Is socialism divided on the state?

Structure of the essay?

• Socialists agree that the state should intervene in the economy to promote equality

• Socialists disagree on whether the capitalist state should be overthrown in a revolution or expanded through evolutionary socialism

• Socialists disagree over the extent of workers control over the state and extent of collectivism

P1 - socialists agree that the state should intervene in the economy to promote equality

• Socialists agree that capitalism left alone produces mass inequality and that the state should therefore intervene to create a better society.

• This belief in state intervention is influenced by their support for collectivism.

  • Rather than focusing on individual effort and leaving individuals alone as liberals advocate for, socialists view collective action as a greater and moral value to society, whilst also being the most efficient way to harness resources.

• Socialists believe that by pooling the resources of society together in a stronger state, a more equal distribution of wealth and opportunities, and therefore a more just society, can be pursued.

  • They advocate for a strong, active state that can coordinate large-scale economic and social policies, manage public services, and redistribute wealth.

  • This leads to significant state involvement in areas like healthcare and education, underpinned by the belief that such services should provide collectively. .

• This support for a strong state intervening in the economy to pursue equality can be seen in the strands of socialism.

• Revolutionary socialists believe that the state should have complete control and redistribute resources in order to pursue absolute equality.

• Social democrats believe that the state has a key role to pursuing a certain degree of equality of outcome within the capitalist system.

  • This is pursued through progressive taxation and other redistributive policies, where the wealthier segments of society contribute proportionally more to fund public services.

• Social democrats and the Third Way also believe that the state has an important role to play in promoting equality of opportunity, particularly through equal access in education.

• This can be evidenced by Anthony Crosland’s introduction of comprehensive education, which aimed to level the playing field by providing a similar quality of education to all students.

P2 - Socialists disagree on whether the capitalist state should be overthrown in a revolution or expanded through evolutionary socialism

• A key disagreement Amon socialists in relation to the state is between revolutionary socialists, who believe that the capitalist state must be overthrown in a revolution, and evolutionary/ democratic socialists, who believe that the existing state should instead be expanded.

• Revolutionary socialists argue that the existing state under capitalism is fundamentally designed to serve the interests of the bourgeoisie, rather than the proletariat.

  • In ‘The Communist Manifesto’ Marx wrote ‘‘The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie’’'.

  • As a result, revolutionary socialists believe that the state cannot simply be reformed through gradual evolution but that the only path to genuinely equitable society is through its complete overthrow in a revolution led by the working-class.

• Different revolutionary socialists emphasised different kinds of revolutions.

  • Lenin, unlike Marx and Engles and Luxemburg, argued that it could be led by a small vanguard of committed communists rather than it needing to be spontaneous uprising of the working class.

  • Marx and Engels envisioned a revolution as a violent mass uprising of the working class, which they saw as an inevitable response to the ever increasing exploitation of capitalism.

  • Luxemburg agreed and argued for a revolution that was deeply rooted in the spontaneous and direct action of the working class, emphasising mass strikes, political demonstrations, and mobilising of trade unions as primary vehicles for change.

• Evolutionary/ Democratic Socialism, by contrast, believed that socialism could be achieved through democratic and parliamentary means rather than the overthrowing of the state.

• This school of thought argued that the state, rather than being inherently biased in favour of the capitalist class, could be expanded to gradually transition society to socialism.

  • Beatrice Webb, in particular, supported the idea that socialism could be achieved through democracy, especially after WWI, when the expansion of the franchise in Britain mean that the working class formed the majority of the electorate.

P3 - Socialists disagree over the extent of workers control of the state and the extent to which it should pursue collectivism

• Another key way in which socialists disagree about the state is in relation to the extent to which there should be workers control over the state and the extent that collectivism should be pursued.

• Revolutionary socialists believe that, following a revolution, there should be complete workers’ control. The proletariat should not only hold political power, but also control the means of production, therefore abolishing private property and capitalism.

  • This involves common ownership and nationalisation, where the state and its key industries are run in line with needs and interests of the proletariat.

  • Marx encapsulated this when he wrote ‘From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs’.

  • Webb admired the Soviet Union for its model of complete state control over the economy in the interests of the proletariat. She argued that state control, when executive by effective managers or technocrats, was the most efficient way to pursue collectivism,

• Additionally, revolutionary socialists argue that complete workers control is a necessary transitional state phase, which Marx and Engels call a ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’, before the state withers away and a true communist society with no class divisions would emerge.

  • They saw this dictatorship, defined by complete workers control, as necessary to suppress the remnants of the old bourgeois society and reorganise society along socialist lines.

• Social democrats, however, didn’t advocate for complete control by workers over both the economy and state, but they do advocate for workers control to an extent in both the state and wider economy.

  • They supported the nationalisation of key industries, but in context of their belief in a mixed economy of remaining capitalist, marking a difference in only believing workers control of the state to an extent.

  • Anthony Crosland argued that this balanced approach could achieve social justice and equality of opportunity without the need for total overthrow.

    • His rationale was rooted in the belief that democratic reforms and state intervention could prevent the inequalities of capitalism and that they Keynesianism in particular could prevent mass unemployment.

• In contrast to revolutionary and social democrats, the Third Way fundamentally rejected the concept of workers’ control in both state and economy.

  • The Third way doesn’t focus on empowering the working class and instead focused on promoting individual responsibility and entrepreneurship within free market capitalism.

  • Giddens emphasised that privatised enterprises are more responses to market conditions and consumer needs than their state run industries.