Socialism

by Adina Lopatin

Socialism is a political system characterized by communal control of property. There are many different branches of socialism, each of which envisions the redistribution of wealth in a different way. Some socialists foresee communism, totalitarianism, and utopianism, while others simply envision government control of infrastructure. Socialism in theory has been very different from socialism in practice; many social experiments have failed. Though the roots of socialism can be traced to Platonic and Enlightenment philosophies, modern socialism emerged as a

response to the growing wealth gap as a result of the Industrial Revolution. Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), who wrote on the Social Contract, the relationship between government and people, was a father of modern socialism. Rousseau was one of the first modern thinkers to attack private property. Rousseau's hatred for private property came from a sense that morality should apply to politics. He believed that the role of the government was to promote freedom, justice, and equality for all, and that abolishing private property was an integral part of securing equality. Utopian socialist Charles Fourier (1772-1837) believed that an ideal socialist state could be etablished in the immediate future. He lauded Reason and Nature and abhorred nineteenth century liberalism. Fourier dreamed of the eden of joyous labor he called the phalanstere. In Victorian England, however, socialism was much more concrete. It was about the proletariat discontents described in Friedrich Engels' Condition of the Working Class in England. Because the Industrial Revolution created a strong proletariat, attention focused on the inadequacies of laissez-faire industrial capitalism. According to Friedrich Engels, the laws of supply and demand of wages cut down the working class population before it becomes strong enough to revolt. In the Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels outlined the stages of communism, beginning with proletariat revolution and ending with the dissolution of the state.

Picture Sources

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