The Rise of Social Democracy PDF

The rise of social democracy Late C19 : establishment of socialist political parties and working class movements (especially trades unions) ○ Social Democratic Workers Party of Germany (Marxist, 1869) and General German Workers’ Association (1863) merged to form Socialist Workers’ Party of Germany,...

The rise of social democracy Late C19 : establishment of socialist political parties and working class movements (especially trades unions) ○ Social Democratic Workers Party of Germany (Marxist, 1869) and General German Workers’ Association (1863) merged to form Socialist Workers’ Party of Germany, 1875, later renamed German Social Democratic Party (SPD) ○ Legalisation of trade unions in Britain, 1871 ○ Founding of Second International (1889) (and expulsion of anarchists) ○ Founding of Fabian Society in Britain, 1884 Rise of social democracy Growing influence of Marxist ideas but also ambiguities and questions of interpretation emerging – some of which can be found in Marx’ own work Extension of franchise to working class (male) voters (eg Reform Acts in Britain, 1867 and 1884) and adoption by some socialist parties of parliamentary/constitutional tactics ‘Revisionist’ controversy within SPD (1898-1903) Key question: did democratisation of capitalist states in Europe open up the possibility of different routes to socialist transformation? Revisionist controversy Some sources in Marx (eg Critique of the Gotha Programme) Marx seemed to allow for the possibility that gradual reforms could enable peaceful transition to some form of socialism. The state, however, could never be ‘neutral’, and attempts (eg by socialist governments) to use the institutions of the bourgeois state to move toward full communism were likely to meet resistance …. If class struggle is fundamental and irreconcileable, it’s unlikely to be ended by peaceful means. Revisionist controversy: Bernstein, Problems of Socialism, 1897/8 “The Final goal, no matter what it is, is nothing; the movement is everything.” ○ An end to capitalist crises ○ Rationality of capitalism: credit, communication, organisations ○ Stabilisation of middle classes ○ Working class capacity to improve its own conditions of life ○ Democratisation ○ Democratisation unstoppable process ○ Permanent working class electoral support ○ Majority electoral support for socialism ○ Social transformation by socialist government Social democracy: a parliamentary route to socialism? Bernstein Die Voraussetzungen des Sozialismus und die Aufgaben der Sozialdemokratie (The pre-requisites of socialism and the tasks of social democracy 1899) revision of Marxist propositions; stressed potential for socialism to evolve through gradualism/democracy: ‘Social democracy should neither expect nor desire the imminent collapse of the existing economic system … What social democracy should be doing, and doing for a long time to come, is organize the working class politically, train it for democracy, and fight for any and all reforms in the state which are designed to raise the working class and make the state more democratic.’ * Parallels with Fabianism (Sidney and Beatrice Webb) : ‘the inevitability of gradualness’ Against revisionism: Bernstein’s ideas rejected by orthodox Marxists (Plekhanov, Kautsky, Lenin) who insisted on necessity of violent revolution Rejected also by a more radical current who (as well as rejecting Bernstein’s gradualism and ‘reformism’) ALSO rejected statism and authoritarianism (eg Leninism) in favour of revolution through mass action from below (Rosa Luxemburg) ○ Bernstein as utopian ○ Capitalist innovations remain capitalist. The fundamentals remain. ○ Crises are inevitable and can take different forms –crash, dictatorships, war Not just a matter of ideas ….. Early C20 an era of economic crisis, world war and revolution …. Socialism in the C20 … Impact of war and revolution divides the European socialist tradition further ‘revolutionary’ variants of socialism increasingly associated with official Communism of the USSR, and marginalised in advanced capitalist west prevalent forms of socialism in Europe and US = social democratic and accommodationist toward capitalism and liberal democratic state (‘reformist’). ‘Revolutionary’ tradition dominated by Soviet Communism despite a proliferation of struggles elsewhere; ‘third world’ revolutions …. Social democracy: implications and development Moving closer to acceptance of state as neutral institution Class conflict as amenable to peaceful resolution Emphasis on exclusively democratic/constitutional methods We see a gradual transformation of the meaning of social democracy – from denoting a peaceful route to socialism involving abolition/supersession of capitalism, to a revision of socialist ends: reform rather than replacement of capitalism. The ‘golden age’ of social democracy Post WWII: Keynesian consensus US ‘Great Society’ ○ Mixed economy ○ Welfare state ○ Full employment Germany: Social Democracy UK: Labour Party Mid C20 Social democracy: Crosland’s ‘revisionism’ The Future of Socialism, 1956, revises and updates the social democratic narrative ‘traditional socialism was largely concerned with the evils of traditional capitalism, and with the need for its overthrow. But today traditional capitalism has been reformed and modified almost out of existence, and it is with a quite different form of society that socialists must now concern themselves’ ‘Here one can speak, without exaggeration, of a peaceful revolution. One cannot imagine to-day a deliberate offensive alliance between Government and employers against the Unions” ’Argued socialists apt to confuse ends and means – common ownership should be seen as a means not an end Core of socialism lay in ethical and moral ideals The rise of social democracy Crosland Marx’s conceptual tools: “quite inappropriate”. ○ Improvement in condition of the working class ○ Full employment ○ Prospect of long-term growth ○ Demise of unfettered capitalist power – capitalism ‘modified almost out of existence’ ○ Transfer of power to state and labour ○ New ‘levers’ of power: economic policy tools ○ Separation of the functions of ownership and control in post-war capitalism ○ Key implication: A left government could thus control significant sectors of the economy to achieve socialist ends (welfare, equality) without the need to socialise the economy New Lefts: an alternative ‘third way’? Post 1956 rejection of both western social democracy and the communism of the Soviet bloc Associated with a worldwide upsurge of student and youth revolt culminating in revolutionary wave of 1968 Key emphases: solidarity with third world national liberation struggles; peace and non-alignment; anti–statism and democracy; non-traditional forms of organisation and ‘direct action’; new Marxist ideas; libertarianism; rejection of capitalism. New Left critique of social democracy and Crosland Eg Charles Taylor, ‘What’s wrong with capitalism’, Ralph Miliband ‘The transition to the transition’ (1957), Raymond Williams ‘Britain in the 1960s’ (1960) ○ “Why are our priorities so wrong, so obviously wrong? And why do we tolerate them?” ○ The public good? “it is surely wrong to speak as if all—or even the most vital—human needs can be met by an increase in the production of consumer goods.” ○ “The only way that we can really get our priorities right is to do away with the dominating influence of the profit system, and to put in its place a system primarily based on common ownership. Any attempt to adjust capitalism to the needs of the community will be brought up sharply against the innate character and drives of the system itself.” Arguments: No fundamental change in the structural priorities of capitalism Superior appeal of consumerism over public provision No establishment of socialist principles of social organisation Democratisation of society successfully contained