IND - Ideologies of Change and Reform Movements (Lesson)
Ideologies of Change and Reform Movements
One of the hallmarks of the Industrial Revolution period was the devotion to the ideals of popular sovereignty, individual rights, and enlightened self-interest. People no longer looked to the government to make decisions without the input of the population. Enlightenment ideas had been around long enough that the ideals were ingrained in society. Liberalism came from the Enlightenment and the growth of the middle class and liberals wanted to be free of governmental interference as much as possible. People of the time recognized that rights were important and they wanted to be free from arbitrary arrest and imprisonment. Recent events such as the American Revolutions had demonstrated that rights needed to be codified into a written document, such as the American Bill of Rights and the French Declaration of Rights. People expected to have a voice in how things were run and looked to maintain their rights. These beliefs were firmly held by the liberals of the day including:
Jeremy Bentham - an English philosopher who believed that whatever made the greatest number of people happy was the determinant between right and wrong. He established the theory of utilitarianism which promotes actions that achieve happiness for the highest number of people. He believed in individual rights as well as women’s rights. He advocated for the separation of church and state and economic freedoms. He believed that physical and capital punishment should be abolished as should slavery. Along with these liberal ideas, he espoused freedom of expression and individual rights. He served as a mentor for other philosophers including John Stuart Mill.
John Stuart Mill - He was another English philosopher who agreed with Bentham’s utilitarianism theory. He was a member of Parliament and called for women’s suffrage and expressed opinions that liberty is what gave man his individual freedom, not the state. In his book, “On Liberty”, Mill explained that the only way that the state should be able to assert power over a man’s freedom was to protect the rights of others and that the excuse of doing it for a man’s “own good” was not enough to justify governmental interference.
Make Your Voice Be Heard!
Despite all the advancements and reforms in Europe, suffrage was still a privilege of the male, landed population. However, the emphasis on popular sovereignty and individual rights as well as the continued use of enlightenment principles inspired others, especially radicals in Britain and republicans to demand universal male suffrage. An example of this would be the Chartists, a working class group who called for reform in Britain. This national protest movement used legal constitutional actions to try to achieve its goal of increased suffrage. They passed petitions and, for the most part, engaged in peaceful protest in order to achieve their goals which included 1) universal suffrage for all men age 21 and over, regardless of property ownership or class; 2) secret ballots; 3) no property ownership for members of parliament; 4) payment for members of Parliament; and 5) representation based on population.
Republicanism wanted to give the new middle class a greater say in what government policy was and called for popular elections and checks and balances within governments. The male middle class wanted to limit political participation to men who possessed a certain amount of poverty. This would give the middle class equal power with the traditional landed aristocracy that dominated conservative Europe in the 19th century. Liberals tried to get more rights for middle class men by using the term universal equality. Republicans on the continent sought governmental systems that were more representative of and responsive to the general public.
However, for many, universal suffrage meant more than just all men having the right to vote. It meant extending the right to vote to women. An example would be Flora Tristan. Flora was a French-Peruvian activist who argued that as the rights of the working class rose, so would the rights of women. She argued that the rights of the workers would never truly be complete until the rights of women were addressed.
These movements represented moderate responses to the changes brought about by industrialization, as opposed to the more radical ideas of socialism and anarchism.
We Are All in This Together
The changes and reforms that occurred in Europe in the 19th century were not all focused on individual rights and freedoms. Karl Marx’s theory of socialism, developed from the ideas of utopian socialists before him, began to take hold in many parts of Europe as socialists worked to better the lives of the collective population instead of individuals. Socialists called for the reallocation of all of the factors of production to society as a whole instead of to private ownership and they hated the inequality of the Industrial Revolution. The widening of the gap between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie became a point of contention. Socialism evolved in Europe from the original theory and ranged from utopian socialism with the idea of a perfect society to more the more violent ideas of the anarchists Hated inequality of IR. Utopian socialists, Robert Owens, made socialist communities separate from the rest of society where each member relied on all the others working for the good of the group rather than for personal gain.
Utopian Socialists
Utopian Socialists espoused the idea of a futuristic society in which all people would benefit equally in society without having to undergo a social revolution or a class struggle. While both of the men below attempted to establish these societies, they were ultimately unable to sustain the experiments. Critics stated that they didn’t take society’s realities into account.
Henri de Saint-Simon – French socialist theorist who preceded believed that the needs of the working class needed to be recognized and met in order to have a productive economy and society. He argued that the working class included all people who were employed, regardless of their class, and that the working class was threatened by those he considered to be the idle class or people who didn’t want to work. Like Adam Smith’s capitalist theory, Saint-Simon also thought that government should not interfere with the economy.
Robert Owen – Welsh socialist who made his fortune as a textile mill owner in both Scotland and then in Manchester, England. He established a socialist community in Indiana, USA which eventually failed. He then returned to England to continue his efforts to establish more equal societies. He focused on child rearing, more governmental involvement in education. and improving factory conditions. He lobbied for the 8-hour work day as early as 1817.
Marxists
While Utopian Socialists believed that they could even the playing field for the working class without revolution or a class struggle, Marxists had a more realistic view, in their opinion, of what it would take the change the society in which they lived. Marxists believed history was full of class struggle and that workers had always been oppressed by their government. They believed that the proletariat would have to revolt against the bourgeoisie in order to create a classless society characterized by social equality and everyone working for the good of all.
Friedrich Engels – German socialist who worked with Karl Marx to establish the Marxist theory. He also co-authored The Conditions of the Working Class in England with Marx. Along with Marx, Engels critiqued capitalism.
Clara Zetkin – German socialist who was a communist activist and fought for women’s rights. She argued that the upper- and lower-class women who fought for women’s rights were concerned with their own classes and didn’t really concern themselves with the lives and rights of working class women. She believed that socialism was the only way to end the oppression of women.
More radical approaches to Socialism
Anarchists
While Utopian Socialists were trying to create a more perfect society through cooperation and everyone looking out for each other and the Marxists were looking for balance through class struggle and revolution, the Anarchists adopted the idea that there should be no form of governmental authority and that all institutions that attempt to exercise authority should be abolished. They advocated stateless societies and used historical examples as evidence that this tactic could produce a better society. Those who agreed with this philosophy tended to be from less industrialized countries. Anarchists began advocating for violent methods to abolish governments including the assassination of world leaders. It is in this time period that Russian Tsar Alexander II, U.S. President William McKinley, Italian King Umberto I, and French President Marie Francois Said Carnot were all assassinated by anarchists.
Mikhail Bakunin – Russian anarchist and socialist. He is considered to be the founder of collectivist anarchism. He argued against Marx, who believed that the state could help bring about socialism, by stating that the state needed to be replaced by self-government workplaces and communes. He also argued that socialism under Marx’s theory would bring about one-party dictatorships instead of rule by the proletariat.
Georges Sorel – French socialist who promoted the use of violence as a means to advance socialism. He believed that involvement in French politics would bring the end of the working class.
In your notes, respond to the following.
- Recall that the Jacobins radicalized the French Revolution by advancing, for the first time, the theory of widespread democracy. 1848 marked the first time that radicalism emerged as a viable, mass-based force. At the same time, the challenge to the existing order took on different forms. Keeping in mind that they all embraced change in direct opposition to conservatism, identify key differences between the following intellectual forces: liberalism, British radicalism, utopian socialism, scientific socialism, and anarchism.
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