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    Asdasx

    Uploaded by

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    qoihn

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Gregory Claeys Socialism and Utopia SoctaLisa, ato more particuladly communism, is the characteristic form chat utopian aspirations have assumed in the modern world. That is to say, if we can agree that utopianism, as contrasted with the literary utopian tradition, consticutes the desire for a society gicitly improved! over that of th present, in which che regilation OF prodiietion and property relations isa crucial basis of social ordes, then socialism has been the principal form such | desires have taken in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, The appeal of socialism has lain chiefly inthe fact that its chief competitor, radical republ- canism, or democracy, seemingly failed in the nine teenth century t0 solve the problem of poverty by leaving, under a system of private property political power in the hands ofthe wealthy, the soe alterna- tive for socialists being recourse to the utopian program of community of property in one variation cor another, Feom the early nineteenth century onward, the constant poine of reference for social ists was thus the United Stares, so widely heralded asa working-class paradise only decades eaclies, ‘but increasingly derided by socialists (for instance, , in the chief Owenite literary utopia, John Francis, Bray's A Voyage co Utopia, 842) as tolerating a spacious and unserupulous financial aristocracy no less exploitative than the heredieary peerages or their new capitalist counterparts of old Eucope. Historiography, Theory, Definition Initially consciously linked to the utopian literary tradition of Thomas More, socialism after Marx ‘came usually o reject the label of “utopian,” and instead to proclaim the historical inevitability of the collapse of capicalism. Consequently the histo riography of socialism usually, but tendentiously, distinguishes between an early or “utopian” phase of the socialist movement, dominated by Robert (Owen in Britain, by the Feench thinkers Charles Fourier and Etienne Cabet, and the followers of Henri de Saint Simon, and in Germany by Moses Hess, Wilhelm Weieling, and others; and a lacer, “scientific” phase dominated by Marx. This distine tion originates in che Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848) of Marx and Engels, and more especial- lyin Engels’ later recasting of it in Anti-Dabring, and the essay published from it subsequently under the title Social: Utopian and Scion. The dst ‘ion was initially driven politically by a desire to separate the Marxian program feom that of other theoretical schools active at the time of the 1848 revolutions. It also functioned co distance Marx and Engels from the failures of the early socialists, ‘chose small-scale communities, notably the Queenwood or Harmony community in Britain, which collapsed in 845, seemed in thee “failure, disastcous and complete, as one observer put it, utterly to discourage one generation and likely to intimidate another.” Nonetheless, the Marxian distinction berweea “utopian” and “scientific” socialism not only played down, by seeming to deny entirely, the utopian element in Marxism, it also caricatuted the easly socialise writers, whos ie disparaged chiefly or three reasons: (0) for secing the proletariat merely as a passive “suffering mas,” sather than the active agent of revolution; (2) for believing that society could or should be erans- formed by propaganda and experiments only rather than revolution; G) for cfusing to believe that che needs of social development lay in the economic development of capitalism Thave contended elsewhere that these assee tions, which are in some respect a conscious cariea- ture of early socialism, are essentially false." Many early socialists, like the Chavtist leaders James, Bronterre O'Brien and William Lovett in Britain, for the Cabetists in France, saw the struggle for the franchise asa means to socialist ends, though they rarely counselled revolutionary transformation as such. Robert Owen and most af his followers adopted a theory of economic: centealization of capital, and reeurrene com ies wrargue that the existing economic system ‘would usher in its own collapse. They aso Saw the advent of industrialization as ensuring a higher standard of living for the working classes, and contended thus that socialism could noe have been introduced in any easlier historical period, ‘The carly socialists, particularly in Britain, were also well aware of the same historical scheme that under pinned Marx and Engels’ account of the materialist conception of history in 1845-46, drawn from Adam Smith, Adam Ferguson, and the other leading writ- ers of the Scottish Enlightenment. Their vision was in proposals for European peace, notably by Kant; anes, che Revolution also produced its own and in practical experiments, especially in the revolutionary egalitarian, "Gracchus’ Batere colonies ofthe New World, which were often ri (760-179), whose “Conspiray of Equa ‘Which fous in orientation and often ince a leastat__plnned t overthrow the Dietary aetoe the beginning ameasare of community property ints dvson of land ang the peor asc the eal colonies of Virginia and Massachu: the forerunner for mos seree,conpenong oe setts" The radical impulse of theeighteonth centu- __lutionary societies ofthe ealy nineteenth pee "yas maniestedin the thought of Rousseau and Mos of the leading revolutionaries and hare, in ash popolr radicalism, however was chiefly lectual ales, however,werehostletothe noe op concerned with indvidal and civil bert, and an agrarian la though Thomas Paine for enn sought balanced constitution asthe meansof chided a mild variation on the theme nthe et achieving this. The most extreme form of democra- ofa scheme ofprogresive taxation on lnge aay Lie sentiment, rare inthis period, was the utopian estates in his Rights of Man, pare two aos clement in republicanism, ofen linked to primitive, For most participants, what the French Revol. and especially puritan, Christianity which sought tion promised was not the arcadian commune. dhe much more substantial socal equality, often to the state of nature, which the poets Coleriige through economic regulation and sometimes by and Southey planned fo their “pantsocragy'en limiting erade and especially property inland the banks ofthe Susquehanna, not thus the renun- through the classical mechanism of an agrarian law. ciation of civilization, but the wider extension of ts In Britain such ideas were popularized early in this benefits, and the supplanting of a society based on period by James Harrington's Oceana (0656), and privilege by one based on merit, secured by politcal later by works such as James Burgh’s Account... of democracy. Wedded to the enticing promise of the Cesare (1764), ia which sumptuary restrictions, _ political equality by 1830 was the equally alluring notably on clothing, also ensure both greater social _/ image of industrial opulence, which the increasingly uniformity and the inhibition of consumption. | popula science of political economy assured would (This theme is echoed inthe sumpeuary egulations | become universal if doctrines of free trade were ofthe first American utopia, John Lithgow’s Eyuali-. | universally implemented. What industrialization 49 -A Political Romance, Bo2, where no vatiation of | and uzbanization brought the working classes, how ess oF “equipage” was allowed) ‘eves, was often low wages, recurrent bouts of unem- ‘Though the American Revolution was clearly ployment, and vnpleasant and dangerous working driven in part by the greater social equality ofthe conditions in the new factories, Disllusionment colonies, as pamphlets like Thomas Paine’ Common with both capitalism and industry, and a nost See (778) indicate, proposals for theaboltion | yaffectio for alife on he land which for most ‘of ranks as such were are, the abolition of aheredi-Furban dwellers until the late nineteenth century tary monarchy and titled aristocracy being seen as was a recent memory play a major role in shaping sufficiently idealistic. The French Revolution and the horizons and expectations of eaily socialism, the movements and debates to which it gave rise, ‘The origins of nincteenth-century socialism however, pushed this egalitarian impulse in a more le thus in two elements ofthe revolutionary experi ‘extreme direction. Lacking the safety valve of ence: the growth of poverty and hunger under the unlimited free land, i also invited speculation ancien régime, and the failure ofthe revolation itself about the division of existing landed estates. One to introduce democracy and political stability ‘of the principal causes of the French Revolution! (Commercial iberalism seemed increasingly not had been the failure of state regulation of the grain | o favor the poor; the politics of revolution had trade, with a consequent sharp rise in food prices brought Bonapartism rather than democracy. Social during the 1770s and 1780s. The prospect of further _||ism would found its originality, and cement its iden- regulation ofthese markets, and even of commerce vty, on the claim to solve both ofthese problems. generally, in the interests both of economic justice and social order, necessarily followed. Some utopian Communitarianiim writers of the revolutionary era, such as Thomas Three schools dominate eatly nineteenth Northmore, in Memoirs of Planets (1795) remain century socialism: Oweniem, Foutierism, and Jmplacably hostile to lamar, andthe association of Saint Simmonism’ primitvism wich civic and personal vireue mats Roere Owen (171-2858) gained renown as an a pronounced theme throughout this period. In immensely successful cotton spinner, whose factory at New Lanark near Glasgow; though never 2 utopian or socialist community also became a noted experiment in the improvement of working conditions, infane education, and social order generally guided by Owen’ famous principle chat the characters of mankind were “formed for them, not by them.” Ie was when Owen fled, afer repeated efforts, to persuade fellow manufacturers toextend such regulations elsewhere in che rapidly expanding factory system that he began to propose much more dramatic solution to the problems of national poverty and unemployment, Though the term “socialism” would only gain currency slowly from the mid-1820s onward, Owen from 3817 proposed chat the unemployed poor be housed in “co-operative communities” of up to about 2,500 individuals, who would work for their common benefit, by sharing theie produce incommon; being fred ofthe evil influences of the competitive system, they woul introduce a “new moral word.” (And the language oF millenarianism would often thereafter accompany Owenite pronouncements) Oven was well aware, as were his early follow: cers like George Mudie and John Minter Morgan, thatthe literary wtopian eration and the ideals of Platonic republicanism, as well asthe plans of religious reformers like Beller, had anticipated these plans. (Owen was acquainted with Godwin Personally and doubtless knew thatthe Enguiry ‘concerning Political Justice feared to Swifts Gl vers Travel, Burke's Vindication of Natural Society, snd similar works) Most ofthe early socialise waiters rejected the eral, Smithian principle that a narcow division of labor was the essencial rerequisice for economic progress, and dismissed Suggestions that largescae urbanization inevitably accompanied the enclosure of common agricultural lands and extension of the factory system. Instead they proposed aroutine of varied agricultural and ‘manufacturing activity, with sufficient free time for both sce and educavon The early socialists did not, however insist on one uniform solution to the problem of property holding Parl to atrace wealthy tmerors te French writer Charles Foutier (1772-1837), the son tha eoterous Besangon merchant fay agteed Snatchie competition, andthe profits of “paca: file" merchants and middlemen, were the chief Ext8e* of working clas poverty Fourier is dstinc- rena mesos, indalpng and epicure, inet Spartan or total emphasis, given Yislon ofthe future and of human nature. In Fourier’ phalansteries, work, as well as the rest of life, was to be organized according to the grand psychological principle, frse outlined in che Theory of the Four Movements (1808), of “passionate attrac “ion,” whereby the passions rather than reason were to be harnessed to ensure the maximum gratifica tion of sexual, social, and other instinctual desires, and the commensurability of aptitudes with socially necessary labor. (A sexual “minimum” of pleasure equivalent to a minimum wage was to be estab, lished) Labor iself would be organized according to the principle of “attractive association” in “com= pound groups,” with the aim being that “attractive |hbor* would make work as ftee, and as interesting, 83s possible. Individuals would rotate tasks up to ight times daily, work no longer than two hours at any job, and have as many as forty activities in all Actypical day would involve five meals, attending a concert, visiting the library, hunting, fishing, and cultivation, with manufacturing occupying no more than one-quarter of the total labor, Some creative forms of competition would be permitted, and a differential reward agreed upon for tasks of true drudgery: The results of work were to be divided becween capital (four-rwelfhs), labor (five- ‘owelfths), and talent (three-ewelfths), without any “general community of goods,” though Fourier hoped that “the spirit of societary or compound property” would nevertheless prevail Nor were all the early socialists exclusively devoted to small-scale communities, The French nobleman Henri de Saint-Simon (1760-1825) achieved fame through his incisive analysis of the newly emerging industrial society, and his insistence that the “industrialists” (by which he meant all use- fal laborers) should seize power, if need be by force. ‘Thereafter society would be organized meritocrati- cally, though social and industrial instieutions, with scientific power replacing oldee forms of spiritual and military authority, and the vastly more produc tive and efficient “industrial system’ supplanting earlier forms of “parliamentary system.” European nation-states in turn would become subordinate to a new European parliament, These ideas were car- ried forward in the 1830s and 1840s by Saine Simon's more socialistic followers, notably Olinde Rodrigues, Barthélemy Prosper Enfantin, Gustave

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