Political and Cultural Developments, 1815-1848, Part 2

Question 1: Describe the philosophy of Robert Owen and how he tried to put it into practice.

Answer 1: Robert Owen was the best-known of the utopian socialists, reformers who tried to create model socialist communities in which all residents shared everything in common, without class divisions. Owen and other utopian socialists were inspired by the ideal community described by Thomas More in Utopia (1519). In 1814, Owen entered into a business partnership with utilitarian Jeremy Bentham. They tried to implement socialist ideals in their business by redistributing profits back to workers through schools for their children, free housing, and low-cost food and clothing. Owen also encouraged union membership and “villages of cooperation” to provide aid to the unemployed. In 1825, Owen came to the United States to establish utopian societies, the most famous of which was New Harmony, Indiana. Although Owen’s utopian village model was not widely copied, his ideas influenced socialists and labor reformers throughout the 1800s.

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Question 2: Summarize Karl Marx’s impact on socialism.

Answer 2: Although Karl Marx was involved with the socialist movement in Germany, he differed with many leaders of the movement. In addition to viewing utopian socialism as unrealistic, he thought that other socialist reformers were not willing to go far enough in challenging the system. He also believed that all great changes in history developed from revolutions against economic conditions, conflicts he called “class struggles.” Marx believed that the capitalist age was leading to a new revolution between the owners of the means of production (“bourgeoisie”) and the workers (“proletariat”). The bourgeoisie gained the majority of wealth from the labor of the proletariat. As the income gap between the bourgeoisie and proletariat increased, workers would eventually revolt and overthrow capitalism in order to create a classless society in which everyone would contribute what they could and receive only what they needed: “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.” His ideas, published in The Communist Manifesto (1848) (co-authored by Friedrich Engels), shaped all socialist movements that followed.

Question 3: Identify the difference between socialism and communism.

Answer 3: Socialism refers to the basic theory of a government’s owning the means of production in order to ensure that profits and wealth are redistributed for the benefit of all citizens. Socialism may take place on various levels, including local control (such as in utopian villages) or limited federal ownership of certain businesses (such as fuel or other vital natural resources), which allows for some degree of private ownership. Communism, sometimes call “authoritarian socialism,” involves a system in which there is no private ownership and the government completely controls all means of production and all economic planning. Based on Marx’s predictions in The Communist Manifesto, most Marxists believed that communism would be established after violent revolution by the proletariat. They anticipated that after workers overthrew capitalist society, they would then have to establish a “dictatorship of the proletariat” until all people came to accept the benefits of “pure communism,” or the perfect classless society.

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