader of socialism and the women’s movement. She approached gender inequality as a socio-economic fact and believed that the emancipation of women was an important part of the class struggle. She believed that patriarchy and capitalism were two parallel systems that maintained the oppression of women and the domination of women had its origins in history and not in biology.

Nana Asma’u (1793-1864)

was the daughter of the founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, Usman dan Fodio, in present-day Nigeria. She sought the institutionalization of education for girls and women and therefore trained a network of women teachers who then traveled throughout the caliphate to teach women in their homes.

Huda Sha’arawi (1879-1947)

became one of the best-known advocates for women’s rights in the early twentieth century. After Egypt’s pseudo-independence in 1922, she founded a women’s clinic and advocated with Islamic theologians and intellectuals the need for family law reform. She pushed for the abolition of polygamy and wanted women to have a greater say in the marriage bond.

Raicho Hiratsuka (1886-1971)

described her struggle against the social mores of her time in which the submissiveness of women stood central. The Seitosha movement fought against the traditional, feudal attitudes that still prevailed in Japan and met with much opposition. From the 1920s onward, the torch was taken over by other organizations that, in order to undermine the patriarchal character of Japan, promoted the ideal of the ‘new woman.’

Emma Goldman (1869-1940)

argued that anarchism was an ideology that promised freedom and equality to women, everything that women did not have. Goldman’s feminist anarchism meant not only fighting the exploitative relationships between capitalists and workers but also fighting the subjugation of women by patriarchy, which she saw as inherent in capitalism

The catholic church after the spread of liberal and socialist ideas

the church was under attack as an institution as the rise of the working class all provided alternatives to the traditional religious, moral sense of purpose. So the goal of the church was to re-strengthen its bond with the believers. It was aldo here that the centralization of an authoritarian authority in Rome was created.

Ultramontanism

rejected the modern political ideologies and advocated for absolute monarchies and the doctrine of divine right. They wanted to reestablish the power of the church.

Tensions between the church and the state

The church changed its policy by both recognizing the social question and tolerating, at least in principle, the separation of Church and State.

Encyclical Au milieu des sollicitudes (written by pope Leo XIII):

the pope instructed the catholic church to accept the institutions of the French third republic.

Encyclical rerum novarum (written by pope Leo XIII)

called on the state to promote justice, recognized the workers’ right to strike, and accepted the creation of Christian trade unions. He admits the existing of the working class and criticized the greedy parts of the system (but not the system itself). He saw corporatism as the solution, where he stated that when each part of society performed its function properly and thus served the common good, then society would function harmoniously.

August Comte (1798-1857)

founder of positivism, a science-based social doctrine necessary for the new industrial society. He wanted to establish facts and order them into social laws rather than abstractions. He wanted to preserve status quo: a society where everyone knew ‘their place’ and that was regulated by a faith. He thought that a harmonious society would become possible through “science”

Comte’s three stages of human thought

theological stage (supernatural forces, tradition and blind obedience, the enlightenment), metaphysical stage (begin to question), positivist phase (humans can solve societal issues)

Social Darwinism

could be used as an opportunity to ground inequality to social traits.

Spencer

 social Darwinist. He wanted to show that inequality had a scientific base (in biology) and that the free market was the most natural social arrangement. The government shouldn’t engage in economic regulation as it would affect the natural intercourse between factually unequal people. Survival of the fittest (fattest) would ensure that the weakest in society were eliminated/die.

Organic thinking

views society as a living organism like the human body where all parts need harmonious cooperation to keep the body healthy. This way of thinking led to conservative elite theories.

Gaetano Mosca (1858- 1941)

elitist theory. Every society consisted of two classes, one ruling and one dominated. It was the minority of the ruling class that was important in politics and controlled social life.

Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923)

elitist theory. All societies consists of a powerless mass and a powerful elite. The elites could be divided into ruling and non-ruling elites. He believed that the psychological traits of those who were part of the elite was more important than the class position and that a man’s non-rational impulses, passions and values were the most decisive for the behavior of the elite (called non-rational impulses residus). He did not believe that history was a class struggle but rather an endless rise and fall of ruling elites.

Racial theories

a connection between liberalism, pseudoscientific insights and the classification of people into a hierarchy of races, where the white race would always end on the top. Antisemitism was part of these theories.

Count Joseph Arthur Comte de Gobineau (1816-1882):

he introduced the theory of the superior Aryan race (white) which he considered the most intelligent race and the one best able to create civilization. He set the tone for a series of pseudoscientific works that ranked, analyzed and assigned people a place in human history based on external characteristics. Gobineau believed that the French aristocracy was best at developing a creative culture.

Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855-1927)

he described racism as a comprehensive theory and ideology and claimed that only the Aryan race was capable of great things. The biggest danger was therefore that the Aryans would mix with inferior races. He believed that only the Germanic people were capable of developing a creative culture. The jews were the danger to the survival of the German race.

Theodore Herzl (1860-1904)

who was the father of modern political Zionism, founded the Zionist Organization in 1897 to promote Jewish immigration to Palestine and to establish a homeland for the Jewish people.

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

Nietzsche saw capitalism, competition and profit as well as the increasing role of the popular masses in politics as the demise of culture. He rejected democracy and religion and is considered the forefather of post-modernism, as there is no certainty in knowledge. He saw the gap between the elite and the submissive masses as natural and said that this inequality was best maintained. He believed that the submissive slave moral of the great masses should disappear and that the unlimited herrenmoral was best and needed to create a new person, the ubermensch.

George Sorel (1847-1922)

he combined revolutionary socialism with extreme nationalism and the cultural pessimism of the conservative took a violent edge. He believed in a violent revolution, but in reality more the idea of a revolution. He was against the elites and believed that the true struggle for socialism took place in the sphere of production. So it was the works themselves who had to improve their lives and this could only be realized through violence.

Abd al-Rahman al- Jabarti (1753-1825)

saw Napoleons invasion as an overthrow of the natural order of things and denounced most French customs like urinating in public and the fact that women weren’t modest. He did however also look up to the French organization and discipline especially when it came to its scientific achievements.

Khayr al-Din al-Tunisi (1820-1890)

wanted a combination of the Islamic faith and modern culture of the west. Everything could be combined with Islamic precepts and western technology and produce a better outcome and at was the task of the elite to implement reforms for good governance (careful management)

Umma in Islam

the community of all believes, an identification mark that gave belonging.

Simon Bolivar (1783-1830)

Latin American decolonization. He wanted a republic with separation of powers as a form of emancipation from absolutist monarchies.

José Martì (1853-1895) Cuba

laid the groundwork for a radical anti-imperalism that later became an inspiration for Fidel Castro. He advocated for economic independence and the abolishment of slavery. But the Cuban liberation was at the same time a social revolution, where the goal was to eliminate the gap between the rich and the poor.

José Carlos Mariàtegui (1894-1930) Peru

wanted an emancipation of Latin America through a socialist revolution but one based on local, specific conditions rather than a overall principle. This was to take into account the extensive ethnic diversity.

The nahdha

nahdha means revival and it was a period where arab thinkers wanted to find the reasons why the arab-muslim world had fallen behind the West. Either one had to assume it was a result of the "backwardness” of Islam or one had to assume it was a result of “no longer following true Islam.” It’s important to observe that islam was not seen as an obstacle to emancipation but rather a symbol of resistance against colonialism.

Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (1839-1897)

saw European expansionism and internal decadence as Islam’s main enemies. He thought that rationalism in Islam had been perverted by the Islamic law scholars, who were using the religion for their own winning. He wanted a purification of islam and a new Islamic identity and at the same time supported cooperation with the Christians, Jews and Hindus.

Debate with Ernest Renan in 1883

In his speech, he argued that Islam prevented rational and scientific thought and this explained the backwardness. Renan generally sought to reconcile religion and rationalism.

Muhammad Abduh (1849-1905)

He gave Al-Afghanis idea a more systematic treatment which formed the basis of Islamic reformism. He emphasized a religious unity within Islam, where the small differences should be forgotten. The reforms were centered on education, where the Arabs had to be reeducated to become politically and socially mature. He focused on rationality above all, and he wanted to accept and adopt positive things from the west like the welfare state, freedom, science.

Abd al-Rahman Al-Kawakibi (1855-1902)

Believed that the decline of islam was not only the fault of Europe but also the blind obedience over rationality and science from the Ottoman sultans. As long as there was no scientific progress, he didn’t believe that there could be a social progress and emancipation. He laid the groundwork for a racialized nationalism, creating a pan-arab Islamic identity which was against the turks (internal order) and the west (external order)

Yoshida Shōin (1830-1859)

Japan. He was convinced that only a strong emperor could cope with the foreign influence and that Japan needed a strong state in order to compete with Europe. Industrial-scientific reforms would lead Japan to modernity at its own pace and he favored education for all as well as the adaptation of modern technology.

Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835-1901)

Japan.  advocated that Japan leaves Asia intellectually and adopts the ideas of the west that strengthened the state. So he wanted to reorganize Japan in an European way but with the spirituality of Japan and the traditions.

Nakae Chomin (1847-1901)

Japan. wanted gradual reforms and had wanted clear, liberal values as well as democratic political structures in Japan.

Katō Hiroyuki (1836-1916)

Japan. had an authoritarian tendency as he didn’t believe that democratic and republican forms of political government could achieve Japan’s goals. Japan had to be protected from Western imperialism.

Kang Youwei (1858-1927)

China. One of the first to talk about the necessity of education and wanted a complete reform of the economic and educational structures. Wanted a controlled, top-down revolution. He used Confucianism as the base of the new nation and believed that it was superior to monotheistic religions. He believed that technology would lay the foundation for the progress needed for a humane and equal society.

Liang Qichao

China. Freedom of the nation takes precedence over the individual and only through submission of the individual to a group or a nation can people avoid being enslaved by other people.

The second international

1893. included all movements and organizations that endorsed the class struggle but left strategy and tactics to national parties. It had less internationalism and more nationalism. What held them together was a loyalty to socialism and the belief in a better future but what separated them was how to achieve this objective.

Jules Guèsde (1845-1922)

France. Believed that the bourgeoisie controls the state and no cooperation is possible with them. The workers could only countervail this with their own power.

Jean Jaures (1859-1914)

France. Believed that there were points of contact between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie as they all belonged to the same nation and the same community. The state is there for everyone and while it is currently controlled by the bourg, the proletariat could control the state in the future. He rejected violent revolution and believed that the goal was to have the production in the hands of the community.

 Karl Kautsky (1853-1938)

Germany. Believed that the socialist revolution would come by peaceful means and a revolution could only break out when all the necessary conditions had been met. The proletariat had to unite further, and the elected officials had to work for the proletariat.

Eduard Bernstein (1850-1932):

Germany. Revised Marx’ ideology and criticized it. Saw Marx’ expected leap to socialism as utopian and rejected the fact that capitalism would break down, as it had survived severe economic crisis and was still alive and well. He didn’t believe that the workers were able to take over and run the industry. He also didn’t believe in a socialist revolution as he saw socialism as the democratized and social expression of Capitalism.

Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919)

Germany. She believed that the totality of economic and political strikes and uprisings would eventually converge into a revolutionary mass strike and the driving force of the revolution was spontaneity. Revolution was not made by a small group but rather a conscious popular mass.