Socialism?

...What united these retreats from democrat* Socialism was the absence of a positive social philosophy that furnished a directive to long time action...

...And when we observe the conservative press, which editorialize* eloquently about democracy in the abstract, abet this betrayal either openly or by judicious silence, we understand that we are dealing npt with a personal phenomenon but s social one...

...The current scene should recall, to those who have despaired of Socialism because of Hitler and Stalin, the truth that political terror can be systematized under free enterprise, too...

...In the light of their staunch defence of the rights of capital and their vicious attacks upon even traditional forms of militant labor action, the mildest Fabian appears to be a bewhiskered revolutionist The Communists are* now the most "conservative" social group within any coalition they may join...

...Their influence is now growing by leap* and bounds...

...Many Socialists, men of integrity and intelligence, reluctantly came to the conclusion that they had been on the wrong track...

...If we define property in a functional, rather than an absolutist sense, as the power to control the disposition of things and services, the role of "government" or "public" property in the organization of the resources of every European country is going to be more, not less...

...and tentative hope* for * cooperative solution of our major social ills under capitalism blossomed in the most unexpected quarters...

...The Bolshevik* and the Nazi* were undemocratic political group*" organized to seize complete power...

...The great strides the Communists have been making in democratic countries are possible only because influential sections of the capitalist class have voluntarily •Hied themselves with Communist-controlled organisations...

...The question, can a planned economy he democratic, I* empirical...

...And this is a development which cannot be reasonably opposed by democrats who realise that chaos, hunger, and chronic unemployment are the seedbed of totalitarianism...

...But the above merely highlights by wsy of introduction some of the aspects of the current social and political scene which should give pause to those who fesr Socialism as a threat to democracy...

...Some became New Dealers, others advocates of a "mixed economy," a phrase that covers a whole spectrum of social forms...

...In respect to the past, critics of orthodox Marxism recognized this as an error, or at the very least, a misleading oversimplification...

...The humln being in yesterday's enemy was rediscovered—he should never have been forgotten...

...How safe, then, is democracy in any capitalist country which calls in Communists to stabilise its economy or restore peace and order T The newly won converts to free enterprise are hot as tough-minded as they think...

...Rickenbacker tells us that he feels perfectly at home in Russia, There are no labor troubles...

...Tomorrow they may reverse their line again...

...Let us suppose for a moment—what is not beyond the limits of historical possibility in some countries— that the Communists and their confidence men in other parties, actually come into possession of state power pledged to a defence of free enterprise...

...Indeed a high order of intelligence was displayed in the appraisal of the multiform ways in which a planned economy could be used a* an engine of repression—a subject to which the mass of "totalitarian liberal*" wa* indifferent...

...Privation and need are so acute that they will not wait until the process of capitalist accumulation has run it* course...

...decisively in various essay* by Fred Taylor, Oucur Lang* audi A. P. Loner, who shewed how a socialist economic system eouM function...

...The historical evidence must be specific in nature snd not some vague historical generalization from which the conclusion is deduced...

...Its motivation was a passion for democracy, heightened by a sens* of the dangers to which the great liberal tradition of the western world was exposed by the monstrous concentration of power in existing collectivist economies...

...Von Mise** argument* were repeated here by Walter Lippmann m his The Goad Society...

...When a "socialist" economy is built by men who despise democracy and freedom of personality ss illusory bourgeois forms, it is not surprising that their "aocialiam" develops slong totalitarian lines...

...When the Polish Quisling* of Moicow's "National Liberation" Committee take over, genuine Socialists will be threatened by the fate of Alter and Ehrlich...

...The historical evidence show* that in the countries which manifest totalitarianism in their most repugnant form*—Germany and Russia—a planned economy did not precede the death of political democracy...

...Can there be any reasonable doubt that politically they would act in precisely the same way as if they eotme to power on a collectivist program...

...Among the motley array of supporters of free enterprise, there ane substantial groups which are not so much interested in democracy as in power...

...Yet it is oftimtt assumed that given a collectivist economy, politically only a totalitarian state it compatible with it...

...We know that they stand tor the most ruthless kind of terrorism...

...The writing* of both men have been hailed by John Chamberlain, Henry Haslitt snd otb*' "free enterprisers" ss the suthoritative an¦wers to collectivism...

...There are certain historical events and situations which make the abandonment by genuine democrats of a planned economy seem a little premature...

...With the triumph of Hitler and the consolidation of the Russian dictatorship, the succession of crises seemed to be culminating in a death rattle...

...There are capitalists who are genuine believers In political democracy just as there are workers who would betray it But one cannot take this on faith...

...Their terror was directed not so much against capitalist Republicans with one foot in Franco's camp as against the revolutionary POUM and those elements smong the left-wing Socialists and syndicalists who pressed tor mild social and agrarian reforms...

...They are not a* dangerous as the Del Vayos, Hillmans, and actual fellow-travelers, who open the gates to the Stalinists, because they are net as sophisticated...

...Another, more snbtle indication of this "cultural lag" hi the acclaim accorded here to two European economists, Lmdwig von Mise* snd Fried rich Hayek, both of whom have tost prestige abroad...

...There was no apostacy in this development...

...Orthodox Marxism believed that the economy of a culture wsi the decisive, if not the sole, determining factor of its political form, so that if we know the relation of economic forces at any period we could predict that on*, and only one, political form waa historically possible...

...That is the starting point of our inquiry...

...More than one political form—obviously not all—are compatible with eapitalviM in many stages of its development...

...But capitalism in any of its recognisable forms has practically disappeared in most of Europe...

...The utterly callous betrayal of Poland and Yugoslav!* shows how futile it ia to expect a consistent democratic foreign policy from non-Socialist democrats who still think in terms of balance of power...

...Taking up the argument* of the** who h*v* retreated from Socialism, Professor Hook insist* that the debate can only be settled in an empirical manner, that • planned economy retaining freedom ia possible *nd desirable...

...Too many treatises on the snbject deia* "socialism" and "democracy" in sack * w*y that the notion of a "democratic collectivism" becomes a contradiction ia terms: or they define these terms so that they logically Imply oae another and r*le out in advance the relevance of any historical ess* In which either democracy or a planned economy is net found...

...to withstand the crushing Impact of historical events...

...Defeated in their economies, von Mise* and Hsyek have retreated te polities, claiming now thst * socialist system could only be authoritarian...

...still others became defender* of the capitalist status quo...

...It is one that cannot be settled by delnHion stone, but which permits *f sn answer in terms of historical evidence—past sad present...

...They are overestimating the strength of capitalist allegiance to democracy despite the history.of Germuny and Spain...

...One cannot consistently (a) maintain that capitalism is a sine qua non of democracy, (b) entertain hopes for a democratic Europe, and (c) admit that the swan song of capitalism has already been sung...

...In order to safeguard the democratic ethos of Socialism, they surrendered their belief in a planned colleciivist economy...

...Von Mise* snd Hayek gained some attention yesrs back by their insistence thst s socialist economy was impossible, for, lacking a free market, it could not determine bow to uae effectively its resource...

...It does not require a-feverish mind to imagine a situation in which a business executive irked by government restraints and an unruly labor force, comes to the conclusion that he has nothing to lose and something to gain as a "Commissar" of production...

...From machine politicians of both parties to members of the House of Morgan, from government officials to representatives of business organizations, from trade union bureaucrats to conservative publicists, we observe an amazing number of non-Socialists willing, and sometimes, eager, to "play ball" with the Communists...

...From a justified critique of many dogmas of orthodox Marxism, some of the** thinkers went on to an indictment of Marx as the father of totalitarianism, and from there to the view that Socialism as an ideal of the good society was invalid because one of its essential elements is a planned economy...

...There is, to be sure, evidence of the most tragic snd palpable kind thst in some specific cases such a development has taken place...

...Spsin is a case in point...

...T will be admitted by all who have studied the history of left-wing movement*, particularly by those who h»ve foresworn Socialism out of love for democracy, tliat the greatest threat to democratic liberties in existing democratic countries are'the Communiat group* and parties...

...It is very curious to observe that despite their rejection of the dogmas of orthodox Marxism, many who assert that a planned society must historically result in totalitarianism,unconsciously reflect one of the crudest of these dogmas...

...Both men were answered...

...On the contrary, it is clear that some of the purely ecoomic devices and organisational forma of the existing system in Europe can be redirected by democratic political control to get production going, and to insure a more equitable distribution...

...In the same week, the War Production Board announce* that with the end of the war in Europe, all the major controls will be ended snd responsibility for jobs will be turned over to private business...

...genina Jot compromise at the right hiaterical moment has leaned White Paper* promising State intervention to guarantee employment and social security benefit...

...In the philosophy of Bolsheviks snd fascists there is no vslue set on freedom...

...There is an analogue to this naivete in the field" of foreign policy...

...The problem of collectivism and freedom is pat into perspective here by Sidney Hook...

...Poland is another case in point...

...What took place was a reexamination of first principles that seemed too weal...

...Thinking went on a day-to-day basis except in relation to the beloved illusions which had born* such bitter fruit...

...Experience and reflection reinforced their conviction that the iron heel of totalitarianism had stamped into the ground, together with millions of Socialist lives, the very ideal* of Socialism as feasible options in the present era of history...

...But before we leap to the conclusion that these cases prove democratic Socialism to be historically impossible anywhere, we should investigate the antecedent conditions of the cases in question to see whether the totalitarian features of their culture were actually a consequence of their plsnned economy...

...The forms and title* of ownership are badly scrambled...

...The destruction of democracy was implicit in the totalitarian character of the parties, not in the ideal - of collectivism...

...It is a commonplace that the peace of Europe depends to a large extent upon the establishment of a workable domeitie economy...

...Hardly anyone envisage* a return to the prewar capitalist system of production, if only because of the dearth produced by the widespread destruction of productive forces...

...The steady trend toward collectivism of various typos, from monopoly capitalism to totalitarian Communism and National Socialism, make* this the crucial question of our or...

...From this confusion the illusion was born that the democratic statesman would remain faithful to the provisions of the Atlantic Charter (which is certainly not an ideal democratic document) in respect to countries coveted by their totalitarian ally...

...or extend democracy throughout the world...

...Yet at the present time Communists are the most impassioned defenders of private enterprise, especially in the United State...

...the unions know their place...

...And this despite the historical record of planned political terror in every country in which the Communists have shared power...

...Gradually they fcvind themselves allied, at first unwittingly and then consciouly, to conservative forces and groups whom, as Socialists in the past, they had com batted in behalf of democracy...

...It is expressed in the belief that because the consequences of the war against Hitlerism may be the preservation ,of political democracy in western Europe and America, the decisive cause of the war wa* the desire to preserve...

...Many of the objectives of their plsnning, ss well ss msny of their ore aniline technique* and methods of pla** It to one of the few expected conclusions of the war that white most of Europe will go "left," America will turn te the "right'* The English ruling class, with Its historic...

...First of all, there is the problem of postwar reconstruction in the liberated European areas...

...Nonetheless it scolas to me that the conclusion* concerning a planned economy which were drawn from the ghastly experience* of Germuny and Russia war* not warranted, and that the case for a democratic Socialism, Instructed by past errors and present dangers, 1* atronger than for any other alternative...

...By works alone must we judge...

...It does put a strain on one's imaginative powers to see people of this character fighting for* the democratic rights of the workers, or protecting democrats and Socialists against Stalinist terror...

...they first destroyed politicsl democracy and then orgsnised collectivist economies...

...There was no blind panic or emotional revulsion...

...It is very instructive to watch how readily they are prepared to throw overboard ideological ballast to save the precious cargo of property, status, and power...

...But they are certainly weak reeds for democrats to lean on...