Beatrice Webb (1858-1943)

an evolutionary socialist

Webb-context

• writing during the end of the 19th century and first half of the 20th

• member of the Fabian Soceity of left wing intellectuals and reformers

• period of limited social reform by Conservative and liberal govts

• involved in the enfranchisement of all men in 1918 and women in 1928

• co-writer of the original clause four of the constitution

Was Webb an evolutionary or revolutionary socialist?

EVOLUTIONARY SOCIALIST

• Webb argued against revolutionary socialism

• argued that rational, educated and civic minded officials were capable of achieving socialism through planning and democratic means rather than revolution

what did clause IV impose (Labours 1918 constitution)?

• expressed the fundamentalist-socialist creed

  • ‘upon the basis of the common ownership of the means of production’

  • nationalisation and state ownership

Webb- human nature

• humans are fraternal beings and cooperate (normal socialist view)

• human need to be guided back into fraternity and cooperation and not violent revolution

  • this will exacerbate the damages inflicted by capitalism

what is the process of gradualism ?

• democratic socialist parties would campaign and gradually win trust of voters

  • majority of voters (working class) would realise that they had no vested interest in capitalism

    • voters would elect socialist governments

      • REPLACEMENT OF PRIVATE OWNERSHIP WITH STATE (COMMON) OWNERSHIP via democratic socialist governments

        • re-election of democratic socialist governments

          • production of socialist society!

• the benefits would be common to all, making the reversal of a socialist society unlikely

Webb-Society

• rejected 'Big bang' revolutionary change , as she argued that revolutions were 'chaotic' and 'counter-productive' and 'guilty of the same problem besetting capitalism - unpredictability'

• Thus she rejected the notion of a revolution being able to provide the 'rational' society free from capitalism's volatility.

• Neither paternalism nor altruism was a sustainable solution to the problems of poverty and inequality

• Poverty and inequality were most likley to be eliminated through vigorous trade unionism and extensive state intervention

Webb- state

• Wanted gradual reform not revolution - effective reform was gradual and not revolutionary - she, as a democratic socialist, argued that the extension of the suffrage had facilitated a more orderly progression towards post-capitalist society.

• inevitability of gradualism

Webb - economy

• Capitalism was the principal cause of 'crippling poverty and demeaning inequality' in society, and it was a 'corrupting force' for humanity, fostering unnatural levels of selfishness amongst men and women