Rejections of Liberalism: 20Th Century

REJECTIONS OF LIBERALISM: 20TH CENTURY

A. Totalitarianism

· Seeks complete control over every aspect of the people’s lives – both public and private

· Hierarchy

· Single political party

· One leader (or small group of elite)

· Radical: (Soviet Union) move towards the far left side of the economic spectrum (equality, classless society) and complete rejection of the traditions of the past

· Reactionary (Nazi Germany – Fascism): move toward an idealized past and an acceptance of economic inequality (some are naturally better than others)

· As an ideology, it used all the elements (past, present, future) to target the needs/desires of the people

o Also used: propaganda, coercive power, strict control of citizens

o Conformity (and acceptance of beliefs) were achieved using:

§ Secret police and terror

§ Youth groups and other organizations to promote the ideals

§ Extensive organization: locally, regionally, nationally

§ Indoctrination (education)

§ Censorship

§ Redirecting popular discontent (scapegoats) – more extensively used in Nazism

· Attempted, at all costs, to hold off/reject the values in Liberalism and the worth of the individual

B. Communism vs. Nazism: Theory and Practise

· Nazi Germany and Communist Russia, although both using totalitarian ideas, were very different in their ideologies and beliefs about human nature

· Fascism – supports totalitarian government

· World is divided into good and evil with nothing in between

· Nation must work together for common and spiritual goals – individually they cannot survive

· Need a strong leader (dictator) to achieve this

· Similarities

· Dictatorship

· Both often arise when democratic gov’ts fail (Mussolini) – crisis theory

· Leader is the bearer of collective good

· Differences

· Communism – people are rational (Rousseau), Fascism – people are irrational (Hobbes)

· Communism – uses reason to motivate people, accept technology and science as a means to building the future

· Fascism – emotions, hate, rejects reason and science and looks to the past for its model

C. Karl Marx

· Developed his political and economic ideals that attempted to provide an overall philosophy of life

· Wrote Communist Manifesto (with Fredrich Engels) and Das Kapital

· The story of humanity was a history of class conflict between the owners of the means of production and the workers

· All aspects of life are determined by how you are related to the means of production (owner, worker)

· Believed that the Industrial Revolution caused inhumane treatment of the lower class or workers

· Created 2 classes of society

· 1. Proletariat – workers

· Exploited

· 2. Bourgeoisie – ruling class

· Exploiters

· Selfish, owned the courts, police, media, government

· Believed that the proletariat should rise up in revolt against the ruling class to create ONE class (equality)

Karl Marx – view on Capitalism

· Central feature of capitalist system was that workers must “sell” their labour to those who owned the means of production

· Bourgeoisie became wealthy because they didn’t pass the profits onto the workers

· Condemned the profit motive and private property – caused conflict between the classes

· It exploited and degraded workers

· Prevented humanity from achieving its potential - humans are creative and capitalism doesn’t allow for this to be fostered

· Lead to economic depression, imperialism (taking of land), wars, and revolution by the proletariat

Karl Marx – Role of Government

· One class, dictatorship of the proletariat

· The state would have:

· Central planning, increase production, equality (distribution, economically), work for society

· “from each according to his ability to each according to his need” – motto

· after transition period

· crime/poverty would stop, state would “wither away” (bourgeoisie power – not in structure)

· Pure Communism

· No capitalism

· Would work because you wanted to work – to better society

· No need for a formal government structure with no more ruling class – live in a voluntary and cooperative society

· Lenin – used Marx ideas to rise the peasants up in revolt against the Tsars in Russia – Russian Revolution of 1917

USSR: UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS

A. The Russian Revolution: 1917

· Marxist theory: Russia was an unlikely place for revolution because it was only in the process of industrialization and had not completed it

· Tsars (before 1917) and Russian Government was authoritarian, inefficient, and repressive

o problems that sparked revolution

§ only in beginning stages of industrialization - poor working/living conditions, low standard of living, poor economy

§ famine

§ WWI - hundreds of thousands of lives lost, starvation of people and soldiers, soldiers poorly trained and equipped, continued to fight for 3 years of war

§ High food prices, rising inflation, striking workers, many soldiers deserted army and/or would not stop protestors

· Lenin and Bolsheviks promised “peace, land and bread”

o made peace with Germany in WWI - Brest-Litovsik Treaty

o crushed civil war in Russia in 1918 to take control

o 1921-founded 1st communist party in Russia

§ Lenin is considered “Father of Communism”

· 1922 - Union Of Soviet Socialists Republics formed (USSR)

B. STALIN

· ruled 1927-1953

**made Russia the second most powerful nation

· most successful dictatorship:

TOTALITARIANISM: using terror, force and propaganda to control all aspects of peoples’ lives and all aspects of country

· greatest achievement: rapid industrial development of Soviet Union (SU)

· to industrialize, SU needed control of 3 factors of production - land, labor, capital

· In 1928, Russia had:

· Increasing population (labor)

· Abundant amount of resources (cotton, minerals, oil, gas, lumber etc.)(land)

· Russia did not have the money to industrialize – Stalin needed to find the money to do complete industrialization (no capital)

· with goal of increasing standard of living of people

· believed capitalist powers would try to crush SU - developed and strengthen military/control

Stalin’s 5 year plans:

· He created five 5 year plans dating 1928-1953 in order to industrialize his country

· The Third plan was interrupted by WWII – concentrated on the war effort instead

· The Fifth plan was stopped by his death

Main goals of his 5 year plans

· Build up heavy industry –

· steel, coal, machinery, production of weapons

· changed to oil, air crafts, chemical

· came at the expense of consumer goods – no choice, very few products for everyday life were created

· standard of living fell – especially for farmers

· Collectivization of Farms (collectives)

· Peasant farmers had to give all production to the state

· Tried to rebel - were quickly stopped/killed

· Execution/exiling of all “enemies of the state/people”

· Anyone opposed to his rule

· As well, Millions of peasants were dying from starvation

· Fall in standard of living – hunger, fear, rising prices of goods

· Defended country from Western Capitalists and created a strong state by controlling and owning all means of production

****Note that during this time, Europe was being lead by 3 of the world’s most notorious leaders: Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini

Centrally Planned Economy - Theory

· Also called: Command economy, planned economy

· Public or state ownership of all factors/means of production

· Based on Socialism – governments owns all ‘for the people’ – to create more equality

· 2 main types:

· Democratic Socialism – Sweden – free elections, some individual rights, profit motive, but gov’t ownership of key industries and high taxes

· Communist system – total public ownership, no democratic rights

Centrally Planned Economy – Key Characteristics:

· Collective Property

· Property is owned by an entire group of people (gov’t), not individual

· Cooperation –

· Collectivism – produce and distribute goods together

· Group Incentive

· Incentive refers to planning which offers the group a reward, not the individual

· Central Planning –

· Committee of economic experts (elected or not) makes all economic decisions

· Either the government themselves or a group acting on behalf of the government

· Government answers the economic questions - employment, who gets goods/what to produce rather than supply and demand

· Must consider scarcity of resources (natural and human)