Liberal socialism is apolitical philosophy that incorporatesliberal principles tosocialism.[1] This synthesis sees liberalism as the political theory that takes the inner freedom of the human spirit as a given and adoptsliberty as the goal, means and rule of shared human life. Socialism is seen as the method to realize this recognition of liberty through political and economic autonomy and emancipation from the grip of pressing material necessity.[2] Liberal socialism opposes abolishing certain components ofcapitalism and supports something approximating amixed economy that includes bothsocial ownership andprivate property incapital goods.[3][4]
Liberal socialism has been particularly prominent in British and Italian politics.[5] Its seminal ideas can be traced toJohn Stuart Mill, who theorised that capitalist societies should experience a gradualprocess of socialisation throughworker-controlledenterprises, coexisting withprivate enterprises.[6] Mill rejectedcentralised models of socialism that he thought might discourage competition and creativity, but he argued that representation is essential in a free government and democracy could not subsist if economic opportunities were not well distributed, therefore conceiving democracy not just as a form of representative government, but as an entire social organisation.[7] While some socialists have been hostile to liberalism, accused of "providing an ideological cover for the depredation of capitalism", it has been pointed out that "the goals of liberalism are not so different from those of the socialists", although this similarity in goals has been described as being deceptive due to the different meanings liberalism and socialism give toliberty, equality and solidarity.[8] In a modern context,liberal socialism is sometimes used interchangeably with modernsocial liberalism[a] orsocial democracy.[9]
Principles that can be described as liberal socialist are based on the works ofclassical liberal, social liberal,radical, socialist andanarchist economists and philosophers such asRoberto Ardigò,[10]Eduard Bernstein,[11]Henry Charles Carey,[12]G. D. H. Cole,[11]Jean Hippolyte Colins de Ham [fr],[13]John Dewey,[11]Eugen Dühring,[12]François Huet [fr],[13]Benjamin Tucker,John Stuart Mill,[11]William Ogilvie of Pittensear,[14]Thomas Paine,[15]Karl Polanyi,[16]William Batchelder Greene,Pierre-Joseph Proudhon,[17]Carlo Rosselli,[11]Thomas Spence,[14]Herbert Spencer[18] andLéon Walras.[19] Other important liberal socialist figures includeNorberto Bobbio,[20]Guido Calogero [it],[21]Anthony Crosland,[22]Piero Gobetti,[23]Theodor Hertzka,[12]Leonard Hobhouse,[22]Oszkár Jászi,[24]Josef Macek [cz],[14]Chantal Mouffe,[11]Franz Oppenheimer,[25]John Rawls[26] andR. H. Tawney.[27] As an alternative social ideal, liberal socialism may be regarded as a synthesis of the ideas ofKarl Marx (a socialist) andJohn Rawls (a liberal).[28] Although not liberal socialist, the conception of land by economists and philosophers such asHenry George[12] andAdam Smith[29] also influenced the liberal socialist tradition.
Liberal socialism opposeslaissez-faire-styleeconomic liberalism andstate socialism.[5] It considers bothliberty andequality as compatible with each other and mutually needed to achieve greater economic equality that is necessary to achieve greater economic liberty.[1] To Polanyi, liberal socialism's goal was overcoming exploitative aspects of capitalism by expropriation of landlords and opening to all the opportunity to own land.[16] It represented the culmination of a tradition initiated by thephysiocrats, among others.[16]
Ethical socialism is a variant of liberal socialism developed byBritish socialists.[30][31] A key component of ethical socialism is in its emphasis on moral and ethical critiques of capitalism and building a case for socialism on moral or spiritual grounds as opposed torationalist andmaterialist grounds. Ethical socialists advocated amixed economy that involves an acceptance of a role of bothpublic enterprise as well associally responsibleprivate enterprise.[32] Ethical socialism was founded byChristian socialistR. H. Tawney and its ideals were also connected toFabian andguild-socialist values.[33]
It emphasises the need for a morally conscious economy based upon the principles of service, cooperation andsocial justice while opposing possessiveindividualism.[34] Ethical socialism is distinct in its focus on criticism of the ethics of capitalism and not merely criticism of material issues of capitalism. Tawney denounced the self-seeking amoral and immoral behaviour that he claimed is supported by capitalism.[31] He opposed what he called the "acquisitive society" that causes private property to be used to transfer surplus profit to "functionless owners"—capitalist rentiers.[34] However, Tawney did not denounce managers as a whole, believing that management and employees could join together in a political alliance for reform.[34] He supported the pooling of surplus profit through means ofprogressive taxation to redistribute these funds to providesocial welfare, includingpublic health care,public education andpublic housing.[35]
Tawney advocated nationalisation of strategic industries and services.[36] He also advocated worker participation in the business of management in the economy as well as consumer, employee, employer and state cooperation in the economy.[36] Though he supported a substantial role for public enterprise in the economy, Tawney stated that where private enterprise provided a service that was commensurate with its rewards that was functioning private property, then a business could be usefully and legitimately be left in private hands.[32] Ethical socialistThomas Hill Green supported the right ofequal opportunity for all individuals to be able freely appropriate property, but he claimed that acquisition of wealth did not imply that an individual could do whatever they wanted to once that wealth was in their possession. Green opposed "property rights of the few" that were preventing the ownership of property by the many.[37]
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During theNational Autonomist Party governments, liberal socialism emerged in Argentina's politics as opposed to theJulio Argentino Roca's rulingconservative liberalism, though presidentDomingo Faustino Sarmiento had previously implemented an agenda influenced byJohn Stuart Mill's writings. The first spokesperson for the new trend wasLeandro N. Alem, founder of theRadical Civil Union. Liberal socialists never governed in Argentina, but they constituted the main opposition from 1880 to 1914 and again from 1930 until the rise ofPeronism.Adolfo Dickman [es],Enrique Dickmann [es],José Ingenieros,Juan B. Justo,Moisés Lebensohn [es],Alicia Moreau de Justo andNicolás Repetto are among the representatives of the trend during theDécada Infame in the 1930s as part of the Radical Civic Union or theSocialist Party.[38]
Ingenieros' work has diffused all over Latin America.[39] In the2003 Argentine general election,Ricardo López Murphy (who has declared himself a liberal socialist in the tradition of Alem andJuan Bautista Alberdi) ended third with 16.3 per cent of the popular vote.[40] Contemporary Argentine liberal socialists includeMario Bunge,[41]Carlos Fayt andJuan José Sebreli.[42]
Chantal Mouffe is a prominent Belgian advocate of liberal socialism.[43] She describes liberal socialism as follows:
To deepen and enrich the pluralist conquests of liberal democracy, the articulation between political liberalism and individualism must be broken, to make possible a new approach to individuality that restores its social nature without reducing it to a simple component of an organic whole. This is where the socialist tradition of thought might still have something to contribute to the democratic project and herein lies the promise of a liberal socialism.[43]
The main classical liberal English thinkerJohn Stuart Mill's earlyeconomic philosophy was one offree markets. However, he accepted interventions in the economy. He also accepted the principle of legislative intervention for the purpose of animal welfare.[44] Mill originally believed that equality of taxation meantequality of sacrifice and thatprogressive taxation penalised those who worked harder and saved more and therefore was a "mild form of robbery".[45]
Given an equal tax rate regardless of income, Mill agreed thatinheritance should be taxed. A utilitarian society would agree that everyone should be equal one way or another. Therefore, receiving inheritance would put one ahead of society unless taxed on the inheritance. Those who donate should consider and choose carefully where their money goes—some charities are more deserving than others. Public charities boards such as a government (i.e. social welfare) will disburse the money equally. However, a private charity board like a church would disburse the monies fairly to those who are in more need than others.[46][page needed]
Mill later altered his views toward a more socialist bent, adding chapters to hisPrinciples of Political Economy in defence of a socialist outlook and defending some socialist causes.[47] Within this revised work, he also made the radical proposal that the whole wage system be abolished in favour of a co-operative wage system.[48] Nonetheless, some of his views on the idea of flat taxation remained,[49] albeit altered in the third edition of thePrinciples of Political Economy to reflect a concern for differentiating restrictions onunearned incomes which he favoured; and those on earned incomes which he did not favour.[50]
In the case ofOxford University, Mill'sPrinciples of Political Economy, first published in 1848, was the standard text until 1919 when it was replaced byAlfred Marshall'sPrinciples of Economics. AsAdam Smith'sWealth of Nations had during an earlier period, Mill'sPrinciples of Economy dominated economics teaching and was one of the most widely read of all books on economics in the period.[51]
In later editions ofPrinciples of Political Economy, Mill would argue that "as far as economic theory was concerned, there is nothing in principle in economic theory that precludes an economic order based on socialist policies".[52] Mill also promoted substituting capitalist businesses withworker cooperatives,[53] writing:
The form of association, however, which if mankind continue to improve, must be expected in the end to predominate, is not that which can exist between a capitalist as chief, and work-people without a voice in the management, but the association of the labourers themselves on terms of equality, collectively owning the capital with which they carry on their operations, and working under managers elected and removable by themselves.[54]
Liberal socialism has exercised influence in British politics, especially in the variant known as ethical socialism.[55] Ethical socialism is an important ideology of theLabour Party. LabourPrime MinisterClement Attlee supported the ideology, which played a large role in his party's policies during the postwar 1940s.[56] Half a century after Attlee's tenure,Tony Blair, another Labour Prime Minister, also described himself as an adherent of ethical socialism, which for him embodies the values of "social justice, the equal worth of each citizen, equality of opportunity, community".[57] Influenced by Attlee andJohn Macmurray (who himself was influenced by Green),[58] Blair has defined the ideology in similar terms as earlier adherents—with an emphasis on thecommon good, rights and responsibilities as well as support of an organic society in which individuals flourish through cooperation.[58] Blair argued that Labour ran into problems in the 1960s and 1970s when it abandoned ethical socialism and that its recovery required a return to the values promoted by the Attlee government.[5] However, Blair's critics (both inside and outside Labour) have accused him of completely abandoning socialism in favour of capitalism.[59]
WhilePierre-Joseph Proudhon was arevolutionary, hissocial revolution did not meancivil war or violent upheaval, but rather the transformation of society. This transformation was essentially moral in nature and demanded the highestethics from those who sought change. It was monetary reform, combined with organizing a credit bank and workers associations, that Proudhon proposed to use as a lever to bring about the organization of society along new lines.[60] Proudhon'sethical socialism has been described as part of the liberal socialist tradition which is foregalitarianism andfree markets, with Proudhon taking "a commitment to narrow down the sphere of activity of the state".[61]
Proudhon was a supporter of bothfree markets andproperty, but he distinguished between the privilegedprivate property that he opposed and the earnedpersonal property that he supported.[62] In his in-depth analysis of this aspect of Proudhon's ideas, K. Steven Vincent noted that "Proudhon consistently advanced a program of industrial democracy which would return control and direction of the economy to the workers".[63] For Proudhon, "strong workers' associations [...] would enable the workers to determine jointly by election how the enterprise was to be directed and operated on a day-to-day basis".[64]
An early version of liberal socialism was developed in Germany byFranz Oppenheimer.[65] Although he was committed to socialism, Oppenheimer's theories inspired the development of thesocial liberalism that was pursued byGerman ChancellorLudwig Erhard, who said the following: "As long as I live, I will not forget Franz Oppenheimer! I will be as happy if thesocial market economy—as perfect or imperfect as it might be—continues to bear witness to the work, to the intellectual stance of the ideas and teachings of Franz Oppenheimer."[65]
In the 1930s, theSocial Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), areformist socialist political party that was up to then based uponrevisionist Marxism, began a transition away fromorthodox Marxism towards liberal socialism. After it was banned by theNazi regime in 1933, the SPD acted in exile through theSopade. In 1934, the Sopade began to publish material that indicated that the SPD was turning towards liberal socialism.[66]
Curt Heyer [de], a prominent proponent of liberal socialism within the Sopade, declared that Sopade represented the tradition ofWeimar Republicsocial democracy (a form of liberaldemocratic socialism) and declared that Sopade's held true to its mandate of traditional liberal principles combined with the political realism of socialism.[67] After the restoration of democracy in West Germany, the SPD'sGodesberg Program in 1959 eliminated the party's remaining Marxist policies. The SPD then became officially based upon liberal socialism (German:freiheitlicher Sozialismus).[68] West German Chancellor Willy Brandt has been identified as a liberal socialist.[69]
In 1919, the Hungarian politicianOszkár Jászi declared his support for what he termed "liberal socialism" while denouncing "communist socialism".[70] Opposed to classical social democracy's prevalent focus on support from the working class, Jászi saw the middle class andsmallholder peasants as essential to the development of socialism and spoke of the need of a "radical middle-class".[70] His views were especially influenced by events in Hungary in 1919 involving theBolshevik revolution and establishment of theHungarian Soviet Republic, after the collapse of which he specifically denounced the Marxist worldview, calling his views "Anti-Marx". His criticism oforthodox Marxism was centered on its mechanical, valueless, and amoral methodology.[71] He argued that "[i]n no small measure, the present terrible, bewildering world crisis is a consequence of Marxism's mechanical Communism and amoral nihilism. New formulas of spirit, freedom and solidarity have to be found".[71][72]
Jászi promoted a form of co-operative socialism that included liberal principles of freedom, voluntarism and decentralization.[70] He juxtaposed this ideal version of socialism with the then-existing political system in the Soviet Union, which he identified as being based upon dictatorial and militarist perils,statism, and a crippled economic order where competition and quality are disregarded.[73]
Jászi's views on socialism and works denouncingBolshevik communism came back into Hungarian public interest in the 1980s when copies of his manuscripts were discovered and were smuggled into Hungary that was then undercommunist party-rule.[73]
Another famous Hungarian politician,Bibó Istvan ("The Conscience of the Nation"), was a prolific and unique liberal socialist writer. Afterthe Second World War and the crushing of theRevolution of 1956, he wrote essays[74] from a similar viewpoint. His views were unique in the sense that he hadaccepted theimmutability ofthe political systemprevalent in the nation at that time, yet remained a follower of liberal and socialist ideas, such as (small)private property (he agrees with the appropriation of the property of thebiglandowners/squatters andbigcapitalists, but not with themethod of the communists as it was violently and vehemently carried out) andfree speech. Therefore, he wished to reconcile the latter and adapted to the political/societal status quo of the country in his works.[75]
He felt that thepractises ofMarxism andsocialism are (and must be) theRoad to theutopisticgoals andideals of liberalism. He thought, that the ideology of socialism haveeffective tools and clearplans how reach the future of the society. But lack of the definition what will be, mean, or when achieve that. In theliberalism the opposite is the problem: the conditions of the ideal society are clear, but we do not know how to achieve it fast/steadily (per world/country)anddealwiththepitfalls. Contrary, without clear and detailedendgoal (how it will work/regulated the new society in the reality at the end and in process without excessive force and violence), the socialist/communist movements willfall, slowlypass away by exhaustion/tensions, or worse: hijacked by more aggressive/fundamentalistic/etc.people/movements (thosewho only want to enforce the external aspects of the movement, but don't want to preserve its internal values or even want to eliminate that) without any ethical, moral, ideological or legal considerations (as hehimselfcouldexperience). So philosophically, these two ideology must be one or they will not succeed.[76][1]
He drew parallels with thehistory of Christianity, whichwanted to achieve similar goals, but in the religious sphere andfailed, leadingtoreligiousintolerance,fanaticism,anti-scientism, theruleoftyrants, theoppression offoreign cultures andreligions,violenceinside andoutside. (Against which a more open, equal and diverse church would have taken action preemptively with moresocial conscience and even with union/merging with other religions/practices, e.x. given Muslims and Jews.). He compared socialism with Christianity (unlike other religions, that behave like liberalism, e.x.: east-asian or ancient religions) it does not describe in detail the structure of heaven, the extraterrestrial rewards, and the exact punishments beyond death for each sin. It owed his dynamism and fervor to this simplicity. But the theologians explained in detail the organization of the church and strictly regulated lives of the lay people on Earth (without clear rewards if they followed the rules, only the regulations became more extreme, strict, complicated and contradictory, like in theBolshevik-movements), that the common people had to follow and submit themselves or faceswift anddecisivepunishments. Eventually, this led toreligious apathy and secularization, and the world became a more autocratic,cynic,impatient, andviolent place. Its place was taken by secular ideologies. He wrote a shortEpistolary novel about analternate timeline (and planned adrama), where thisdidn't happen, because in a crucial moment theconciliar movementwon against thepopes and kings. Examples of differences:Dzhugashvili "calvinist"cardinall-patriarch reigned as a strict and unifiedhead of the (or "a") (perhaps) Russian state (out ofnecessity), and have aconflict with the also conservative calvinist cardinalAllen Dulles who adhered the "christiancapitalistbusinessman"-ideals and the secularisation (not wield power inunison). After the former death, the "détente" come with the strengthening of the compromise-seekinglutheran, the center-leftist'sjesuit master manipulators ofmass-psychology and the long-leftist'sfranciscans faction's coalition..., (because of independent social tensions growing) "In Germany there were regularpogroms, during which five or, according to some, six human liveslost",(and this is outraged the church, because where six lives can lost, that there six million could lying waste...) etc. (Note, that his father-in-law,László Ravasz, was a prolific HungarianChristian-socialist thinker and reformed bishop and addressee of his alternative self in this epistolary novel)[2]
He called the synthesis "kisember szocializmus", "kispolgár szocializmus": "little people's socialism" - white and blue collar worker/lower middle class's socialism -, "petite bourgeoisie" socialism. And (in Hungary) this didn't meant a path of returning to anearlier political system or the orthodoxstalinism/leninism (or this last with mixed withKádár'sacts andpolicies, that heopposed ethically and morally, and he and his friends were victims/prisoners personally).[77]
His ideal of the economy was, where thesmallest economic levels are ruled/governed byindividuals,nuclear families and themarket('s principles). Theindustry,big factory, and where the small ownership didn't characteristic or didn'tproduceconsumer goods, are controlled by the people (asconsumers and asworkers) via themanagementship anddirectly, and through theplanning of themanufacturing. The state's assignments are only thecoordination of the sectors, and the observation of the individual and a collective human rights, and additionally helping (not control, much less driving/command, and only if they asked) this "worker-councils" (soviets, voluntary worker unions ~ tanács: as they formed/established independently and individually after theFebruary Revolution in Russia or in Hungary 1956, not their role in theUSSR orHungary at the time) with themanagement and planning (and not asowner ormanager). This was against Jászi views, where this functions were the role of only the independent and international cooperation of theintellectuals andintelligentsia (Republic of Letters), as (he thought) happened in theDreyfuss affair, and in theGreat War. Bibó saw this as (necessary, but) insufficient based on hishistoricalexperience. Therefore Bibó was aninternationalist, andadhered theInternational laws.[78]
Going back to Italian revolutionaries and socialists such asGiuseppe Garibaldi andGiuseppe Mazzini,[79] Italian socialistCarlo Rosselli was inspired by the definition of socialism by the founder ofsocial democracy,Eduard Bernstein, who defined socialism as "organised liberalism". Rosselli expanded on Bernstein's arguments by developing his notion of liberal socialism (Italian:socialismo liberale).[80] In 1925, Rosselli defined the ideology in his work of the same name in which he supported the type of socialist economy defined by socialist economistWerner Sombart inDer modern Kapitalismus (1908) that envisaged a new modern mixed economy that included both public and private property, limited economic competition and increased economic cooperation.[3]
While appreciating principles of liberalism as an ideology that emphasised liberation, Rosselli was deeply disappointed with liberalism as a system that he described as having been used by thebourgeoisie to support their privileges while neglecting the liberation components of liberalism as an ideology and thus viewed conventional liberalism as a system that had merely become an ideology of "bourgeois capitalism".[81] At the same time, Rosselli appreciated socialism as an ideology, but he was also deeply disappointed with conventional socialism as a system.[82]
In response to his disappointment with conventional socialism in practice, Rosselli declared: "The recent experiences, all the experiences of the past thirty years, have hopelessly condemned the primitive programs of the socialists. State socialism especially—collectivist, centralising socialism—has been defeated".[82] Rosselli's liberal socialism was partly based upon his study and admiration of British political themes of the Fabian Society and John Stuart Mill (he was able to read the English versions of Mill's workOn Liberty prior to its availability in Italian that began in 1925). His admiration of British socialism increased after his visit to the United Kingdom in 1923 where he metGeorge Drumgoole Coleman, R. H. Tawney and other members of the Fabian Society.[83]
An important component of Italian liberal socialism developed by Rosselli was itsanti-fascism.[84] Rosselli opposedfascism and believed that fascism would only be defeated by a revival of socialism.[84] Rosselli foundedGiustizia e Libertà as aresistance movement founded in the 1930s in opposition to theFascist regime in Italy.[85]Ferruccio Parri—who later becamePrime Minister of Italy—andSandro Pertini—who later becamePresident of Italy—were among Giustizia e Libertà's leaders.[81] Giustizia e Libertà was committed to militant action to fight the Fascist regime and it sawBenito Mussolini as a ruthless murderer who himself deserved to be killed as punishment.[86] Various early schemes were designed by the movement in the 1930s to assassinate Mussolini, including one dramatic plan of using an aircraft to drop a bomb onPiazza Venezia where Mussolini resided.[84] Rosselli was also a prominent member of the liberal-socialistAction Party.[87]
After Rosselli's death, liberal socialism was developed in Italian political thought byGuido Calogero [it].[21] Unlike Rosselli, Calogero considered the ideology as a unique ideology called liberalsocialism (Italian:liberalsocialismo) that was separate from existing liberal and socialist ideologies.[21] Calogero created the "First Manifesto of Liberalsocialism" in 1940[88] that stated the following:
At the basis of liberalsocialism stands the concept of the substantial unity and identity of ideal reason, which supports and justifies socialism in its demand for justice as much as it does liberalism in its demand for liberty. This ideal reason coincides with that same ethical principle to whose rule humanity and civilization, both past and future, must always measure up. This is the principle by which we recognize the personhood of others in contrast to our own person and assign to each of them a right to own their own.[88]
After World War II,Ferruccio Parri of the liberal socialistAction Party briefly served as Prime Minister of Italy in 1945.[89] In 1978, liberal socialist Sandro Pertini of theItalian Socialist Party was elected President of Italy in 1978 and served as President until 1985.[90]
Lula da Silva (President of Brazil from 2003 to 2010, re-elected President in 2022) set out to show that contemporary 'liberal socialism' can work with the market and capitalism for the benefit of all the people, while promoting public services.[91][full citation needed] While advocatingsocialism, Lulism aims for a 'social liberal' approach that gradually resolves the gap between the rich and the poor in a market-oriented way.[92][full citation needed][93][full citation needed]
In 1904 or 1905, theSocial Democratic Party was formed byPersian emigrants inTranscaucasia with the help of local revolutionaries, maintaining close ties to theRussian Social Democratic Labour Party andHemmat Party.[94] The party created its own mélange of European socialism and indigenous ideas and also upheld liberalism andnationalism. It was the first Iranian socialist organization.[95] It maintained some religious beliefs while being critical of the conservativeulama[94] and embracingseparation of church and state.[94] It was founded byHaydar Khan Amo-oghli and led byNariman Narimanov.[94][96]Iran Party, another political party that supported both socialism and liberalism, founded by mostly of European-educated technocrats, it advocated "a diluted form ofFrench socialism"[97] (i.e. it "modeled itself on" the moderateSocialist Party of France)[98] and promotedsocial democracy[99] andliberal nationalism.[100] The socialist tent of the party was more akin to that of theFabian Society than to thescientific socialism ofKarl Marx.[101] Its focus on liberal socialism anddemocratic socialism principles, made it quite different from pure left-wing parties and it did not show much involvement inlabour rights discussions.
... pacific transition to socialism, which led Hollander (2008) to call him the first revisionist. And, on different occasions, Keynes evoked a 'socialism of the future' which is sometimes called social-liberalism or liberal socialism.
Hobhouse was a Liberal politician who argued for 'social liberalism' or 'liberal socialism', i.e. a qualified acceptance of government intervention in the economy. Tillich's green point of the impotence of the Idea apart from The Moot Papers ...
Hence, the remedy for social ills envisaged by Dewey is a regime that might be called "liberal socialism" or "social liberalism," but preferably "social democracy"—that is, a regime where all members enjoy freedom in solidarity.
... and welfare programs, and liberal socialism, or social democracy, that supports economic interventions to promote social justice within the framework of a capitalist economy.
Liberal Socialism was Keynes's particular version of social democracy.
