Bourgeois socialism orconservative socialism was a term used byKarl Marx andFriedrich Engels in various pieces, including inThe Communist Manifesto.Conservative socialism was used as a rebuke by Marx for certain strains ofsocialism but has also been used by proponents of such a system.[1] Bourgeois socialists are described as those that advocate for preserving the existing society while only attempting to eliminate perceived evils of the system.[2] Conservative socialism andright-wing socialism are also used as a descriptor, and in some cases as a pejorative, byfree-market conservative andright-libertarian movements and politicians to describe moreeconomically interventionist strands ofconservatism, such aspaternalistic conservatism.[3]
TheMarxist view is such that the bourgeois socialist is the sustainer of the state of bourgeois class relations. InThe Principles of Communism,Friedrich Engels describes them as "so-called socialists" who only seek to remove the evils inherent in capitalist society while maintaining the existing society often relying on methods, such aswelfare systems and grandiose claims ofsocial reform.[2] Opinions vary as to whether if bourgeois socialist is actively protecting or intentionally excusing the current order, but the common thread is that they are in objective fact preserving it. Rather than abolishingsocial class divisions, they wish to simply raise everyone up to be a member of thebourgeoisie to allow everyone the ability to endlessly accumulatecapital without aworking class. InThe Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels usephilanthropists,feminists ("temperance fanatics") andpolitical reformers as examples of thistype of socialism that they saw as opposed to their own aims. In expressing their views on the subject, Marx referencedPierre-Joseph Proudhon'sThe Philosophy of Poverty, stating the following about bourgeois socialism: "The Socialistic bourgeois want all the advantages of modern social conditions without the struggles and dangers necessarily resulting therefrom." Bourgeois socialists are considered as working for the enemies of communists by preserving the society thatcommunists seek to overthrow thus Engels claims that communists must continuously struggle against them.[4]
Right-wing socialism is used as a pejorative term by somefree-market conservative andright-libertarian movements, politicians, and economists, such asMurray Rothbard andJesús Huerta de Soto,[3][5] to describeeconomic interventionist variants of conservatism they see supportingpaternalism and solidarity as opposed tocommercialism,individualism, andlaissez-faire economics.[1][6] They argue that paternalist conservatism supports state promotedsocial hierarchy and allows certain people and groups to hold higher status in such a hierarchy which is conservative.[7]Right-wing socialism is also used to refer to moderatesocial democratic forms of socialism when contrasted withMarxism–Leninism and other more radicalleft-wing alternatives. During the post-war period in Japan, theJapan Socialist Party divided itself into two different socialist parties, usually distinguished into theLeftist Socialist Party of Japan (officially the Japanese Socialist Party in English) and theRightist Socialist Party of Japan (officially the Social Democratic Party of Japan in English). The latter received over 10 per cent of the vote in the1952 and1953 general elections and was acentre-left, moderate social democratic party.[8][9]Agrarian socialism,guild socialism,military socialism,National Bolshevism,national syndicalism,[10][11][12]Peronism,[13][14] Prussian socialism,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]state socialism, andStrasserism are sometimes termedright-wing socialism by various authors.[3] Historian Ishay Landa has described the nature of right-wing socialism as decidedly capitalist.[23]
An early proponent of conservative socialism was 19th-century Austrian politicianKlemens von Metternich as early as 1847.[1]Monarchists had begun to usesocialism as an antithesis of bourgeoislaissez-faire, indicating reliance on a social conscience as opposed to pure individualism.[1] Metternich said the aims of such a conservative socialism were "peaceful, class-harmonizing, cosmopolitan, traditional".[24] Monarchical socialism promoted social paternalism portraying the monarch as having a fatherly duty to protect his people from the effects of free economic forces.[25] Metternich's conservative socialism sawliberalism andnationalism as forms ofmiddle-class dictatorship overcommoners.[25]
Johann Karl Rodbertus, a monarchist conservative landowner and lawyer who briefly served as minister of education inPrussia in 1848, promoted a form ofstate socialism led by anenlightened monarchy supportingregulatory economics through thestate.[26] Rodbertus supported the elimination ofprivate ownership of land, with the state in control of national capital rather than redistribution of private capital, a position known asstate capitalism.[26] In the 1880s, Rodbertus' conservative socialism was promoted as a non-revolutionary alternative tosocial democracy and a means to justify the acceptance ofOtto von Bismarck'sState Socialism policies.[26]
DuringWorld War I, the German government issued total mobilization of the economy and social sphere for war, resulting in government regulation of the private and public sector.[27] This was referred to as thewar economy (Kriegswirtschaft) or War Socialism (Kriegssozialismus).[27]War Socialism was coined by GeneralErich Ludendorff, a prominent proponent of the system.[28]
In War Socialism, the militarized state exercised controls and regulations over the entire economy.[29] In Germany, the War Socialist economy was operated by conservative military men and industrialists, who had historically been hostile to socialism.[30] Its goal was to maximize war production and to control worker discontent that was growing amongst the organized labour movement.[31] A leading proponent in Germany of War Socialism was GeneralWilhelm Groener, who insisted against objections of business leaders that labour union representatives be included in factory labour committees as well as regional food and labour boards. This was achieved and gave German unionscollective bargaining rights and official functions in the German state for the first time in history.[32]
War Socialism existed in other European countries involved in the war. In the United Kingdom, a number of public figures promoted the adoption of War Socialism, includingWinston Churchill andDavid Lloyd George.[33] Tsarist Russia had War Socialism.[34] SociologistPitirim Sorokin argues that War Socialism had existed for two hundred years in support of the Russian tsarist regime until their overthrow in 1917.[34] The War Socialist economy of Russia was based upon that in Germany and was supported by non-socialist and socialist parties alike.[35]
