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Chapter Fourteen 'Party Projects in England' (January 1902) Max Beer Chapter Fourteen ‘Party Projects in England’ (January 1902) Max Beer In his essay on ‘Party Projects in England’, Max Beer turns from the Fabian ideas of Sidney Webb to pro- posals from John Hobson to create what Beer calls a party of ‘socialism sans doctrines’ – a fusion of social- ist, radical and labour groups into a single, centre-left party. Beer’s account of the economic ideas behind Hobson’s project is in some ways reminiscent of Eduard Bernstein’s thinking in The Preconditions for Socialism. In particular, Hobson and Bernstein both rejected Marx’s labour-theory of value. Bernstein thought Marx could account neither for the distribu- tion of incomes in modern society nor for the grow- ing contribution to prosperity by service industries,1 while, for Hobson, ‘true surplus-value’, or ‘dis- guised profit’, was simply the excess that any party to a bargain acquired through shrewd negotiating or superior power. Bernstein reviewed three of Hobson’s early works in Die Neue Zeit: The Evolution of Modern Capitalism, Problems of Poverty and The Problem of the Unem- ployed.2 He was enthusiastic about Hobson’s ethi- cal convictions, but he disputed his emphasis on 1. Bernstein 1993, pp. 47–56. 2. Hobson 1894, 1891, 1896. 266 • Max Beer underconsumption.3 According to Bernstein, Hobson borrowed his theory of underconsumption from Thomas Robert Malthus’s explanation of trade depressions. Bernstein denied that capitalism necessarily entailed undercon- sumption, even citing Marx’s point that crises typically began when workers acquired a larger share than usual of the commodities intended for consump- tion.4 Hobson’s remedy for unemployment was to increase the consumption of the masses through taxing unearned income, shortening working time and raising wages. Disagreeing with Hobson in theory, Bernstein saw no reason for opposing ‘such a “Progressive” consumption policy’, since ‘Any way to fight unemployment that does not hinder social progress – and none of Hobson’s proposals can be accused of doing that – will not be opposed by Social Democracy.’5 This article by Max Beer appeared in Die Neue Zeit shortly before publi- cation of Hobson’s most famous work, Imperialism: A Study. Beer attributes Hobson’s sympathies with labour both to his ethical commitments – as dis- tinct from the Fabians – and to his conviction that labour’s bargaining power, in both political and economic terms, must be strengthened in order to address the maldistribution of income that Hobson would soon cite as a key factor in his explanation of imperialism.6 * * * ‘Party Projects in England’7 Among the different attempts to form new political parties in England, those of John A. Hobson and James Keir Hardie deserve a closer look. They are – like the party project of Sidney Webb – characteristic of many phases of cur- rent social and political thought. As we pointed out in a previous article,8 Webb’s endeavours are aimed at uniting the Liberal imperialists – without 3. Bernstein 1894, a review of Hobson 1894. 4. See Marx 1978b, pp. 486–7. 5. Bernstein 1897, a review of Hobson 1896a and Hobson 1891. 6. For an excellent short summary of Hobson’s economic theories and moral con- cerns see Richmond 1978. 7. Beer 1902a. The last section, called ‘Keir Hardie’s inspirations’ (pp. 434–6), has been left out. 8. [Beer 1901b. See Chapter 13.] .
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