Socialism and Communism

1. Socialism and Communism • Utopian and scientific socialism • Marx’s “materialist conception of history” • Critique of capitalism • Revolutionary sequence • Democracy and freedom • Marxism as ideology

2. Socialism and Communism • Related but not identical; different varieties of each • Key figure for both, Marx; predates Marx • Plato’s ideal republic -- guardian class owns all things (including spouses and children) in common • Early Christians, later monastic orders, pooled worldly possessions • St. Thomas More (early 16th c.) ideal communist commonwealth, Utopia, private property, profit, and greed banished • English Civil War (1640s), radical sects (Diggers, “True Levellers”) put communal/communist ideas into practice • Able-bodied work, common store of goods, skills, and services • English authorities destroyed communes, arrested leaders

3. Urban-Industrial forms • Industrial Revolution (late 18th – 19th c.) replaced earlier agrarian visions of socialism and communism • Modern vision a reaction against social upheavals brought about by industrial capitalism • Uprooted from farms, families moved into cities looking for work in factories • Working conditions unsafe; living quarters cramped, dirty, and squalid • Contrasted sharply with newly emerging class of capitalists

4. Moralistic and Scientific Socialism • Some thought squalor natural, necessary, inevitable • Some sought to improve condition of working class • “Socialists” thought system required fundamental change • Moralistic/ethical socialists -- people will realize industrial capitalism is evil; humane socialist society of equals will come about when people change minds about system of profit and exploitation • Scientific socialists -- agreed with aim, disagreed with cause • Saint-Simon -- hidden historical processes will bring socialist society into being; industrial capitalism’s need for technical expertise lays groundwork for expertly planned socialist economy • Charles Fourier and Robert Owen – planned perfect socialist societies; disciples put these into effect in model communities

5. Marx’s Critique of Utopian Socialists • Marx called early socialists utopian • Impractical to suppose socialist society will come about as people have a change of heart or as a necessary consequence of capitalism • Capitalism makes socialism (and eventually communism) possible, but not inevitable • Socialism possible only if old society is first destroyed; destruction will happen only under right conditions • Working class -- proletariat -- must realize class interests are incompatible with and opposed to interests of dominant class of capitalists -- bourgeoisie • Workers must be enlightened about their “real condition” and how it might be changed

6. Marx’s theory • Aid to enlightenment of working class • Draws on Hegel’s philosophy of history and economic theories of Adam Smith • Describes how capitalism came into being, was changing, and might be overthrown • Cornerstone of  Marx’s theory of social change -- “Materialist Conception of History” • Main theme • Fundamental social change involves more than changing one’s ideas or ideals • Requires changing material conditions -- social, economic, and institutional structures and processes -- that underlie dominant ideas

7. Marx’s theory of history • Human history is twofold struggle: • Master nature for human aims and ends • Struggle between different social classes • To master nature, human beings must labor; for labor to be effective, people must relate to and work with one another in ways that increase capacity to put nature to human use • “Material forces of production” -- raw materials and tools for extracting, processing, transforming, and transporting these raw materials into useful objects • To create, make use of material forces, people must enter into “social relations of production” -- social division of labor that characterizes their particular society or “social formation”

8. Ideological superstructure • Material production precondition of life itself and all other human actions, activities, institutions, and practices • Humans must first produce means of subsistence and reproduce species • Humans are rational, thinking beings • We ask questions about life; whys and wherefores of existence; why things are the way they are; why some people work hard and die early while others live lives of leisure and ease • Every social formation capped by an “ideological superstructure” -- system of ideas and ideals by which social relations are justified and legitimized

9. Ideological superstructures • Slave societies -- people learn some human beings are “slaves by nature” or that it is “God’s will” that they be slaves, while others are masters • Capitalist society -- with class division of labor between ruling bourgeoisie and subservient proletariat, people learn that “laws of economics” dictate this as the only rational and workable arrangement • For those who remain unconvinced, there is always religion -- the “opiate of the people,” which dulls their minds to the possibility that such a system is made by human beings and can be changed by human beings

10. False consciousness • “The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas” • In capitalist society, dominant or ruling ideas of bourgeoisie are viewed as only ideas worth taking seriously • Alternative ideas -- and especially socialist ones -- are ignored or portrayed in classrooms, curriculum, and mass media as self-evidently silly, unworkable, or absurd • “Informed” by educators, economists, and journalists, members of working class are kept from forming true picture of situation and system under which they live and by which they are exploited • Suffer from “false consciousness”

11. Purposes of theory • Help workers overcome false consciousness • Supply them with means to cut through propaganda and misinformation to which they are exposed in capitalist society • Marx’s theory a “critique” not only of capitalism but also “political economy” -- economic theory that justifies and legitimizes capitalist system of production, exchange, and distribution • Point to possibility of another, more just and equitable society -- a classless communist society

12. Marx’s critique of capitalism • Helped to break down feudal society and punctured “illusions” that had governed medieval mind-set • Increased humanity’s powers over nature • Greatly expanded productive capacity of human beings • Created enormous wealth • Outlived its usefulness, caused more problems than it solved • Capitalist system of production is “alienating” in four respects • Separates or “alienates” workers from product of labor • Kills spirit of creativity by making worker serve machine • Destroys workers’ capacity to create and enjoy beauty • Alienates workers from each other, making them competitors rather than comrades

13. Capitalists • Capitalists, although affluent and comfortable, also alienated • Capitalism makes capitalists an “appendage of capital” -- capitalist must do what “the market” tells him or her to do, even if it means ignoring his or her conscience or casting morality aside • In capitalist society, Marx says, the only thing that is “free” is the market; all others -- including the capitalists -- are its servants or slaves • Perverted or topsy-turvy kind of society unfit for human beings to inhabit

14. A “fit” society • Only society fit for human habitation -- one in which human beings are free and in full control of their fate • To be truly free, proletariat (and ultimately everyone) must be free of constraints and restrictions imposed by class divisions, economic inequalities and unequal life-chances • Must be free to recognize these inequalities -- free of “false consciousness” that makes them mistake their own real interests • Only then can workers fulfill basic human need to have rewarding work and respect of their fellows

15. Capitalist society • Market is free and in control • Human beings are its appendages and servants • Capitalist society is unfit for human habitation • Prospects for change? Constructive alternatives? • Capitalist system self-subverting and, in long run, self-destructive • Created its own “grave diggers” -- the proletariat • By bringing them together, teaching them to work cooperatively to produce complex and costly commodities, bourgeoisie, or capitalist class, has given proletariat sense of its own enormous collective power • Bourgeoisie has also given them a common enemy (the bourgeoisie), a common interest (the overthrow of the bourgeoisie), and a common aim (the replacement of capitalism with a just and equitable system of production and distribution)

16. Revolutionary sequence • Capitalism leads, in the final analysis, to proletarian revolution • Steps in revolutionary sequence: • Periodic, ever-worsening economic crises bring about • Immiseration of proletariat, which in turn leads them to • Develop revolutionary class consciousness, thereby giving them the will and motivation to • Overthrow bourgeoisie and seize state power for themselves in the form of the • Dictatorship of the proletariat. When it is no longer needed, this • Dictatorship or transitional state will wither away, thereby making possible the creation of a • Classless communist society

17. Communist society • Marx had little to say about it • Resisted temptation to “write recipes for the kitchens of the future” • Shape of any future society should be decided by future people, not by Marx or anyone else • Democratic • Major means of production publicly-owned and democratically controlled • Free public education for all • All able-bodied people will work • Rule regarding production and distribution: • “From each according to his ability; to each according to his need” 

18. Key terms • Master-slave dialecticHegel’s philosophy of history (evolution of spirit, ideas)Utopian socialism vs. scientific socialismMaterialist conception of history (evolution of material production) AlienationClass/class struggleFalse consciousnessCapitalism; surplus value; problems with capitalismRevolutionary class consciousnessRevolutionary sequence“From each according to his ability; to each according to his need”Material productive baseIdeological superstructure -- ideologySocial relations of productionModes of productionForces of productionRevolutionary dictatorship of the proletariatWithering away of the stateProletariatBourgeoisiePublic vs. Private ownership of propertySocialismState SocialismCommunismMarx’s notion of freedom, democracyMarxism (explanation, evaluation, orientation, program)

19. Discussion questions • What is the materialist conception of history and how does it relate to socialism? • By what sequence of events did Marx believe communism would come about? • What did Marx and Engel mean by alienation and consciousness?  Why are these concepts important to Marx’s theory? • How does Marx characterize democracy and freedom? • How does Marx’s theory fulfill the four functions of an ideology (explanation, evaluation, orientation, program)?