The French Revolution heralded capitalism with declarations of human rights: Liberty of the individual, Equality before the law, Fraternity between people and Property for the bourgeoisie. All people had the right to freedom of association for common purposes and to own property. Neoliberalism is the current expression of these ideals which apply not only to individual countries but on a global scale. While socialists have accepted the values of the Enlightenment in the sense that life based on reason would free human beings from oppression, they have been critical of liberal-democracy, which they consider to be an expression of bourgeois ways of thinking and doing. Socialism is a social and political system that is predicated on the universal fulfilment of human needs, which can only be met by the attainment of another three objectives: public property, social equality and a classless society. Whereas liberalism in its various forms was grounded on the rights of individuals, socialism promotes collective rights, which in turn liberate individuals. Socialism, as an ideology and, in the former socialist states, as a form of government, provided the major challenge to capitalism in the twentieth century.

We might distinguish between socialism as an ideology (a set of assumptions about how society should be arranged), as a political movement or movements (an instrument of political change), and as an existing society – a political system that has transcended capitalism. In this chapter, I outline the normative basis of socialism. In Chapter 5, I consider how these principles were translated into practice in the Soviet model of socialism, and in Chapter 6 under Western social democracy. In Chapters 7 and 8 I consider how they gave way to neoliberalism.

Socialism as a normative order

While there are significant differences in the origins, theoretical justifications and political movements subscribing to ‘socialism’, all are critical of capitalism. Capitalism is unjust because it generates unwarranted inequalities, it is inefficient because it wastes human and material resources and it is evil because it leads to war. Its advocates contend that socialism is morally, economically and politically superior to capitalism.