Liberal socialism

Liberal socialism is a political philosophy that incorporates liberal principles to socialism.[1] This synthesis sees liberalism as the political theory that takes the inner freedom of the human spirit as a given and adopts liberty as the goal, means and rule of shared human life. Socialism is seen as the method to realize this recognition of liberty through political and economic autonomy and emancipation from the grip of pressing material necessity.[2] Liberal socialism opposes abolishing certain components of capitalism and supports something approximating a mixed economy that includes both social ownership and private property in capital goods.[3][4]

Liberal socialism has been particularly prominent in British and Italian politics.[5] Its seminal ideas can be traced to John Stuart Mill, who theorised that capitalist societies should experience a gradual process of socialisation through worker-controlled enterprises, coexisting with private enterprises.[6] Mill rejected centralised models of socialism that he thought might discourage competition and creativity, but he argued that representation is essential in a free government and democracy could not subsist if economic opportunities were not well distributed, therefore conceiving democracy not just as a form of representative government, but as an entire social organisation.[7] While some socialists have been hostile to liberalism, accused of "providing an ideological cover for the depredation of capitalism", it has been pointed out that "the goals of liberalism are not so different from those of the socialists", although this similarity in goals has been described as being deceptive due to the different meanings liberalism and socialism give to liberty, equality and solidarity.[8] In a modern context, liberal socialism is sometimes used interchangeably with modern social liberalism[a] or social democracy.[9]

  1. ^ Gaus & Kukathas 2004, p. 420.
  2. ^ Rosselli 1994, p. 85–88.
  3. ^ Pugliese 1999, p. 99.
  4. ^ Thompson 2006, pp. 60–61
  5. ^ Bastow & Martin 2003, p. 72.
  6. ^ Miller 2003, pp. 213–238.
  7. ^ Brilhante & Rocha 2010, pp. 17–27.
  8. ^ Boyd & Harrison 2003, pp. 220–222; Anton & Schmitt 2012, pp. 3–4.
  9. ^  • Thomas Cate, ed. (2012). Keynes' General Theory: Seventy-Five Years Later. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 251. ISBN 978-1-78100-103-5. ... pacific transition to socialism, which led Hollander (2008) to call him the first revisionist. And, on different occasions, Keynes evoked a 'socialism of the future' which is sometimes called social-liberalism or liberal socialism.
     • Keith Clements, ed. (2015). The Moot Papers: Faith, Freedom and Society 1938-1944. A&C Black. p. 552. ISBN 978-0-567-19831-0. Hobhouse was a Liberal politician who argued for 'social liberalism' or 'liberal socialism', i.e. a qualified acceptance of government intervention in the economy. Tillich's green point of the impotence of the Idea apart from The Moot Papers ...
     • Fred Dallmayr, ed. (2015). Freedom and Solidarity: Toward New Beginnings. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-6579-0. Hence, the remedy for social ills envisaged by Dewey is a regime that might be called "liberal socialism" or "social liberalism," but preferably "social democracy"—that is, a regime where all members enjoy freedom in solidarity.
     • Pierre Pestieau, Mathieu Lefebvre, ed. (2018). The Welfare State in Europe: Economic and Social Perspectives. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-254906-8. ... and welfare programs, and liberal socialism, or social democracy, that supports economic interventions to promote social justice within the framework of a capitalist economy.
     • James Crotty, ed. (2019). The Welfare State in Europe: Economic and Social Perspectives. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-429-87705-6. Liberal Socialism was Keynes's particular version of social democracy.


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