Beatrice Webb (socialism)

Question 1

What type of socialism did Beatrice Webb believe in?

Answer 1

Parliamentary/evolutionary/gradualist socialism
- did not believe revolution was needed for socialism and believed that they were ‘chaotic, inefficient and counter-productive’

Question 2

What was the personal/historical context impacting their writing?

Answer 2

• born upper middle class; her family owned summer houses and a residence in London
• her cousin was Charles Booth (wrote Inquiry into the Life and Labour of the People of London) and she helped him to investigate sweated industries by going undercover, as well as researching dock labour in the Tower Hamlets
• almost married Joseph Chamberlain but instead married Sydney Webb who was of a comparitively lower social status
• two of her sisters died in part due to poor marriages |(one of suicide and an other of an overdose)
• Was inspired by Herbert Spencer, who was a friend of her father’s and visited her home.
• Later inspired aspects of the Beveridge Report (1942) as Beveridge worked on Webb’s Minority Report when he was younger

Question 3

Philosophical Developements

Answer 3

• Marxism and Socialism
• Liberalism
• Ideology of the Labour Party and the Fabian Society
• JS Mill on Suffrage
• Behaviourism

Question 4

Ideas on human nature

Answer 4

Less emphasis on the removal of capitalism to prevent moral corruption, more of the idea of living alongside it, but capitalism still fosters avarice and selfishness in the population so society needs to gradually go back to its original cooperative form for the good of human nature.
Links to idea of behaviourism – education can improve people (liberal idea) and humans have unlimited original potential (George Bernard Shaw and Dr Watson)
Men and women are equally rational
Damage to human psyche will be made worse by violent revolution
Individuals are shaped by their social and environmental conditions- “give me a child and I will shape him into anything.”
Capitalist society emphasised individualism, competition and materialism over cooperation and social solidarity

Question 5

Ideas on society

Answer 5

Paternalism and philanthropy were not sustainable solutions to inequality and poverty but rather influential trade unions and extensive state intervention
Capitalism fosters divide and destroys human potential whilst encouraging regressive competition.
Unpredictability of a revolution is as bad as the unpredictability of capitalism.
A complex network of social relations and institution which affect individuals- these effects can be positive or negative
Society should allow for self-improvement and be meritocratic but not necessarily equal and classless
Supporter of the cooperative movement as a driver of social and economic reform to build social solidarity
Social reform is necessary to address inequality and improve welfare- the government can do this and groups can improve their own lives

Question 6

Ideas of state

Answer 6

Use of the state (/government) to develop society rather than revolution to destroy it eg support of the progressive Labour party- wrote the Clause 4 of the Labour Manifesto stating shared ownership. This is gradualist or evolutionary Socialism as it uses the state.
Government intervention necessary
Believed in the importance of expertise and technocratic governance rather than direct democracy
Was (eventually) involved in campaigns for women’s suffrage and believed political participation should be open regardless of class gender or race
State as a potentially powerful instrument to regulate the economy and provide social justice and welfare.

Question 7

Ideas on the economy

Answer 7

Sharing of the means of production to the people to ensure an equal society (Clause 4) is the end goal. Chaotic capitalism will gradually be replaced.
Critical of capitalism and its unequal distribution of wealth and power
Collective ownership of key industries and the redistribution of wealth essential
Trade unions as vital agent in economy, in partnership with the state:
- Collective bargaining and collective action, trade unions could secure better wages, working conditions and rights for workers
- Should be politically active and lobby government
- Vehicles for building solidarity
- Critical of capitalism and its unequal distribution of wealth and powrr
- Collective ownership opf keyu industries and redistribution of wealth is essential

Question 8

Key writings

Answer 8

The Co-Operative Movement in Great Britain (1891)
Women and the Factory Acts (1896)
The Abolition of the Poor Law (1918)
Decay of Capitalist Civilisation (1923)
The Truth About Soviet Russia (1942)