Utopian socialism and the influence on the ideas of Marx.

INTRODUCTION

The 19th century was a period of development for several philosophies like liberalism and
socialism. These ideas had mainly developed in the background of the French Revolution, the
Industrial Revolution, and the increasing movements of removal of autocratic rules and the
establishment of representative governments. Sometimes these processes were overlapping with
the timeline of ideas and often it was these ideas that became the foundation of these movements.

The invention of the term socialism was claimed by Pierre Lerox, a disciple of Saint Simon,
and was later also used by the disciples of Robert Owen in Britain. Socialists often tend to trace
back their origin to Plato’s Republic, the ideas of the Renaissance, and thinkers like Thomas
More. They increasingly talked about the abolition of private property, the universal obligation
to work, equalization of rights and wealth, the organization of production by state, and the
eradication of poverty and exploitation. The idea of socialism had emerged in a society where the
wealth was been concentrated in the hands of a few while a large of the society was left in a
vulnerable position with minimum resources.

The ideals of socialism rest on equitable distribution of resources but often the several details
of this concept vary from one thinker to another. There was a development of the idea of
‘to each according to his labor’ which eventually led to the of ‘to each according to his
needs.’ Some advocates of socialism believed that it was an ideal solely belonging to the
working class while others believed that it should be made a common human ideal on which the
society should be made.
The first active manifestation of socialism after the revolution of 1789 was the conspiracy of
Gracious Babeuf. Bababeuf and Babouvists took their philosophy mainly from Rousseau and
the utopianists of the Enlightenment. They regarded themselves to be the successors of
Robespierre. He believed that as all men have by nature the same right to all earthly goods, the
source of inequality is the private property and this must be done away with. In the future
society, wealth will be distributed to all equally. There will be no rights of inheritance, no large
cities, and when education becomes universal, the population will be able to govern itself
through elected bodies.

In his ideals, one can see a clear conflict between the revolutionary idea of freedom and the idea
of the Bovovists who believed that there should be the abolition of all hierarchy from masters
and servants to the ruler and the ruled. They believed that if all goods enjoyed by the privileged
classes were redistributed among the people, there would be no deficit in society and general
prosperity. A period of dictatorship was envisioned by them as long as they were not able to
destroy all the enemies of equality. After his execution, his ideas continued to affect society
through other French thinkers. After the 1830s, in both France and England, the parent
countries of socialism, several workers' movements began to appear based on these ideals.

Claude Henri, comte de Saint Simon was the real founder of modern theoretical socialism
conceived not merely as an ideal but as an outcome of a historical process. He concluded that the
proper function of a state is to look after the production in society and that it should apply
methods of industrial management to all social questions. Saint Simon urged for the
abandonment of economic liberalism and formulated the basis of future social community.
Poverty and crisis are caused by free competition and the resulting anarchy of production and
exchange. The most important dividing line for him was between the producers and those who
merely consumed the fruit of others’ labors, the latter were the ones causing disparity in society.
His school of thought regards history as continued progress in which two phases alternate, the
organic and the critical.
Organic periods are those in which certain principles of thought are generally accepted
while the critical phases are the transitional phases of disharmony, and discontinuity, in
which the sense of a community is lost and the bonds of society are relaxed. Thanks to the
hereditary principle of acquiring resources, they are held by incompetent individuals. In the
future society, the right to use the means of production will depend on the ability, and the
exercise of the right under state supervision will be the sole form of property. The incomes of
individuals will not be equal but since the principle of each according to his labor is applied,
there will be no exploitation of labor. Among all the pre-marxist thoughts, the ideals of saint-
simon were the most influential on the newly educated classes of Europe.

Robert Owen is one of the most important utopian socialists of Britain and has had a great
impact on how socialism developed in this country. He had been an industrialist and in direct
contact with the working class life for many years. Moreover, he lived in a country that suffered
much more grievously from the ill effects of industrialization and mechanization. He took up
several reforms within his factory, like a reduction in working hours, avoiding the use of child
labor, and sanitary working conditions.

In his speeches and writings especially after 1817, he attacked the establishment of church
for keeping the people poor and under the influence of superstition. He took over from the
18th-century utilitarians who believed that a man does not form his character, feelings, and
opinions and is severely affected by his surroundings, family, and education. The essential way
of reforming society was through education, if the children were taught from the beginning, they
would go on to be cooperative and have charity towards their fellows. The reform of education
must be accompanied by a reform of labor conditions. Owen put his trust in communist
settlements engaged in agriculture and industry and hoped for a harmonious society in the future.
His doctrine initiated a new phase of the british worker’s movement.
Charles Fourier described the future socialist paradise in more grandiose detail than any other
utopian socialist. His doctrine was inspired by the phenomenon of crisis, speculation,
exploitation, and misery of the workers. According to Fourier, production must be organized in
such a way that everyone has an occupation congenial to his character. Work would not be
performed as a task rather, it would become a source of pleasure for the workers increasing the
overall productivity in society. Women should enjoy full equality with men, while the institution
of family would be abolished. The children would be raised by the community at the expense of
the public service. Private property, inheritance, and economic inequality would not be done
away with but would lose its antagonistic character. Each individual would work in several
groups and would be paid differently according to his ability. The extravagance of his image of a
socialist world has created an unserious image around him where many of his ideas are just
discarded without proper consideration.

Pierre Joseph Proudhon was not a man of high education but his ideals of social justice
succeeded his literacy levels. After the revolution of 1848, he joined politics in the hope of
persuading the republican government to implement his program of social reform. His plan is
purely normative and invokes the ideals of justice and equality but he sought to find it in an
analysis of contemporary economic life and to assess the possibility of change in practical terms.
Proudhan had coined the term, scientific socialism. He believed in natural social harmony and in
the inalienable rights of man which were being violated in the current economic system. Despite
being heavily critiqued by Mark on the philosophical basis of his ideals, it must be
acknowledged that he was well aware of the material realities of the current system.

Property is the privilege of unearned income and is a source of inequality. Proudhon believed
that the credit system should be reformed with the removal of interest which was the essence of
injustice. He promised to create people’s exchange banks which would give out interest-free
loans to small producers and thus all members of the society would become property owners.
Although in his early writings, he takes an antagonistic stand around the institution of the state
but later realizes its indispensable position in organizing production.
Cabet’s Icaria is an egalitarian community with totalitarian features, it follows that in the ideal
society where there is no private property and no monetary system. All social production is the
work of a single organism of which the individuals will be a part. He believed that obligatory
living standards must be applied to every class and that all towns would appear to be the same in
every sense. One of the most controversial of his beliefs is that a better world is not to be brought
about by violence and conspiracy but by gradual reform and through a transitional system.

The ideas of the utopian socialists had a great impact on the ideas of Marx appearing in the
early 19th century. Although, many of Marx’s writings have severely criticized utopian
socialism, but seem to borrow some important elements of the same ideology. Utopia is founded
on the premise that all human beings possess the same dignity by virtue of their humanity and
that whatever the innate differences among individuals, they are identical as far as their rights
and duties are concerned. The question that Marx had posed to Owen was- who is educating the
educators? In the answer to this question lies the principle difference between the interpretation
of the two ideologies.

CONCLUSION

The notions comprise three main topics- historical premises, the analysis of capitalist society,
and the depiction of the future of socialism in the society. Many believed that the only
difference between Marx and the utopian socialist is the notion of revolution vs. peaceful
persuasion, but this is very misleading. The starting point of the reflection of the utopian
scholars is poverty especially faced by the proletariat. Marx’s starting point is not poverty but
dehumanization- the fact that individuals are alienated from their labor and material, spiritual,
and social consequences in the form of goods, ideas, and political institutions. Socialism means
more to Marx than a welfare society, the abolition of private property. He believed that socialism
can only enter society with a revolution with a social soul within which has to be led by the
proletariat.