Early Socialist Thought - History of Economic Thought - Lecture Slides, Slides of Economics

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Early Socialist Thought

Utopian Socialists

• Henri Comte de Saint-Simon (1760-1825)
• Charles Fourier (1772-1837)
• Simonde de Sismondi (1773-1842)
• Robert Owen (1771-1858)

Historical Background

• This situation led to calls for reform
• The capitalists—often citing classical economists such as Adam Smith—opposed any intervention by governments
• Proponents of a moderate form of socialism were shouted down
• A fiercer form of socialism emerged later under the leadership of Karl Marx

Utopian Socialists

• First of the moderate reformers were the utopian socialists
• They regarded the competition-based market economy to be unfair and irrational
• They imagined—and described in detail— various social arrangements that they considered ideal and appealed to the whole world to adopt them

CLAUDE HENRI DE ROUVROY, COMTE

DE SAINT-SIMON (1760-1825)

Henri Comte de Saint-Simon (1760-

• Ruined aristocrat, an officer in the American Revolutionary War on the American side, a real estate speculator and journalist, Saint-Simon was the founder of the “Saint-Simonian” movement, a type of semi-mystical “Christian- Scientific” socialism
• The working class had not yet become a powerful political force
• So Saint-Simon made no appeal to the workers to rise up against their bosses

Henri Comte de Saint-Simon (1760-

• Saint-Simon envisaged the reorganization of society with an elite of philosophers, engineers and scientists leading a peaceful process of industrialization
• This was one of the earliest proposals for central planning by educated elites - Note that he rejected the classical economists’ faith in the free market
• His advocacy of a “New Christianity” -- a secular humanist religion to replace the defunct traditional religions -- was to have scientists as priests.

FRANCOIS MARIE CHARLES

FOURIER (1772-1837)

Francois Marie Charles Fourier (1772-

• Fourier was by no means a revolutionary, and his appeals were usually addressed to the wealthy or to the king
• However, he was a critic of capitalism, seeing in it waste, price gouging, and moral bankruptcy (especially in the financial sector)
• He advocated the setting up of phalanxes , a type of production and consumption co-operative enterprise or society that emphasized agriculture and handicrafts.

Francois Marie Charles Fourier (1772-

• Through his main publication, Réforme industrielle , Fourier collected numerous followers, many of whom attempted (and failed) at setting up Fourierist phalanxes or mini-societies.
• Cooperative living was central to his thinking
• It was a way to change the environment in order to generate an entirely new and noble type of person

Simonde de Sismondi (1773-1842)

• French historian, early socialist and great rival of Jean- Baptiste Say and the French Liberal School.
• Simonde de Sismondi was no friend of the rising capitalist industrial system, which he viewed as detrimental to the interests of the poor and particularly prone to crisis brought about by an insufficient general demand for goods.
• His under-consumption thesis was shared by Malthus, and sparked off the General Glut Controversy of the 1820s where their theories were pitted against those of Say, Ricardo and the Classicals.

Simonde de Sismondi (1773-1842)

• Gluts lead to widespread unemployment
• The poor go bankrupt and more wealth gets concentrated in the hands of the wealthy
• This narrows the domestic market for industry
• Hence industry needs to open up foreign markets
• This necessarily leads to nationalistic wars
• Economic imperialism is inherent in capitalism

ROBERT OWEN (1771-1858)

Robert Owen (1771-1858)

• Utopian socialist
• A “doer” more than a “talker”
• Owen founded the famous model community of New Lanark Mills in Scotland to demonstrate the viability of co- operative factory communities.
• Owen paid his employees high wages, and still made good profits, because his grateful employees worked hard - This could be seen as an early use of efficiency wages: the purposeful payment of above-market wages to increase productivity and reduce labor turnover
• Nevertheless, the enterprise failed because of unrelated conflicts between Owen and his partners.