The history of socialism has its origins in the Age of Enlightenment and the French Revolution, along with their aftermaths, although it has precedents in earlier movements and ideas. The Communist Manifesto was written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1847-1848 just before the Revolutions of 1848 swept Europe, expressing what they termed scientific socialism. In the last third of the 19th century, parties dedicated to democratic socialism arose in Europe, drawing mainly from Marxism. In 1848, Louis Blanc became the first socialist in any country to hold a governmental position; serving in the Provisional Government formed in France that year.Europe 1789 to 1914 Encyclopedia of the Age of Industry and Empire · Volume 1 By John M. Merriman, J. M. Winter, 2006, Publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2006, P.247 The Australian Labor Party was the first elected socialist party when it formed government in the Colony of Queensland for a week in 1899. In Denmark, Italy and France by 1903, socialists had (as noted by one study) "inspired and dominated the Government" and in all three countries "very remarkable experiments in Socialistic legislation and administration have been initiated."C. K. ENSOR THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED, LONDON AND NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS 45, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 1910, P.XXI-XXII
In the first half of the 20th century, the Soviet Union and the communist parties of the Third International around the world came to represent socialism in terms of the Soviet model of economic development and the creation of centrally planned economies directed by a state that owns all the means of production; other voices in the movement condemned what they saw as the lack of democracy. The establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 saw socialism take hold within a world power. China experienced land redistribution and the Anti-Rightist Movement, followed by the disastrous Great Leap Forward. In the UK, Herbert Morrison said that "socialism is what the Labour government does", whereas Aneurin Bevan argued socialism requires that the "main streams of economic activity are brought under public direction", with an economic plan and workers' democracy.Bevan, Aneurin, In Place of Fear, p. 50, p. 126-128. MacGibbon and Kee, (1961). Socialist governments established mixed economies with partial nationalisations and social welfare.
By 1968, the prolonged Vietnam War gave rise to the New Left, featuring socialists who tended to be critical of the Soviet Union and social democracy. Anarcho-syndicalists and some elements of the New Left and others favoured decentralised, collective ownership in the form of cooperatives or workers' councils. In 1989, the Soviet Union saw the end of communism, marked by the Revolutions of 1989 across Eastern Europe, culminating in the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Socialists have adopted the causes of other social movements such as environmentalism, feminism and progressivism.Garrett Ward Sheldon. Encyclopedia of Political Thought. Fact on File. Inc. 2001. p. 280. At the turn of the 21st century, Latin America saw a pink tide, which championed socialism of the 21st century; it included a policy of nationalisation of major national assets, anti-imperialism, left-wing populism, and a rejection of the Washington Consensus and the neoliberal paradigm. It was first led by Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez."Chavez accelerates on path to socialism". BBC News. 10 January 2007. Retrieved 8 July 2007.
Origins of socialism
In antiquity
Ideas and political traditions that are conceptually related to modern socialism have their origins in antiquity and the Middle Ages. Ancient Egypt had a strong, unified, theocratic state which, along with its temple system employed peasants in massive labor projects and owned key parts of the economy, such as the granaries which dispensed grain to the public in hard times. This system of government is sometimes referred to as "theocratic socialism", though it is important to distinguish between this ideology and the Marxist theory of socialism.
In Ancient Greece, while private property was an acknowledged part of society with the basic element of Greek economic and social life being the privately owned estate or oikos, it was still understood that the needs of the city or polis always came before those of the individual property owner and his family. Ancient Greeks were also encouraged by their custom of koinonia to voluntarily share their wealth and property with other citizens, forgive the debts of debtors, serve in roles as public servants without pay, and participate in other pro-social actions. This idea of koinonia could express itself in different ways throughout Ancient Greece from the communal oligarchy of Sparta to Tarentum where the poor could access any property held in common. Another Ancient Greek custom, the leitourgia resulted in the richest members of the community directly financing the state. By the late fifth century BC, more radical concepts of communal ownership became expounded in Greece. Possibly in reply to this, Aristophanes wrote his early 4th-century play, Ecclesiazusae, which parodies communist, egalitarian, and gynocratic concepts that were already familiar in Classical Athens. In the play, Athenian women are depicted as seizing control of the Athenian government and banning all private property. As the character Praxagora puts it "I shall begin by making land, money, everything that is private property, common to all." Plato later wrote his Republic which argues for the common distribution of property between the upper elite in society who are, similar to Sparta, to live communally.
The economy of the 3rd century BCE Mauryan Empire of India, under the rulership of its first emperor Chandragupta, who was assisted by his economic and political advisor Kautilya, has been described as," a socialized monarchy", "a sort of state socialism", and the world's first welfare state. Under the Mauryan system there was no private ownership of land as all land was owned by the king to whom tribute was paid by the Shudras, or laboring class. In return the emperor supplied the laborers with agricultural products, animals, seeds, tools, public infrastructure, and stored food in reserve for times of crisis.
Forms of socialism were also practised by ancient religious communities. According to one observer, under the Hebrew theocracy, "the law by its institutions defended the fatherless, the hireling, the stranger, the poor, the oppressed, the widow." The religious sects of the Therapeutae and the Essenes lived in communities in which property was common, while early attempts at Communism are said to be found in the primitive churches and monastic institutions .A handbook of socialism; a statement of socialism in its various aspects, and a history of socialism in all countries, by W. D. P. Bliss, London Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1895, P.39-40
The indigenous societies of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy are said to have practiced a form of socialism, with their social structure involving shared resources and the communal ownership of land.Beyond Capitalism: A Comparative Study of Socialism, Communism, and Marxism By Nicklas Nickel, 2024, P.37 The Inca Empire has also been identified with socialism, due to its provision of communal land and emphasis on ensuring that the basic needs of people were met,Beyond Capitalism: A Comparative Study of Socialism, Communism, and Marxism By Nicklas Nickel, 2024, P.39-40 although according to one study "The subsistence of commoners was provided by community distributional mechanisms that had predated the Incan state."Social Change Globalization from the Stone Age to the Present By Christopher Chase-Dunn, Bruce Lerro, Publisher: Taylor & Francis, 2016, P.181-182
In the Persian and Islamic worlds In Iran, Mazdak (died c. 524 or 528 CE), a priest and political reformer, preached and instituted a religiously based socialist or proto-socialist system in the Zoroastrian context of Sassanian Persia.
Abū Dharr al-Ghifārī (d. 652 CE), a companion of Muhammad, is credited by some scholars, such as Muhammad Sharqawi and Sami Ayad Hanna, as originating a form of Islamic socialism. He protested against the accumulation of wealth by the ruling class during Uthman's caliphate and urged the equitable redistribution of wealth. The first Muslim Caliph Abu Bakr introduced a guaranteed minimum standard of income, granting each man, woman and child ten dirhams annually—this was later increased to twenty dirhams.
A number of the reforms carried out under Khosrow I drew, according to one study, "comparisons to socialist principles."Beyond Capitalism: A Comparative Study of Socialism, Communism, and Marxism By Nicklas Nickel, 2024, P.40
In Enlightenment thought (17th century – 1800) The basis for modern socialism primarily originates with the Age of Enlightenment and the accompanying rise of liberalism and the Industrial Revolution. The French philosophes such as Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau and other European intellectuals such as Adam Smith and Immanuel Kant criticized the traditional purview, policies, and character of governments, believing that through reform changes could be made that benefited all of society rather than just a privileged elite. These Enlightenment thinkers usually tempered their aims in relation to government intervention, proposing that government ought to be limited in its control of individuals, a belief typically associated with the contemporaneous laissez-faire economic system. Some thinkers believed differently such as the French writers Jean Meslier, Étienne-Gabriel Morelly, and Abbé de Mably who formulated schemes to solve the inequality in society through the redistribution of wealth and the abolition of private property. The French Enlightenment philosopher Marquis de Condorcet did not oppose the existence of private property, but did believe that the primary cause of suffering in society was the lower classes' lack of land and capital and therefore supported policies similar to the modern social safety net that could be used to protect the most vulnerable.
In response to the inequalities in the industrializing economy of late 18th century Britain pamphleteers and agitators such as Thomas Spence and Thomas Paine began to advocate for social reform. As early as the 1770s Spence called for the common ownership of land, democratically run decentralized government, and welfare support especially for mothers and children. His views were detailed in his self-published pamphlets such as Property in Land Every One's Right in 1775 and The Meridian Sun in 1796. Thomas Paine proposed a detailed plan to tax property owners to pay for the needs of the poor in his pamphlet Agrarian Justice (1797). Due to their dedication to social equality and democracy, Condorcet and Paine can be seen as the predecessors of social democracy. Charles Hall wrote The Effects of Civilization on the People in European States (1805), denouncing capitalism's effects on the poor of his time.
French Revolution (1789–1799) During the French Revolution, the working class sans-culottes had significant influence over the revolutionary government. Popular radical leaders of the sans-culottes, such as Jean-François Varlet, Théophile Leclerc, Pauline Léon, Claire Lacombe and Jacques Roux, advocated for a plethora of policies, such as a "maximum [for necessities]," and "a stringent law against speculators and hoarders." This group of revolutionaries would come to be known as the Enragés to their enemies, though could not be said to be an actual, cohesive faction.