SOCIALISM IN THE LIGHT OF SOCIOLOGY
There have been many "short-cuts" proposed to the solution of social
problems. Among these the various schemes for reorganizing human society
and industry, brought together under the general name of "socialism,"
have attracted most attention and deserve most serious consideration.
In criticizing the most conspicuous of these schemes of social
reconstruction, the so-called "scientific socialism," it should be
understood at the outset that there is no intention of questioning the
general aims of the socialists. Those aims, as voiced by their best
representatives, are in entire accord with sound science, religion, and
ethics. That humanity should gain collective control over the conditions
of its existence is the ultimate and highest aim of all science, all
education, and all government. No student of sociology doubts that
human society has steadily moved, though with interruptions, toward a
larger control over its own processes; and no sane man doubts that such
collective control over the conditions of existence is desirable. These
general aims, which the socialists share with all workers for humanity,
are not in question. What is in question are the specific means or
methods by which the socialists propose to reconstruct human society--to
gain collective control over the means of existence. In order to
criticize socialism we must see a little more narrowly what socialism is
and what it proposes to do.
Socialism Defined.--As a recent socialist writer has declared,
socialism, like Christianity, is a term which has come to have no
definite meaning. It is used by all sorts of people to cover all sorts
of vague and indefinite schemes to improve or revolutionize society.
[Footnote: It has been said that the word "socialism," as currently
used, has four distinct meanings: (1) Utopian socialism, i.e., schemes
like More's Utopia; (2) the socialist party and its program, i.e., "the
socialization of the instruments of production;" (3) The Marxist
doctrine of social evolution, i.e., "the materialistic conception of
history;" (4) a vague body of beliefs of the working classes, more or
less derived from (2) and (3). It is of course only socialism in the
second and third senses which is discussed in this chapter.] Such a
vague conception would, of course, be impossible of scientific
criticism. But fortunately the word historically has come to have a
fairly clear and definite meaning. It has come to stand for the social
and political program of a party, the Social-Democratic party of Germany
and other European states. Karl Marx and his associates were the
founders of this party, hence historical socialism is synonymous with
Marxian socialism, and we shall so use the word. The cardinal tenet or
principle of the socialist party is the public ownership of all capital,
that is, of the means of production. Certain other things are, however,
involved in this, and we may define the full program of Marxian
socialism by saying that it proposes: (1) the common ownership of the
means of production (abolition of private property in capital); (2)
common management of the means of production (industry) by
democratically selected authorities; (3) distribution of the product by
these common authorities in accordance with some democratically approved
principle; (4) private property in incomes (consumption goods) to be
retained.
It is evident from this outline of "orthodox" or Marxian socialism that
it is primarily and dominantly an economic program. It is true that it
emphasizes democratic forms of government, but this is only incidental
to its main purpose of securing a just distribution of economic goods.
Strictly speaking, in a correct use of scientific terms, Marxian
socialism should be called "economic socialism."
The Theoretical Basis of Marxian Socialism.--Marx's socialism is
frequently called scientific socialism, because its followers believe
that it rests upon a scientific theory of social evolution. This theory
is best stated in Marx's own words, as he gives it in his _Critique of
Political Economy_, namely, that "the method of the production of
material life determines the social, political, and spiritual life
process in general." We find it stated in other words, though in
substance the same, by Engels, Marx's friend and coworker. Engels says,
"In every historical epoch, the prevailing mode of economic production
and exchange, and the social organization _necessarily_ following
from it, form the basis upon which is built up, and from which alone can
be explained, the political and intellectual history of that epoch." In
other words, according to Marx and his followers, the economic element
in human society determines all other elements; if the other elements
cannot be fully derived from the economic, their form and expression is
at least determined by the economic. This is the so-called
"materialistic conception of history" upon which Marxian socialists
believe their program to have a firm scientific foundation. [Footnote:
In several utterances of his later years Marx qualified considerably his
"materialistic conception of history," but the more radical or
revolutionary wing of his followers have always adhered to the extreme
form of the theory.] The followers of Marx, indeed, declare that with
this principle Marx explains social evolution quite as fully as Darwin
explained organic evolution through natural selection; and they do not
hesitate to compare Marx's work in the social sciences with Darwin's
work in the biological sciences.
It may certainly be agreed that this social philosophy which we have
already said is best characterized as "economic determinism," is the
logically necessary foundation of economic socialism. If the change of
the economic or industrial order of human society is going to work such
wonders as the socialists claim, then it must follow that the economic
element is the fundamental and determining element in the social life.
If what is wrong with human society is chiefly wrong economic
conditions, then the changing of those conditions should, of course,
change the whole social superstructure. It would seem, therefore, that
the dominantly economic program of Marxian socialists must stand or fall
with the economic interpretation of social organization and evolution
which Marx proposed. If it can be shown that Marx's philosophy of human
society is essentially unsound, then the proposition to regenerate human
society simply by economic reorganization is also unsound. Let us see
whether the positions of the economic socialists are tenable in the
light of the sociological principles which have been emphasized in the
previous chapters of this book.
Criticism of Marxian Socialism.--The student has already been told that
human society is a complex of living organisms, responding now this way,
now that, to external stimuli in the environment. These stimuli in the
environment we have roughly, but inaccurately, spoken of as causes,
though they are not causes in a mechanical sense. The responses which
are given to these stimuli by individuals and groups vary greatly
according to heredity, instincts, and habits,--the inner nature, in
other words, of the organisms composing society. Now, the stimuli in
the environment which give rise to the activities of individuals and
societies, though not in any mechanical way, may be classified into
several great groups, such as the economic, the reproductive, the
political, the religious, and so on. The economic stimuli would be
those that have to do with the processes of production, distribution,
and consumption of wealth; that is, the economic stimuli are those which
are concerned with economic values. Now, while the student has not been
even introduced to the psychological theory of human society, he perhaps
knows enough of individual human nature to see that there is no reason
in the nature of things why one's responses to economic stimuli, those
connected with economic values, should determine his response to all
other stimuli; and this is what scientific sociology and scientific
psychology exactly find; namely, that there is no reason for believing
that economic stimuli determine in any exact way or to any such extent,
as Marx thought, responses to other stimuli. It is true that our habits
of response to a certain class of stimuli affect to a certain extent our
habits of response to all other classes. Thus it follows that the
economic phase of human society affects to a very great degree all other
phases of human society. But this is simply the doctrine of the unity of
personality and the interdependence of all phases of the social life,
and it is very different from Marx's theory that the economic determines
all the other phases; for under the doctrine of social interdependence
we can see it is quite as reasonable to state that the religious and
political phases of the social life determine the economic as it is to
state that the economic determines the political and religious.
Let us bring the discussion down to more concrete terms. The student has
seen that in every social problem there are a multitude of factors or
stimuli (causes) at work, and that in no problem is the economic factor
so all important that it may be said that the other factors are simply
subsidiary. On the contrary, in such a problem as crime the methods of
production and distribution of material goods, while important factors
in the problem of crime, in no way determine that problem; and ideal
conditions of the production and distribution of wealth would in no way
solve the problem of crime. So, too, the negro problem is hardly touched
by the question of the forms of industry or the economic organization of
society. We might go on with a whole list of social problems and show
that in every case the economic factor is no more important than many
other factors, and that the economic reorganization of society would in
some cases scarcely affect these problems at all. _The social problem,
therefore,--the problem of the relations of men to one another,--is not
simply nor fundamentally an economic problem; rather it is fundamentally
a biological and psychological problem,_--if you please, a moral
problem.
This brings us to a second criticism of socialism, namely, that it
proposes to reorganize human society upon an economic basis, not upon a
biological basis. The program of the socialist looks forward to the
satisfaction of economic needs, but it has failed to take into account
the biological requirements for existence. It would be far more
scientific to reorganize society upon the basis of the needs of the
family than to reorganize it simply upon the basis of industry. The
reproductive process which the economic socialists ignore, or leave
unregulated almost entirely, is far more important for the continued
existence of human society than all its economic processes,--if by the
reproductive process we mean the rearing as well as the birth of
offspring; and if by the economic process we mean merely the forms and
methods of the production and distribution of material goods.
In other words, the socialistic program leaves the future out of
account, and aims simply to satisfy the present generation with a just
distribution of material goods. If it could be shown that a just
distribution of material goods would insure the future of the race and
of civilization, then, of course, the socialist plea would be made good.
But this is just what is doubtful. On the whole, it must be said that
the socialist program is based upon the wishes and desires of the adult,
not upon the needs of the child or of the race.
The extreme emphasis which Marxian socialism throws upon economic and
industrial conditions in human society is, therefore, not justified by
the scientific facts which we know about collective human life. Rather
it must be said that this is the vital weakness of Marxian
socialism,--that it over-emphasizes the economic element. Of course, we
are not saying that control over economic conditions is not necessary to
collective control over the general conditions of existence, which
society is undoubtedly aiming at, but it is saying that conceivably
collective control over the social life process might be upon some other
basis than the economic. It might emphasize, for example, the health
and continuity of the race, or individual moral character, far more than
the distribution of economic values. Modern economic socialism proposes
simply to carry a step further our already predominatingly economic
social organization by frankly recognizing the economic as the basis of
all things in the social life. Modern economic socialism is, therefore,
rightfully judged as materialistic. It is really an expression of the
industrial and commercial spirit of the present age. When the
perspective of life becomes shifted again to the more important
biological and spiritual elements in life, socialism will lose its
prevailingly economic character, or it will cease to exist.
It must be emphasized here that all the material and economic progress
of the modern world has not added greatly to the happiness or betterment
of man. It is true that material progress is important, yes, necessary
for spiritual progress. But material progress alone does not lead to
spiritual progress, and therefore mere material progress can never add
anything to the real happiness and social betterment of the race. On
the contrary, it is possible to conceive of a society in which every one
has an economic surplus,--a society rolling in wealth, approximately
equally divided, and yet one in which human misery in its worst forms of
vice and crime, pessimism and self-destruction, prevail. It is an old
truth that making men "better-off" does not necessarily make them
"better," and one which cannot be too often emphasized, but one which
the modern socialist gets angry at when it is mentioned to him. It is
therefore a matter of comparative indifference, from the standpoint of
the happiness and ultimate survival of the race, whether economic goods
are distributed relatively evenly in human society or not. We say
comparative indifference, because, of course, no one can be indifferent
to the material needs of life, inasmuch as they are the basis of its
higher development. But after a certain minimum is assured it is
extremely doubtful whether a surplus will be of benefit or not, and this
minimum necessary for the higher spiritual development of the social
life can be secured through the reform of present society without trying
the doubtful social revolution which the socialists advocate.
This brings us to a third criticism of Marxian socialism. Traditionally
Marxian socialism has been revolutionary socialism. The vast mass of the
socialist party to-day look forward to some revolution which will, as
they say, "socialize the instruments of production," that is, transfer
capital from private ownership and management to public ownership and
management. Probably rightly, many socialists hold that such a wholesale
transfer from private to public ownership would be the only way in which
a socialistic regime could be successfully inaugurated. But if this
revolution were accomplished it is evident that it is highly uncertain
whether its results would be permanent. For all that we have learned
concerning human society leads us to say that social organization at any
particular time is very largely a matter of habit. Now collective
habits are less easily changed than individual habits, because any
change in collective habits practically necessitates the consent of all
the individuals who make up the social group. We know also that even in
individual life old habits are not easily supplanted by new ones and
that there is always a tendency to revert to the old. All historical
evidence shows that revolutions are always followed by periods of
reaction, and that this reaction is usually proportionate to the extent
and suddenness of change in social organization.
Some modern socialists have argued from de Vries's mutation theory in
biology that in social evolution we must expect mutations also, and
that, therefore, the great changes in human society are normally
accomplished by means of revolution. But this argument rests wholly on
analogy, and arguments from analogy in science are practically
worthless. It may be asserted, on the other hand, that all the great
changes in human society which have been desirable have come about only
after prolonged preparation and after a series of gradual steps which
led up to the final change. The Greco-Roman world, for example, was
becoming ripe for Christianity before Christianity finally appeared and
became triumphant. The centuries from the fourteenth to the sixteenth
had prepared for the protestant reformation in the countries of modern
Europe before the reformation became an established fact.
Thus, radical reconstruction of the social life by means of revolution
is scarcely possible. The instincts and habits of individual human
nature upon which the social order rests cannot be easily changed by
revolutionary programs in legislation or in institutions. The only
probable result of such an attempt would be the collapse of the new
social order, because it would have insufficient foundations in
individual character upon which to rest. The idea of ushering in the
social millennium through some vast social revolution is therefore
chimerical.
It is not the place in this book to take up the practical objections to
economic socialism. These practical objections are for the most part of
a political and economic nature, and they accordingly can be better
dealt with in treatises on politics and economics than in one on
sociology. It is perhaps sufficient to say that the political and
economic objections to socialism are not less weighty than the
sociological objections. Government, for example, exists in human
society to regulate, and not to carry on directly, all social
activities. If the state were in its various forms called upon to own
and manage all productive wealth in society, it is extremely probable
that such an experiment would break down of its own weight, since the
state would be attempting that which, in the nature of things, as the
chief regulative institution of society, it is not fitted to do. But it
is not our purpose, as has just been said, to go into the political and
economic objections to economic or Marxian socialism. To understand
these the student must consult the leading works on economic and
political science.
Substitutes for Economic Socialism.--Certain steps sociology and all
social sciences already indicate as necessary for larger collective
control over the conditions of social existence. These steps, however,
aim not at instituting a new social order, but at removing certain
demonstrated causes of social maladjustment which exist in present
society; and as in the solution of special social problems we have seen
reason to reject "short-cuts" and "cure-alls," so in a scientific
reconstruction of human society we have good reason to reject the social
revolution which the followers of Marx advocate, and to offer as a
substitute in its stead some social reforms which will make more nearly
possible a normal social life.
Perhaps the necessary steps for bringing about such a normal social life
have never been better summed up than by Professor Devine in his book on
_Misery and its Causes_. Rather than offer a program of our own we
shall, therefore, give a brief resume of the conditions which Professor
Devine names as essential to normal social life, believing that these
offer a program upon which all sane social workers and reformers can
unite. Professor Devine names ten conditions essential to a normal
social life: (1) the securing of a sound physical heredity, that is, a
good birth for every child, by a rational system of eugenics; (2) the
securing of a protected childhood, which will assure the normal
development of the child, and of a protected motherhood, which will
assure the proper care of the child; (3) a system of education which
shall be adapted to social needs, inspired by the ideals of rational
living and social service; (4) the securing of freedom from preventable
disease; (5) the elimination of professional vice and crime; (6) the
securing of a prolonged working period for both men and women; (7) a
general system of insurance against the ordinary contingencies of life
which now cause poverty or dependence; (8) a liberal relief system which
will meet the material needs of those who become accidentally dependent;
(9) a standard of living sufficiently high to insure full nourishment,
reasonable recreation, proper housing, and the other elementary
necessities of life; (10) a social religion which shall make the service
of humanity the highest aim of all individuals.
It is sufficient to say, in closing this chapter, that if these ten
essentials of a normal social life could be realized--and there is no
reason why they cannot be--there would be no need to try the social
revolution which Marxian socialism advocates.
There can be no question that the ultimate aim of the social sciences is
to provide society with the knowledge necessary for collective control
over its own life processes. Sociology and the special social sciences
are aiming, therefore, in an indirect way to accomplish the same thing
which political socialism aims at accomplishing through economic
revolution. There would seem to be no danger in trusting science to
work out this problem of collective control over the conditions of
existence. There are no risks to run by the scientific method, for it
proceeds step by step, adequately testing theories by facts as it goes
along. The thing to do, therefore, for those who wish to see "a
humanity adjusted to the requirements of its existence" is to encourage
scientific social research along all lines. With a fuller knowledge of
human nature and human society it will be possible to indicate sane and
safe reconstructions in the social order, so that ultimately humanity
will control its social environment and its own human nature even more
completely than it now controls the forces of physical nature. But the
ultimate reliance in all such reconstruction, as we will try to show in
the next chapter, must be, not revolution, nor even legislation, but
education.
SELECT REFERENCES
_For brief reading:_
ELY, _Socialism and Social Reform._
SPARGO, _Socialism._ Revised edition.
GILMAN, _Socialism and the American Spirit._
_For more extended reading_:
HUNTER, _Socialists at Work._
KIRKUP, _History of Socialism._
SCHAEFFLE, _Quintessence of Socialism._
WELLS, _New Worlds for Old._