Political families under the microscope

The socialists

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The socialists

Freedoms in the socialist framework
Historical evolution
Marx and the revolutionary branch
Democratic socialism and the reformist tradition
The holistic principle: primacy of the collective
The Green New Deal: a contemporary synthesis
Socialist thought in quotations

Socialism is a political and economic movement, and indeed a doctrine, that emerged in the nineteenth century with the critique of social inequalities and the alienation of workers in large-scale industry. From its very origins, it is also clearly an anti-capitalist movement, even though, as we shall see, modern socialists have progressively introduced moderations and compromises into their principles.

Freedoms in the socialist framework

In socialist thought, freedoms are not considered uniformly. One observes a fundamental dichotomy between the societal and economic spheres:

Freedoms: strong in the societal sphere, but weak in the economic sphere.
Cardinal values: equality, progress, social justice, solidarity.
Philosophy and principles: Primacy of collective organization. Socialism is a practice rooted in a holistic vision of society (holism), expressed through the state. The term "holism" comes from the Greek holos, meaning "the whole." The socialist state aims to take charge of and direct human activity to the maximum. Socialists have an almost unlimited faith in the possibility of building a new social order based on reason, what Hayek called "constructivism."
Politics: Socialists advocate health programs, regulatory capture, tax increases, and subsidies to guarantee equity. This implies economic and social state direction, planning (the organization of production upstream). The most radical and fully realized socialism is totalitarian, as the state takes charge of all human activity.
Economics: Socialism implies strong state control of the economy, in favor of equity. Socialists are suspicious of free markets, which they see as blind, instinctive forces. They favor wealth redistribution, centralized social programs, and progressive taxation that increases proportionally with income and becomes punitive for those who earn or produce wealth.

Historical evolution

The concept of socialism was first used systematically by the Frenchman Pierre Leroux in 1833, in an article for the Revue Encyclopedique, explicitly in opposition to individualism. The term was then applied to the doctrines of Saint-Simon, Fourier, and Owen toward the middle of the nineteenth century, before Marx adopted it for his own purposes. Notably, the word "communism" that Marx would embrace also originated with a French socialist named Etienne Cabet.

By the end of the nineteenth century, a complete rupture emerged between Marxism and anarchism. From the early twentieth century onward, a fundamental division separated revolutionary socialists from reformist socialists:

Revolutionary socialists oppose property rights and seek to destroy capitalist bourgeois society. They aim to seize power through violence or the dictatorship of the proletariat. This current gave rise to Marxist communism and, ultimately, to the worst totalitarian regimes.
Reformist socialists are not prone to violence; they have understood that frontal opposition to the state does not pay. They pursue social justice through democratic elections and taxation, using the resources generated by the market economy. In other words, they temporarily accept capitalism in order to use it against itself. This tradition is represented by Jean Jaures, Leon Blum, Olof Palme (Sweden), Willy Brandt (Germany), and Francois Mitterrand (France).

Marx and the revolutionary branch

Karl Marx drew a crucial distinction between utopian socialism and scientific socialism. He accused the early French socialists (Proudhon, Saint-Simon, Fourier) of being utopians, meaning they proposed purely imaginary solutions without genuine theoretical or practical foundations.

Marx's scientific socialism rests on historical materialism: the idea that history progresses through class struggle and the appropriation of the means of production. According to this approach, all cultural representations (law, political institutions, religions) are conditioned by the development of productive forces and relations of production. The state, the law, even culture itself are merely expressions of the interests of the dominant class. It is this materialist framework that led Marx to argue that the proletariat must become conscious of its oppression and liberate itself through revolution, by eliminating the oppressive class.

Democratic socialism and the reformist tradition

Jean Jaures stands as one of the great thinkers of democratic socialism. A philosopher by training who entered politics at the turn of the twentieth century, Jaures founded the newspaper L'Humanite. His definition of socialism was the legitimate intervention of society and of power in human life, particularly in labor relations, in order to realize individual freedom and equity. In other words, Jaures laid the theoretical foundations for justifying state intervention in the name of equality.

Emile Durkheim, founder of the chair of sociology at the Sorbonne in 1913 and a friend of Jaures, explained that socialism is a protest against the current economic state of affairs that demands a transformation through the organization of economic forces. Both Jaures and Durkheim shared a strikingly economic conception of socialism: the economy must not be left to market forces (which they considered blind and instinctive) but should instead be managed rationally.

Modern socialism also owes a great deal to Roosevelt and the New Deal. In the 1930s, Franklin Delano Roosevelt implemented a set of reforms following the Great Depression that constitute a major reference for all contemporary defenders of democratic socialism:

Creation of Social Security
Introduction of the federal minimum wage
Setting up of unemployment insurance
Federal public employment programs

After the war, the United Kingdom adopted similar reforms (nationalizations, the welfare state), Germany's social democrats progressively abandoned Marxist references in favor of a social market economy, and the Nordic countries developed a model combining market economy, progressive taxation, and universal public services. Bernie Sanders, a contemporary American politician who identifies as a social democrat, often cites France as an example of this model's success, particularly its social security system.

The holistic principle: primacy of the collective

Socialism is characterized by a holistic vision of society, considered as an indivisible whole rather than a simple sum of individuals. There are different ways of representing this collective: the social class (the Marxist approach), the nation (as in fascism, which subordinates the individual to the national interest), the race (as in National Socialism), or the gender (as in certain contemporary approaches). In each case, the individual no longer defines himself; he is defined by his belonging to a group.

The Green New Deal: a contemporary synthesis

The Green New Deal represents a recent evolution of democratic socialism, fusing environmental concerns with social objectives. Politically, ecology aligns with the left and even the far left. This program combines ecological transition with social justice, employment guarantees, and reinforced public services. In every case, individual interest is subordinated to the collective interest, defined by planetary health and the challenge of climate change. At bottom, this is simply a new rhetorical envelope that justifies state intervention and the confiscation of private income, no longer solely in the name of equity and social justice but also in the name of the environment.

Socialist thought in quotations

We have come to a clear realization that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. Necessitous men are not free men. Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944

The goal of socialism is the economic emancipation of all men. Leon Blum, On a Human Scale, 1945

Socialism is the doctrine that teaches that society must be organized in such a way as to ensure the well-being of all its members. Emile Durkheim, Socialism, 1928

For me, socialism is about people working together to create a society that works for all of us, not just a few rich people. Bernie Sanders, 2015

These quotations illustrate the noble intentions behind socialist thought. Yet the fundamental question remains: what are the means, and where is the line? If one pursues economic emancipation through coercion and power, is that not a contradiction in terms?

Quiz

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How does the Green New Deal represent a contemporary evolution of democratic socialism?