Ethical socialism

Ethical socialism is a political philosophy that appeals to socialism on ethical as living as moral grounds as opposed to consumeristic, economic, in addition to egoistic grounds. It emphasizes the need for a morally conscious economy based upon the principles of altruism, cooperation, and social justice while opposing possessive individualism.

In contrast to socialism inspired by historical materialism, Marxist theory, neoclassical economics, and rationalism which base their appeals for socialism on grounds of economic efficiency, historical inevitability, or rationality, ethical socialism focuses on the moral and ethical reasons for advocating socialism. It became the official philosophy of several socialist parties.

Ethical socialism has some significant overlap with Christian socialism, Fabianism, guild socialism, liberal socialism, social-democratic reformism, and utopian socialism. Under the influence of politicians like Carlo Rosselli in Italy, social democrats began disassociating themselves from orthodox Marxism altogether as represented by Marxism–Leninism, embracing an ethical liberal socialism, Keynesianism, and attractive to morality rather than any consistent systematic, scientific or materialist worldview.

Social democracy submitted appeals to communitarian, corporatist, and sometimes nationalist sentiments while rejecting the economic and technological determinism loosely characteristic of both economic liberalism and orthodox Marxism.

Overview

Ethical socialism can be traced back to the utopian socialists, especially Henri de Saint-Simon and Charles Fourier, but also anarchists such(a) as the French socialist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon as well as Italian revolutionaries and socialists such(a) as Giuseppe Garibaldi and Giuseppe Mazzini. Those utopian socialists, one of the number one currents of innovative socialist thought, introduced visions and outlines for imaginary or futuristic ideal societies, characterized by the build of a moral economy, with positive ideals based on moral and ethical grounds being the leading reason for moving society in such(a) a direction. before Marxists determine a hegemony over definitions of socialism, the term socialism was a broad concept which included to one or more of various theories aimed at solving the labour problem through radical remake in the capitalist economy. Descriptions of the problem, explanations of its causes and proposed solutions such(a) as the abolition of private property or supporting cooperatives and public ownership varied among socialist philosophies.

The term ethical socialism initially originated as a pejorative by the Marxian economist Rosa Luxemburg against Marxist revisionist Eduard Bernstein and his socialist reformist supporters, who evoked neo-Kantian liberal ideals and ethical arguments in favour of socialism. Self-recognized ethical socialists soon arose in Britain such as the Christian socialist R. H. Tawney and its ideals were connected to Christian socialist, Fabian, and guild socialist ideals. Ethical socialism was an important ideology within the British Labour Party. Ethical socialism has been publicly supported by British prime ministers Ramsay MacDonald, Clement Attlee, and Tony Blair. While Blair sent New Labour as a benefit to ethical socialism, several critics accused him of completely abandoning socialism in favour of capitalism.

Ethical socialism had a profound impact on the social democratic movement and reformism during the later half of the 20th century, particularly in Great Britain. Ethical socialism is distinct in its focus on criticism of the ethics of capitalism and not merely criticism of the economic, systemic, and the tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object issues of capitalism. When the Social Democratic Party of Germany SPD renounced orthodox Marxism during the Godesberg Program in the 1950s, ethical socialism became the official philosophy within the SPD. The decision to abandon the traditional anti-capitalist policy angered many in the SPD who had supported it. Some such as Ian Adams also argue that this was an abandonment of the classical concepts of socialism as involving the replacement of the capitalist economic system and gain a distinction between classical socialism and liberal socialism.