A Symposium Hobert Heilbroner FROM SWEDEN TO

A Small Symposium on Big Questions

have recently posed a question to which I quire an extensive change—I will not say have no answer, but which seems to me to go "fall" —in its living standards. Wasteful private to the heart of the outlook for democratic consumption would have to yield to economical socialism, at least in the advanced capitalist public consumption, automobiles making way countries. The question is: how far beyond the for busses and trains, washing machines for borders of what I call "real but slightly Laundromats. How can a population that clearly imaginary Sweden" would we have to go enjoys its wasteful standard way of life be per- before a visitor to that land knew that he or she suaded to make such a change? was in a socialist, not a capitalist, country? 4. Bourgeois life itself may be a matter of Let me suggest some of the more obvious concern. Sweden is a highly pragmatic, comfort- answers—and the problems they raise: minded, nonideological place. Is that a culture 1. A small number of large corporations that socialism would seek? What other? constitute the dynamic core of the Swedish There are no doubt many ways in which economy. Would these corporations have to Sweden would have to change before the go? With what would they be replaced? The imaginary land to which we refer was unmis- one thing we know is that they should not be takably socialist. To indicate those ways, and nationalized. Then how governed? Or if to consider their economic and political costs, dismantled, into what sorts of units, themselves seems to me the manner in which democratic how governed? socialists should measure the challenge of the 2. Sweden has a large and generous public coming decades. sector. Its purpose, however, is to provide the amenities needed in a capitalist economy, not those of a socialist society. The difference, I adds: Let me supplement Bob should think, is that a socialist public sector Heilbroner's cogent questions with another, would aim at "decommodifying" labor— perhaps preliminary to his, which our critics, removing the necessity for performing unwel- and perhaps some friends, would ask: if we come work. If so, how would these wide- imagine so advanced and attractive a welfare ranging entitlements be provided? What would state as the "Sweden-plus" that he postulates, be their effect on economic and social life? would there be any reasons still to wish to 3. Sweden is closely entwined in the world move further toward a socialist society? If so, capitalist market. To extricate itself would re- what would those reasons be?

96 • DISSENT From Sweden to Socialism

Joanna Barkan

Poking around Slightly-Imaginary-Sweden socialist points out that because most industry (SIS), even the skeptical socialist is impressed. is privately owned, the system is vulnerable. A solidaristic wage policy (centralized bargain- The left government and unions try endlessly to ing to achieve equal pay for equal work accommodate private capital. Not only must nationwide) forces unproductive enterprises to profits be high, private owners and investors shape up or go under. This boosts overall must be persuaded that they will benefit more economic efficiency. Strong tax incentives pull by staying in SIS than by moving. This gives profits into reinvestment, further raising produc- them excessive economic power and political tivity and creating jobs. Intelligent labor market leverage. But no matter how well the SIS policies (job training and placement, subsidies system performs, private capital will defect if it for worker relocation, and so on) hold unem- perceives significant advantage elsewhere. Na- ployment down to statistically irrelevant levels. tional loyalty is a myth. (The current flight of Because the transition to new jobs is eased, a capital from real Sweden into the EEC powerful democratic labor movement cooper- countries is sad proof.) The gains made in SIS ates in industrial rationalization, once again remain precarious. increasing efficiency and growth. Surplus from The socialist has other reasons for wanting to this dynamic economy is used to protect the move beyond SIS. First, she would like to environment. The surplus also supports a break up concentrations of wealth and power in system of universal, high quality social welfare order to promote democracy. Second, she programs that are decentralized enough to be believes that people can have substantial "user-friendly." Good education builds a control over their work life only if the skilled work force. Progressive tax policies workplace belongs to them. Third, although shrink income inequalities, which keeps the SIS wins high marks for equalizing life market from listing too heavily toward luxury opportunity, redistributing wealth, and foster- goods. Public agencies oversee the immense ing fine (socialist) values, the socialist thinks pension funds, thereby exercising some demo- even more could be done. cratic control over investment. What structural changes does the socialist National legislation prevents arbitrary fir- propose? The innovations must do more than ings, requires worker representation on the upgrade SIS (more than, say, improve day care boards of directors of all firms, allows workers or make taxes more steeply progressive); they to halt production if they find unsafe conditions, must transform capitalist SIS into a socialist and obliges employers to negotiate with local country. Forms of ownership must change, and unions before implementing major changes. the scope of markets be reduced. After living under this system for some The socialist recommends enlarging SIS's decades, most SIS citizens hold dear the values small socialized sector. Under the new system, of equality, social justice, solidarity, democ- the state would own enterprises in key racy, and freedom. Images of the homeless on industries as well as natural monopolies (the the streets of shock them. They telephone system, power companies, railroads, pressure their government to increase aid to the and so on). Socialization would keep concen- Third World. They point with pride to the fact trations of power and wealth out of private that the overall health of SIS children in the hands, give the government and labor move- bottom 10 percent income group is identical to ment more control over the economy, and that in the top 10 percent. During their six prevent capital flight. weeks of vacation each year, SISers love to But the skeptical socialist acknowledges travel abroad. But they return convinced that serious problems. The inevitable oversight their system best implements basic values. agencies can undermine freedom of initiative Life is sweet in SIS. Why go beyond? The for the managers of socialized firms. Assess-

WINTER • 1991 • 97 From Sweden to Socialism ment of responsibility becomes difficult. Even hensive planning—including price setting, pro- if a good managerial culture develops in the duction quotas, and the allocation of capital, socialized sector, the entrepreneurial function, raw materials, and intermediate goods between essential to a dynamic economy, may be lost. firms—is rejected. No one can fathom how to The socialist doesn't value efficiency, compet- make such a system work, with its built-in itiveness, and economic growth for themselves, inefficiencies, shortages, impossible data re- but rather wants enough of these to fund the quirements, arbitrary prices, and inadequate institutions that make social justice and equal- criteria for evaluation. ity possible. No socialist party wins a free The socialist advocates a lighter touch. The election with a program of enforced autarky for government will shape economic development a state-controlled economy. by phasing out declining industries and promot- So the socialist suggests an alternative form ing new ones with tax credits, discounted of ownership—workers' cooperatives. Cooper- interest rates, and direct subsidies. The social- atives, too, break up concentrations of power ist keeps in mind that too much intervention and wealth and prevent, capital flight. They will undercut market discipline and the econ- give people the greatest control over their work omy will be dragged down by inefficient firms life, eliminate unearned income, and encourage that don't cover their costs. participation. The decision is made to expand Until convinced that something else will SIS's existing cooperative sector until co-ops work, the socialist opts for a level of planning are the dominant form of ownership. and an economy of mixed ownership that resembles more than anything else . . . well Unfortunately, new difficulties develop. Co- . . . SIS. The socialized sector has been ops within an industry can compete ruthlessly; enlarged a little to ensure socially useful some knock out others, leading to new production that the market neglects. Rigorous concentrations of wealth and power; some legislation promotes small businesses and worker/members may resort to extreme self- disperses large concentrations of economic exploitation. The socialist proposes laws to power. The co-op sector might be somewhat counter monopolization and to protect workers larger. And perhaps ways are found to root from themselves. But more serious imbalances socialist values more deeply. emerge: cooperatives resist taking in new Our socialist is anything but satisfied. The members in order to keep profits per member fundamental contradiction of the system hasn't as high as possible. Labor mobility decreases been resolved. Improved SIS is still vulnerable throughout the economy. Co-ops also resist to capital flight. Investors might cut out anytime labor-saving technology, undermining overall for places where the wages are lower, the reg- efficiency. ulations fewer, and the ethos less egalitarian— Then Co-op A decides to invest its surplus in thus confirming the dictum that it's difficult to Co-op B, turning Co-op A members into maintain SIS in just one country. The only so- capitalists. Co-op A has the possibility of lution is to operate in an international market becoming a powerful conglomerate. Laws are where SIS conditions predominate. What SIS passed to prevent one co-op from investing in needs is Very-Imaginary-Europe (VIE). another. But this immobilizes capital, and the So the socialist joins the movement to build economy may lose its dynamism. Finally, an VIE—yet all the while is plagued by doubt: if economy dominated by cooperatives doesn't an ever-improved SIS depends on the dyna- have labor unions uniting workers both indus- mism of private enterprise, how can the system try wide and throughout the economy. There is ever be called socialism? The response for now no solidaristic wage policy and therefore none is another question: if the system is equally of its far-reaching benefits. characterized by the decommodification of Needing respite from the ownership ques- human needs, market regulation, and the tion, the socialist considers the market and its redistribution of wealth and power, can it still noncapitalist alternative, planning. Compre- be called capitalism?

98 • DISSENT From Sweden to Socialism

H. Brand

I accept for the sake of argument Bob has happened in Eastern Europe, a central Heilbroner's way of posing his initial question, problem, perhaps the central problem for social although he phrases it in terms (so it seems to democracy and democratic socialism. me) of two separate, static forms of social 2. Decommodifving labor. At a time when governance—when in reality, capitalism and labor is increasingly threatened by recommod- socialism are processes that interact and are ification, as witness the weakening of trade carried on by social groups or classes in unions, the stagnation of purchasing power, the sometimes cooperative, often hostile ways. erosion of social entitlements, should we be Furthermore, although I sympathize with Heil- concerned about people refusing "unwelcome" broner's need to limit the analysis by restricting labor as a core problem of a socialist society? the outlook for democratic socialism to the The abstractness with which Heilbroner poses the question, disturbs me. Also, he overlooks advanced countries, we must note that much of the fact that the refusal to perform unwelcome the renewed dominance of capital stems from labor has been recognized even in American the enormous pressures on wages and social labor law. Unemployment compensation can- entitlements exerted by the competition of the not be refused to a jobseeker who declines poorer countries and the seemingly unstoppable work outside his or her regular occupation. It is migration of their redundant work force. So the true that this has been more and more questions Heilbroner raises have too narrow an circumvented. A jobseeker can no longer ambit, they are too abstract, and I don't see decline lower-paid work without endangering where they go "to the heart" of the outlook for his or her compensation rights; employers can democratic socialism. Yet I'll try to deal with readily find persons (for example, immigrant them briefly, one reason for this being that I foreigners) for whom no work is unwelcome. cannot formulate them much better. The decommodification of labor is one of 1. Corporate structure. This question cannot those processes, alluded to earlier, in which be cogently answered in ignorance of the capitalist requirements and labor's—or social- cultural and historical setting of a given istic—objectives clash. In Politics Against society. My inclination is to reduce the Markets: The Social Democratic Road to influence of shareholders drastically, because Power, Gosta Esping-Andersen writes: shareholders are not producers, and to reinvest or tax away dividends. But how would Social democratic class formation . . . is first and management then be controlled? Can it be foremost a struggle to decommodify labor and inspired by an ethos of social responsibility? stem market sovereignty in order to make Would a tripartite board of directors— collective action possible. Only when workers representatives of the public, labor, and major command resources and access to welfare inde- consumer groups—be effective? How could a pendently of market exchange can they possibly be swayed not to take jobs during strike actions, progressive role for its financiers—the banks, [and] underbid fellow workers. . . . the state perhaps, the capital markets—be ensured? I believe these are problems for an Esping-Andersen defines the decommodifica- evolutionary socialism, for a kind of Deweyite tion of labor in terms of collective social social intelligence. Even Keynes did not services, unemployment and sickness compen- despair of them, although his historical vision sation, employment security, and general was foreshortened. income maintenance. The attainment of these Furthermore, I believe that the state must entitlements represents more than the creation ultimately guide all major investment in of "amenities" in a capitalist economy. It also productive equipment and structures, human diminishes the reach of the market and the resources, and social infrastructure. This role domination of capital over resources. It estab- for the state remains, notwithstanding all that lishes, if you will, a socialistic terrain,

WINTER • 1991 • 99 From Sweden to Socialism although this terrain remains contested by well make large-scale investment and con- privatization drives. sumption aid imperative (as the recent $3 3. Integration in the world market. Here I billion loan by Germany to the Soviet Union cannot follow Heilbroner's argument. He indicated); and such aid can only be extended seems to believe that in order to establish at the expense of living standards now enjoyed socialism, his imaginary Sweden must disen- in the potentially aiding countries. It would be tangle itself from the world market, and that a manifestation of worldwide socializing ten- this would entail a change if not a decline in its dencies; I am sure that Gunnar Myrdal would standard of living. He evidently rejects the have so interpreted this development, and that notion that socialism without autarky is Willy Brandt would be inclined to do so, and possible. The evidence for this notion is the would even urge its intensification. autarkic regimes of Eastern Europe, all of 4. Bourgeois life. If living standards may be which closed themselves off against the world capped or reduced due to the imperatives of an markets and all of which broke down. This international redistribution of income, they implies that either your economy is integrated may also be impinged upon by environmental in the world market—then you can have a concerns, unless technologies are developed high standard of living, but no socialism. Or and resource planning is instituted that over- it protects itself against the world market— come such concerns and enable a shift in then your standard of living won't be great, standards of comfort rather than necessitate a but you'll have socialism. I believe this to be cut in them. a false dilemma. But leave these considerations aside; Heil- The history of international institutions over broner implies a civilizational change, even as the past century depicts a struggle to curtail the he speaks of a "visitor" who, after all, reach of the world market or at least to regulate "envisages" or sees two different societies, one it. No matter that this effort more often failed capitalist, the other socialist. And what sym- than succeeded; it was perennially renewed. I bolizes the heart of their difference better than, cite only the work of the International Labor for capitalism, the New York skyline and the Office in setting work standards and seeking power of capital it proclaims, and, for the adherence to the codes to which its member socialist future, the campuslike setting of more countries agree. Perhaps standards of living in and more industries, indicating their knowl- the "advanced" countries will have to be edge-based activities? The intelligence of reduced—but not so as to bring socialism to an power being displaced by the power of imaginary Sweden. Rather, the threat of intelligence—that would be the promise of a political instability and migration pressure may civilization based on democratic socialism.

Mitchell Cohen

Why go beyond an advanced welfare defined. Jean Jaures provided the metaphor state—beyond what Robert Heilbroner calls (which I'll amplify): a hemispheric border is "real but slightly imaginary" Sweden? How not immediately visible to passengers on a ship would the passage from welfare state to as they cross the sea. Conflicting gales may "socialism" be manifest? press them back and forth, tempestuous travel To create a more democratic society. By trying the craft's seaworthiness. Yet if they expanding substantive, that is, social and persist, the voyagers eventually perceive that economic in addition to political, democracy. new waters have been reached. If we postulate that these aims are pursued These new waters are not enclosed. Nor are by reformist means, then the "goal" would not they frozen. They do not represent an endziel, be evident at first glance; nor would there be a or final goal, but rather an opening of "last glance" upon something comprehensively possibilities. The point, to paraphrase Marx, is

100 • DISSENT From Sweden to Socialism and to engender as much flexibility and relations—a community, but without a reified mobility within the division of labor as endziel. possible. A caveat. The fate of Sweden's economy, Finally, the array of public institutions we which is heavily export oriented, will be identify nowadays with the welfare state substantially dependent on current processes of would exist, but the principles governing European integration, even though Sweden is them would be those of social citizenship. To not a European Community member. The only retrieve Jaures's maritime metaphor: citizens alternative scenario is, to say the least, would see themselves in the same boat, and implausible: an egalitarian autarky, which not just politically. * This would be expressed would likely require both authoritarianism and in the type of society fashioned, its values (I plummeting living standards—a nordic Alba- stress the plural), its social and human nia, as it were. Consequently, the future of socialism in Sweden, no less its welfare state, * For a somewhat different application of Juares's will be conditioned by the general complexion metaphor to Sweden, see Adarri Prezeworski's Capitalism taken on by Europe as a whole in the coming and Social Democracy, Cambridge University Press. years.

Lewis Cesar

The term "scientific socialism" is an oxymo- in retreat since the early days of the New Deal. ron. Science pertains to the study of what is, What has been initial retreat has now become a whereas socialism is a vision of what can or full-scale rout. It seems that, according to the should be. To deny scientific status to major current thoughtways, anybody who socialism is not to denigrate its central strays from the common paths as theorized by importance. It provides indispensable guiding Milton Friedman leads us straight to the gulag. images without which our lives would become The greatest challenge to the idea of appallingly drab, and hardly worth living. socialism at the moment does not just come Utopian visions are not merely frosting on the from doctrinaire defenders of the alleged cake but a major part of its substance. benefits of free markets. It comes from large Socialism, its Marxian forebears notwith- sections of who have of late standing, is one of a variety of utopian ideas. emerged in Eastern Europe. These men and Utopia is, of course, nowhere, but ever since women have suffered for many years from Plato's Republic, the counterimage of a perfect totalitarian regimes that had the effrontery to society has served to provide regulative ideas call themselves socialist. It is hence not for a society more decent, more just, more astonishing that many of these intellectuals fraternal than the present. Each society pro- have turned away from what they conceive duces the utopia it deserves. socialism to be and have come to extol the free One of the least appealing aspects of market. Free and unhampered market enter- contemporary society is its technocratic fixa- prise is, to be sure, found only in textbooks. tion and its lack of social vision. August Bebel What these East European intellectuals per- once complained about what he called the ceive as the essence of a free-market society damned wontlessness of the poor. In our days, may well be a fatal distortion, but it still has the it is not only the poor who lack transcending power to do untold harm to the idea of vision, but even intellectuals have largely socialism and of a good society. deserted their mission to provide utopian Some thirty-five years ago Irving Howe and images that transcend current habits of thought. I wrote an essay for Dissent that was meant to They are for the most part timid souls who are provide rough guidelines to what we believe scared to stray too much from the well-trodden to be the main components of a good society. path. In America, the utopian image has been We called this paper "Images of Socialism."

102 • DISSENT From Sweden to Socialism

"God," we quoted Tolstoy, "is the name of that keeps us honest when we attempt to my desire," I see no reason why we should assess the ailments and tragic consequences of surrender this pregnant hope to all the current the here and now. The Utopian image of the Eastern and Western enemies of social "good society" can serve as a stimulant for promise. Socialism is a guiding and regulative constructive moral change, even though it idea. It cannot as such ever be realized fully, cannot be fully implemented. At every step but it can serve as a measuring rod for on the road we will discover new tasks, comparing the present with what can be which come into view when some of the old attained through a politics of democratic goals have been attained. The utopian social- participation in a fraternal self-governing ist vision can spur us on even as it leads us to society. The image of socialism is a yardstick discover new challenges along the way.

Bogdan Denitch

Without an imaginative utopian dimension, majority of even left voters in advanced socialist thought remains excessively rooted in industrial societies today have been socialized the present. It ends up as something very to accept a whole range of assumptions of a worthwhile, that is, the reform of the existing capitalist civilization about what is possible and system; but it remains restricted to what is desirable, how one should live one's life, and "realistic" within the existing order. The what is the necessary minimum of material borders of the possible are not even tested. goods. Traditional solidarities of class, occupa- That kind of "realism" has almost destroyed tion, and workplace are replaced by possessive West European socialism, leaving behind individualism. Left politics increasingly resorts reasonable but dull administrators of a more to talking about resentments of segments of the humane capitalism within welfare states. population and the unfairness in the distribution The problem in thinking about a socialist of the benefits of increased productivity rather society or program is how to make such a than raising universalist egalitarian demands society seem possible and desirable to human and a vision of a radically different organiza- beings who have been shaped by the present tion of production and leisure. To raise such culture and social order. This is a major demands is considered unrealistic, but failing problem, because the cultural hegemony of the to do so destroys the moral and emotional basis capitalist order is now probably stronger than it of the movement. has been at any point since the industrial Mass socialist politics in the late nineteenth revolution. To be sure, the Social Democratic and twentieth centuries had been rooted in an parties increasingly solve that problem by not autonomous working-class subculture, which, worrying much about any kind of socialist whatever its inadequacies, provided an alter- future and meanwhile doing what they do nate political socialization for generations of rather well, that is, defend the welfare state. socialist, trade unionist, and broadly radical Mass literacy and state-controlled education, democratic activists. The present urban com- combined with a commercialized mass culture, munity, by contrast, is atomized, collective successfully hasten the retreat of the autono- goals are mobilized in the service of the mous cultures that had been built up by the existing order, and the idea that the common industrial working class. The autonomy pro- good may require sacrifice and effort is vided by homogeneous working-class neigh- replaced by notions of self-fulfillment, often borhoods, with their pubs, clubs, political through individual advancement and accumula- organizations, and associations linked to left tion of possessions. This process extends to all parties and unions, is for the most part, organizations of citizens in the modern capital- throughout Western Europe and North Amer- ist democracies, so that parties, voluntary ica, either vanishing or disintegrating. The associations, and unions become goods to be

WINTER • 1991 • 103 From Sweden to Socialism passively consumed and democracy an exercise beyond the welfare state are not just its in consumer choice rather than a process generous social provisions or high living requiring active participation by an informed standards but rather the massiveness of its labor citizenry. movement. It organizes so high a percentage of Although a high degree of organization is not the working population as to be qualitatively required to disrupt and even topple an existing different from all other social democracies and political order, it is required for constructing an welfare states. The figure for the trade unions alternate order. That is one of the recent is 85 percent of all employed! That is, 90 lessons from Eastern Europe and even the percent of all production workers. No other Soviet Union. I believe that only in societies country begins to approach these figures. Such with a high degree of autonomous self- figures affect other political statistics, including organization and a thick set of overlapping the proportion of social democratic voters who movements and institutions, does it become are members of the party, the cooperative possible to think of moving beyond the limits movement, the women's organizations, and so that capitalist civilization sets. These limits are on. This degree of organization makes it "set" mostly in the minds of the public. To be possible to answer other questions about what sure, they are limits considerably more flexible might be done in a near-Sweden. than the traditional left used to believe. When Such mass organization determines what faced with dangerous alternatives, advanced popularly supported measures can be under- egalitarian and welfare-state measures may taken without being brought down by the well be accepted. However, the invisible but very real power of capital even in hegemony of the capitalist system signifies an an advanced welfare state. It is the very real ability to define what is "objectively" possible threat of a "strike of capital" backed up by the to do in society. world capitalist order that acts as the real limit on how far one can move beyond the welfare state. This is why Robert Heilbroner has done The only way to counter the potential veto something useful by asking us to imagine what by capital of any major move on the part of a could, or rather should, lie beyond the present left government is massive popular organiza- reformist valhalla, the Swedish welfare state. tions of the type that the Swedish labor We are asked to think about a real place, or an movement possesses. In Sweden labor can almost real place, a more advanced Sweden, block attacks on the welfare state, and it can and that gives us an implicit time frame, block attempts by capital to sabotage legisla- presumably a few decades. What can be tion. Imagine a political strike in a country counterposed to the hegemony of the capitalist where 85 percent of the work force is culture are the independent organizations and organized! Its numbers give it strength, and its social movements that accept at least partially solidaristic wage policies, which have reshaped different values. The most massive example of the Swedish income distribution toward greater such an organization that has, even if to a equality, give it moral weight. Unlike, for limited extent, alternative values is the Swedish example, the Anglo-Saxon unions, Swedish labor movement. It is that which makes labor did not favor the better-placed and more Sweden different and "special" for me, not the powerful unions; instead, it pushed for in- welfare state per se. After all, advanced creases across the board as a conscious decision welfare states exist in other Scandinavian to reduce wage differentials between skilled countries and Holland. Germany, France, and unskilled, between women and men. That Belgium, and Italy also have relatively ad- is, it rejected the capitalist competitive norms vanced welfare states with a fair degree of when determining its strategy. control over capital as a minimal norm of What a labor movement can do in Sweden is civilized behavior. also limited by what it can convince the What is unique about Sweden and makes it majority of the electorate to accept. At this possible to think of it as a site for a project time, there is a standoff. Proposals to move

104 • DISSENT From Sweden to Socialism beyond the welfare state, and there were such scribed by Alec Nove make good sense. during the seventies, did not win a convincing Clearly great concentrations of private wealth majority. Therefore, quite properly, the are incompatible with socialism or, for that Meidner plan (which would effectively have matter, democracy. While very steep progres- abolished capitalism through wage-earner sive tax ation combined with an almost funds) is on a back burner for the time being. I confiscatory inheritance tax could alleviate this think it will be revived. problem, in the more advanced welfare states we still have the question of the social and The real question is: what would one need to political effects of great concentrations of see Sweden or any other country as moving wealth. toward socialism? My somewhat simplified Gross differences in wealth and income are answer is that Sweden would have to move in unacceptable from the point of view of either two major directions. The first is to effectively equity or democratic theory. Wealth tends to expand control over the workplace through translate into political and social power. councils that involve the vast majority of Democracy cannot exist in any meaningful workers in making day-to-day decisions about sense when there are gross disparities in their work life, personnel decisions, and the political power. That argument is so obvious overall direction their enterprises should take. and well established that it provides today the Such bodies should control management and be most effective language with which to express regarded as the economic counterpart to local the socialist argument—the language of democ- self-government. The second is to abolish the racy. Thus my ultimate argument is that the present concentrations of private ownership. welfare state should move in a socialist Mixed forms of property ownership—private, direction so as to complete the democratic public, and cooperative—along the lines de- transformation of society.

Ferenc Fisher and Agnes Haller

The demise of communism after the revolu- have ample reason for joy. The scarecrow, tions of 1989 has been, understandably, hailed whose presence has always triggered the by the right as the ultimate "proof" of the accusation of conspiring to introduce a govern- fiasco of the socialist idea as a whole. More ment of terror, leveled against them whenever surprising than the rightist glee is the self- they proposed social change, is now gone. Yet querying mood of many noncommunist social- it seems as though old-time democratic social- ists who, precisely now, want to find meta- ists, enemies of communism for reasons of physical or sociological "proofs" and "guaran- principle, are anxious rather than relieved. This tees" of the survival and longevity of their perplexity of (noncommunist) socialism is a movement. But there are no such guarantees. highly revealing feeling, conveying the mes- Every culture prior to ours harbored influential sage that noncommunist socialism has not trends that at some point lost their vitality and faced seriously the complex issue of the vanished, for various reasons. Our culture is no historic achievements and internal limitations exception. It is entirely in the hands of of its own theory and politics. The critique of socialists here and now whether their great communism seemed to have spared socialism movement, which has molded modernity for this unpleasant task, which can no longer be two centuries, is doomed to extinction or postponed. whether socialism will find the inner energy for Above all, socialism does not seem to have rejuvenation. made an honest inventory of its contribution to Viewed in perspective, social democrats and the "normal" development of modernity. Even libertarian socialists of all hues should now if socialists completely disinherit communism

WINTER • 1991 • 105 From Sweden to Socialism as an intruder into their family, even if, as a government, was the Keynesian. Their tradi- result, they accept no responsibility for com- tional, and perfectly legitimate, relationship to munism's crimes, the fact still remains that the the market has been in the last half century socialist contribution to normally developed cohabitation and a policy of proposing restric- modernity has been dangerously curtailed so tions with a view to social justice (which, in far in several areas. combination, is what "market socialism" is all Their major claim to recognition—one with- about). So far, with the exception of Willy out which the "Roman degeneration" of Brandt's vague theses on the North-South modernity into Caesarism on the one hand and relationship, socialists have not been particu- the permanent indigence of the industrial larly receptive to the problems arising out of proletariat on the other would have been the disproportions of global economy— inescapable—is the legitimization of "the although world economy is now the adequate social question." The neglected needs of the framework, as was the nation state in Keynes's working classes, as well as of those who have time, in which recommendations for social been forced to idleness, enjoys, for the first justice and (nonmarket) rationality can be time in recorded history, a pride of place on the raised and implemented. political agenda only as a result of the Their overwhelmingly urban origins and socialists' stubborn campaigning. This achieve- culture prevented the socialists from adding an ment is their glory. iota to the agrarian question. The only The socialists provided the idea of relative redeeming feature in this regard was their zeal equality and that of social justice with a in implementing a program of land partitioning balanced meaning beyond extremist excesses. during certain agrarian revolutions, and this They have, furthermore, contributed to the was not their own proposal. Perhaps for that development of parliamentary democracy in the reason they also overslept the emergence of the nineteenth, and in Spain and Portugal even in environmentalist issue, which has been advo- the twentieth, century by mobilizing the cated by nonsocialist actors. proletariat, initially an outcast of civil society and almost completely uninterested in politics, to transform itself into an electoral constituency As for nationhood and nationalism, demo- and boost its social and economic power. cratic socialists or social democrats have an However, socialism accepted ready-made the almost entirely unblemished record of being idea and the modus operandi of democracy, enemies of national, ethnic, or race bias of all and it has added virtually nothing to democratic kinds. (The shameful episode of the "White theory and practice. The indifference to and Australia Policy" of Australian Labour re- often contempt for liberalism felt by many mained an incident without further conse- socialists blinded them to the moblike features quences in the annals of socialism.) At the and the totalitarian potentials of democracy. same time, albeit loyal citizens, socialists Perception of the latter has been traditionally always felt ill at ease about national identifica- regarded as "aristocratism" among socialists tion. They were not internationalists in the who were committed democrats. communist sense of building a Universal For the most part, the economic system of Church of the Grand Inquisitor, but they were modernity developed without their participation certainly cosmopolitan in an age of national- other than as critics, which was, admittedly, a ism. Only one socialist contingent, the Zionist crucial function. Even when the socialists did Labor, became a nation-builder, and another, not harbor ideas of radical utopias of a French socialism from Jaures to Mitterrand, marketless society, they have, for good rea- has contributed to the greatness of la nation, sons, always considered the market a necessary with only a single relapse into chauvinism evil and, rightly, market logic the principle of a (under Guy Mollet during the Algerian war). continually reproduced inequality. The only The rest of them stood awkwardly on the economic strategy they felt affinity with, and sideline whenever the nation and its affairs whose agents proper they were when in were on the agenda.

106 • DISSENT From Sweden to Socialism

Finally, they have an ambiguous cultural The vacuum created by the demise of record. For them, communism was tantamount communism is beneficial for socialists only if either to state censorship or to intellectual elit- they are capable of making an inventory of ism. By contrast, social democrats were betting their peak performances and serious limita- on a genuine proletarian culture in an age when tions. For, let us be honest, the existence of class culture was already disintegrating. The gov- communism was not merely an obstacle for ernment of democratic socialists in the welfare democratic socialists. In strange ways, it was state was a benevolent patron of the arts; and the also a blessing in disguise. As long as socialist movement spread literacy and the light communist governments of terror or repression of knowledge where the darkness of ignorance existed, it sufficed for democratic socialists or had reigned supreme. We owe the discovery of, social democrats to pinpoint the communist and the support for, the best products of working- practices with the remark: we shall do it in a class culture (in Great Britain), as well as some different way. This gesture alone guaranteed of the best novels (in Scandinavia and postwar votes. But now, with the scarecrow gone, they Germany), to this welfarist patronage and social are left alone on the left, and they have to do democratic spirit. But social democracy, in its the work in a different way or perish. To be aversion to intellectual elitism, has constantly capable of performing the new task, it is lacked the great vision necessary for the flour- mandatory that they address their own past ishing of culture. record.

Branko Horvat

In order to find out how much a country is 2. If the full personal development of socialist, it is necessary first to define social- individual men and women is the supreme goal, ism. Characteristically, no clear, precise, and social equity is the basis of the system called commonly accepted definition exists. My own socialism. That implies the elimination of any definition is extensively discussed elsewhere concentration of political and economic power. (The Political Economy of Socialism, Sharpe, In this sense the three goals may be approxi- 1982) and can be only briefly summarized mated through political and economic democ- here. racy and government-sponsored solidarity. 1. Socialism is a phase in the process of the 3. Socialist political democracy includes all individuation of men and women, of their classical rights and freedoms of citizens and emancipation from various collectivities (tribe, also replaces party politics (parties are estate, class, nation), of their progress in the concentrations of power) by citizens' politics. direction of individual self-determination. In other words, elections do not depend on (Note that individuation has nothing to do with party finances and party bosses, and the possessive egoism and implies, rather than relation between electors and their representa- excludes, genuine social consciousness.) In this tives in the parliament is personalized. The sense, socialism contributes to the fulfillment representative is primarily responsible to elec- of the three proclaimed goals of the bourgeois tors, not to a party, and the party whip is revolutions: liberty, equality, and solidarity. absent. The issues are decided on their merits, The three ideals cannot be separated and imply not in the interest of party oligarchies. each other: unequal liberty destroys equality, Substantial, as contrasted to purely formal lack of equality makes the freedoms of some criteria are generally applicable: similarly, as a individuals deficient, and solidarity is the formal democratic procedure is not sufficient in behavioral precondition for the achievement of socialist politics, neither is formal equality liberty and equality. Against this standard, it is before law. A corporation or a state agency, not particularly difficult to measure the perfor- with vast means at its disposal, and an mance of Sweden or any other country. individual citizen cannot be equal parties in the

WINTER • 1991 • 107 From Sweden to Socialism court of law. That necessitates the creation of tomed to evaluating their needs rationally will an ombudsman, an institution in which the know how to use automobiles and buses, and Swedes have pioneered. Finally, the Leviathan- we may safely leave such choices to them. state must be decomposed into its seven Ecological norms are all that is necessary. fundamental functions (legislative, executive, adjudicative, administrative, recruiting, and owever, three important problems remain: controlling), replacing the classic separation of H 1. First, it is not particularly difficult to the first three powers. establish a consistent set of socialist proposi- 4. Economic democracy is perhaps the most tions. It is, however, terribly difficult to bring distinctive feature of socialism. It means that them about in reality. A socialist program management rights are derived from labor and cannot be imposed by government fiat because not from the ownership of capital. That implies that is a self-contradictory target, and the that self-management replaces power hierarchy disastrous failures of such attempts all around at the place of work. Self-management, in turn, are a sufficient reminder. A laissez-faire implies an independence of firms and the socialist development may be a very round- existence of a free market without monopolies. about affair. Thus, the program must be It also implies full employment, which requires tailor-made for every country in particular. planning as a complement to automatic regula- 2. In Sweden, public discontent has been tion of economic processes by the market. growing for some years now. That is due not Since the firms are primary owners (and engage only to the fact that large government and in all business transactions for their own ubiquitous trade unions get bureaucratized. account and independently, regardless of whose People gradually become fed up with some- capital they use), a capital market is consistent body making decisions on their behalf and with socialist economics. tutoring them from the cradle to the grave— 5. Income is basically distributed according even if that is very beneficial to them. Healthy to work performed. That requires that social sol- men and women need challenges in their life to idarity enter in two different ways: productive be met by their own efforts. A superficial and ethical ones. Personality-building services answer is liberalism. A more adequate answer (education, medical care) must not depend on has yet to be found. the earning power of the recipients but must be 3. Finally, no country is big enough to build delivered "according to needs." That is not only socialism all by itself The international "just," but also helps to develop the productive environment is not socialist, although the potential of the society. The second case refers European Community might by necessity begin to handicapped individuals who cannot earn a to move in that direction. The international decent living by their own efforts. Here pure capitalist pressure is perhaps the strongest human solidarity is involved. obstacle for socialist development anywhere. 6. A socialist framework does not resolve technical issues (large corporations, large public sector and so on) by itself. But it offers different possibilities for their solution. For instance, nationalization is a nonissue. Large To Our Contributors corporations are large primarily because their financial power increases with size, and that is crucial for survival in the fluctuating capitalist Because Dissent is usually quick in re- market. Planning may reduce the advantages of sponding to submissions of articles, we financial power, and self-government will cannot acquiesce to multiple submissions. reduce the attractiveness of large size. An They are a bad idea in principle, and they tend egalitarian distribution of income reduces the to waste the time of our editors who work in need for large government expenditures. The their "spare time." Henceforth multiple sub- missions will be automatically rejected. elimination of class distinctions makes conspic- uous consumption an oddity. People accus-

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Gus Tyler

Capitalism doesn't work: the 1930s proved was the child of the age of "science," when that that. Communism doesn't work: the 1980s word was almost synonymous with "certainty." proved that. Like Einstein, Marx could not believe that So what works? Socialism—of the demo- "God's" universe is as chancy as dice: things cratic variety, of course. happened in obedience to Nature's law. Like But, viewed concretely, as it is applied in Einstein, too, he probably would have been ap- practice, what is socialism today? The answer palled by a Heisenberg and the concept of un- is—the mixed economy. certainty in the natural world. Theoretically, that simplifies the problem. For Marx, as for most of the great thinkers of All we now have to do is to mix X parts of his time, it was logical to translate the "laws" socialism with Y parts of capitalism to get the of the physical world to the world of social right prescription. relations. Hence, both he and Engels looked The search for the magic formula is on. upon their concepts as the social application of Nothing can stop it, for it is in the nature of the Darwin's theory of evolution. Inevitably, human mind to believe that if there is a capitalism (the ape?) would evolve into social- definable problem there is a findable answer. ism (Homo sapiens?). Without that conviction—be it myth or not— This made Marx a "determinist." And, with humans cannot act. The notion that we are his eye fixed on the economic factor in human helpless, playthings in the hands of an behavior, he was an "economic determinist." irresponsible Fate, is intolerable, at least to the The outcome of the struggle between the Western and the Westernized mind. capitalist and the proletariat was as predictable So, comrades, on with the search. Without as the outcome in the laboratory when two it, there is nothing. And with it, there will be parts of hydrogen are mixed with one part of something. oxygen. You get water and not a gin martini. But something is not everything. "Some- Marx was also an Aristotelian. He described thing" carries us from one moment, one era, the great Greek as a "thinker who was the first perhaps even one system, to the next, but it to analyze so many forms [my italics] whether does not carry us to the "end of history," of thought, society, or nature." Like Aristotle, because there is no end. Marx thought in terms of forms such as Yet the notion that there is an "end" is capitalism, feudalism, communism. They were implicit in classic socialism, defined as the all "systems" (sort of generic abstractions), the collective ownership and democratic control of first two of which were challenged by the the socially necessary means of production and "seeds of destruction" they carried within exchange. Prior to the coming of this social- them, the third of which, presumably, would ism, history was a battlefield strewn with the go on forever, because it did not spawn carnage of class struggles. No exception to the elements destined to destroy its creator. rule: "The history of hitherto existing societies Is Marx valid today? Yes, if we allow for the is the history of class struggle." But when the factor of uncertainty and if we admit that there proletariat takes over and establishes the are, in the real world, no pure forms. It is not classless society, the class struggle will end: the true, for instance, that "a rose is a rose is a dynamic that drove history will die. rose," for every rose is unique, probably In holding to this faith, was more without an exact replica ever. The notion that a Jewish than he knew. He believed in a Messiah "rose is a rose" is an invention of the human whose name was Proletariat and Marx was his mind, since a "rose " as a generic concept is a Prophet. nonexistent thing put together by the brain to For Marx to think—or feel—as he did, should make it easier to classify objects. come as no surprise. His "scientific" socialism The Aristotelian method of playing around

WINTER • 1991 • 109 From Sweden to Socialism with "forms" is very appealing to intellectuals, timely to make two small adjustments in Marx: who are often more at home with the abstract first, instead of economic determinism, substi- than with the concrete. Forms, especially when tute societal indeterminism; second, instead of they become formulaic, make the equations "forms," substitute norms to guide human simple. Unfortunately, too simple. Life in the behavior—individually and collectively. concrete is far more diversified, complex, All of the above is a plea to say farewell to unmanageable than life in the world of hubris. It does not mean that we should avoid conceptual artifacts. In the stubborn realm of the battle with the bad. It does not mean that reality, the equations often contain more we should not plot and plan, scheme and unknowns than there are letters in the alphabet. strategize, protest and contest to do what is best and right at the moment and, as best we are able to see into the future, what is best in the In the Aristotelian world, these "unknowns" years to come. do not appear in the equation as variables but as It does mean that we are not omniscient. constants. They are "knowns," considered to Since Heisenberg, even God is no longer be as tangible as if they were made of stone or all-knowing. It does mean that into each utopia concrete. When it turns out that the rock is some chaos will fall. It does mean that the really mush and the immobile is really mobile, ethical impulse for the just society—economi- the results baffle. For example: cally, culturally—should be encouraged, ap- Marx posited the class struggle as a plied, and pursued persistently in a world that "known" fact of life. He also assumed the will be changing unpredictably and unrelent- steady and inescapable "immiseration" of the ingly. masses as a "known." His conclusion was an It means that we must tap the human's apocalyptic ending with the chiliastic. He "social instinct" (whether we believe, with apparently did not allow for the fact that the Aristotle, that it is inherent in man "by nature" proletariat, in its struggle, might (an unknown) or, with Darwin, that it is the outcome of violate the "iron law of wages" and might "natural selection" or, with Adam Smith, that (unknown) find life less miserable—precisely it is God-given) to maximize man's humanity because the proletariat enjoyed a measure of to man by fostering a societal environment success in the class struggle. (environments) in which that instinct may Ironically, in the Manifesto, Marx sets forth flourish. It also means that we dare not close a series of "immediate demands" that fall short our eyes to the darker side of the human, the of socialism. But, if each of these was realized, antisocial instincts that a Hobbes, a Freud, or a as most of them were in the first half of the Hsun Tzu believed were inherent in the twentieth century, then the "immiseration" of species. the proletariat, that sine qua non of the In a very profound sense, the mixed revolution, would not be part of the equation. economy is a recognition that the biologic That the "State is the Executive Committee biped is also psychically bipolar and that of the ruling class" was, to Marx, a "known." humankind will go on for the foreseeable future He did not, could not, allow that the proletariat trying to find the balance between id and super might have some seats in that committee or that ego, between capitalism and socialism, be- the proletariat, in combination with other tween the capacity to produce and the propen- societal elements, might actually become the sity to consume, between the private and the majority. The notion of a capitalist economy public sectors. In our firm resolve to find the operating in a state where the proletariat was "right" mix, let us silently understand that the Executive Committee (as in Sweden) was, there is no fixed formula and that there is no to Marx, the Aristotelian, a logical impossibil- "final conflict," just a continuum of contests, ity. consensus, dissent, and consent. For as Thales

As we move into a new century, it would be said: "The only constant is change." ❑

110 • DISSENT