To what extent are socialists united on their views of human nature (24)

Paragraph 1: The Ways In Which Socialists Are United In Their Views On Human Nature

• (All Socialists Have A Broadly Optimistic View Of Human Nature)

• All socialists have a broadly optimistic view of human nature. Not only do they believe that humans are naturally co-operative and want to be part of a wider community and society, rather than being individualistic and selfish, they also believe this can be very successful.

  • This contrasts with many conservative and liberal thinkers, who view human nature with much more pessimism. Many conservatives emphasise the fallibility of human nature, whilst other conservatives and liberals see humans ad individualistic and often ruthlessly so.

• The fact that socialists believe in a state controlled economy and big role for state decision making shows they put a lot of faith in human nature.

  • Beatrice Webb, for example, believed that highly trained bureaucrats would be able to organise society and the economy very effectively, whilst Marx and Engels also supported a ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’, which they believed would be effective at serving the interests of the working class.

  • Webb’s ‘inevitability of gradualism’ also believes that in a democracy, voters will inevitably know what’s good for them and choose socialism.

• Though this is certainly not a point agreed by all socialists. The Third Way also believes in the power of the private sector (and therefore individuals in it) to benefit the economy an society as a whole.

Para 1: The ways in which socialists are united in their views on human nature:

• (All socialists see human nature as malleable)

• Socialists believe that human nature is malleable and can be improved in comparison to how it is under capitalism.

  • Marx and Engels believed that capitalism had instilled a ‘false consciousness’ in workers that was far removed from mankind’s original nature. They believed that class consciousness and a socialist economic system and society had the power to remove this false consciousness and revive the innate cooperative, selfless and fraternal nature of mankind.

  • Social Democrats and the Third Way also saw the possibility for human improvement in the emphasis they put on eduction.

    • As Secretary of State, Anthony Crosland supported the introduction of comprehensive education, which would not only improve opportunity for all pupils, but also help to break down class divisions and foster unity across society

Paragraph 2: The ways in which socialists are disunited in their views on human nature

• Socialists disagree over human nature under capitalism

• There is significant disagreement between earlier socialists (Marx and Engels, Rosa Luxemburg and democratic socialists) and later socialists (social democrats and Third Way) over how human nature under capitalism is viewed.

  • Earlier socialists see human nature in a capitalist society as greedy and selfish. As a result, they view it as necessary to completely change the economic system to a socialist system based on cooperation and serving the many rather than the few

  • By contrast, later socialists believe that the capitalist system can be highly fruitful and benefit society. For them, therefore, human nature under capitalism isn’t as terrible as Marx suggests and there isn’t a false consciousness.

Para 2: The ways in which socialists are disunited on their views on human nature

• (socialists disagree over the importance of the economic system in shaping human nature)

• Different socialists place different levels of emphasis on the economic system to change human nature.

  • Earlier socialists, including revolutionary socialists, see capitalism as the root cause of problems with human nature and believe that completely uprooting capitalism in favour of a socialist economic system based on common ownership is the only way to nurture humans’ positive, cooperative nature.

  • By contrast, social democrats and Third Way thinkers argue that the economy should remain mostly capitalist, but see the possibility for improvement in human nature despite this.

    • Anthony Giddens, for example, argued that in an era of free market, globalised capitalism, the state would need to support a modernised education system as well as community in order to counteract a very individualised economic system

What is the overall argument?

Though there are certainly important disagreements among socialists’ views about human nature, they are arguably more united than disunited.

The broadly optimistic view of human nature and belief in its malleability are important points of agreement and distinguish socialism from liberalism and conservatism.