A Constitution for the Socialist Common- Wealth of Great
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A CONSTITUTION FOR THE SOCIALIST COMMON- WEALTH OF GREAT BRITAIN • BY SIDNEY AND BEATRICE WEBB.7^3s^/-/^f LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO., 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, FOURTH AVENUE AND 30TH STREET, NEW YORK, BOMBAY, CALCUTTA AND MADRAS. 1920. PREFACE This book had its origin in a request transmitted by M. Camille Huysmans, the accomphshed Secretary of the International SociaHst Bureau, to all the con- stituent bodies of the International Socialist Congress, that they should furnish, for submission to the Con- "gress, reports upon the " socialisation " of industries and services, and upon the constitution that should be adopted by any nation desirous of organising its life upon Socialist principles. Great changes are everywhere at hand. Whilst every nation of advanced industrialism has been, in the present century, finding itself increasingly driven to measures of Socialist character, over a large part of Europe definitely Socialist administrations are actually in office, and the principles of Socialism are avowedly accepted as the basis of social and economic recon- struction. Open-minded students in every nation are watching the projects and the experiments of the other nations, in order to learn what is likely to be success- ful in their own. It behoves those who take part in the Labour and Socialist Movements of the various countries to think out, in some detail, the shape which their proposals should assume. In response to the request of M. Huysmans the scheme set forth in this volume was prepared for VI PREFACE submission to the Fabian Society. What seemed Hkely to be most useful, aUke in this country and to the International Socialist Congress, was not any brief statement of abstract principles or vague general- isations, supposed to be of universal application, but a definite and concrete proposal, worked out in some detail, for one country only : naturally, the one about which the authors were best informed. Such a draft, as will readily be understood, makes no pretence of expressing anything but our own opinions, or of giving anything more than a pro- visional judgment even on our own account. Those who wish to know what is the authoritative programme of the British Labour Party will find it stated, in con- siderable detail, in the pamphlet entitled Labour and the New Social Order, to be obtained, price 3d. post free, from the Labour Party, 33 Eccleston Square, London, S.W.i. Naturally, no one is likely to agree with all our detailed proposals. Possibly some may dismiss them as unworthy of consideration. Nevertheless, we think that it may be of service to formulate, with sufficient precision to enable them to be understood, the changes in the British Constitution and in the social and economic structure of the nation, that seem to us such as a Socialist Ministry, supported by a Socialist Majority in Parliament and among the electorate, would probably be led to propose. SIDNEY AND BEATRICE WEBB. 41 Grosvenor Road, Westminster, London, S.W.i, July 1930. ; CONTENTS PAGE Introduction xi The Dictatorship of the Capitalist—The Manifold Character of Democracy. PART I A SURVEY OF THE GROUND CHAPTER I Democracies of Consumers ...... 3 Voluntary Democracies of Consumers—Obligatory Associations of Consumers—The Relative Advantages of Voluntary and Obligatory Associations of Consumers—The Economic and Social Functions of Associations of Consumers. CHAPTER n Democracies of Producers 27 <^ (The Trade Union Movement)— Professional Associations of Brain Workers — The Relative Advantages and Disadvantages of Obligatory and Voluntary Associations of Producers—jhe Economic and Social Functions of Associations of Producers : (i. ) Trade Unions (ii. ) Professional Associations. CHAPTER HI The Political Democracy, 59 : (a) The King The Structure of British Political Democracy ; of Commons and the (6) The House of Lords ; {c} the House vii — viii CONTENTS Cabinet—Cabinet Dictatorship— Hypertrophy—A Vicious Mixture of Functions—The Task of the M.P.—The Failure of the Elector —The Warping of Political Democracy by a Capitalist Environment —Political Parties—The Labour Party—The Success of Political Democracy in general, and 'of British Democracy in particular The Need for Constitutional Reform. PART II THE CO-OPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH OF TO-MORROW / Introduction ......... 97 CHAPTER I The National Government ... io8 The King—The House of Lords—The National Parliament—The Political Parliament and its Executive—The Social Parliament and its Executive—The Relation between the Political and the Social Parliaments—Devolution as an Alternative Scheme of Reform—The Argument summarised — The Political Complex — The Social Complex—The Protection of the Individual against the Government. CHAPTER II Some Leading Considerations in the Socialisation of Industries and Services . .147 Three Separate Aspects of Economic Man—[-The Relative Functions of Democracies of Consumers and Democracies of Producers / Democracies of Citizen-Consumers—Democracies of Producers -^ Ownership and Direction—The Participation in Management j by the ' Producers. CHAPTER III Industries The Nationalised and Services . .168 The Abandonment of Ministerial Responsibility — The Differ- entiation of Control from Administration — The Administrative Machine—District Councils—Works Committees—The Recruitment of the Staff—Discipline Boards—Collective Bargaining— Advisory Committees — The Sphere of the Social Parliament — How the Administration will work — Initiative and Publicity—The Trans- — CONTENTS ix PAGE formation of Authority—Co-ordinated instead of Chaotic Complexity —The Price of Liberty. CHAPTER IV The Reoi^ganisation of Local Government . 203 The Decay of Civic Patriotism—The Chaos in the Constitution and Powers of existing Local Authorities—Areas—The InefBciency of the "Great Unpaid"—The Principles on which Reconstruction should proceed—The Principle of Neighbourhood—The Principle of a Difl'erentiation of Neighbourhoods—The Principle of Direct Election — The Principle of the General Representative — The Principle of "Full Time" and adequately paid Representatives The Correspondence of Area and Functions—The Local Government of To-morrow—The Representation of the Citizen-Consumer—The Local Councillor — Vocational Representation — Committees of Management—Machinery for Collective Bargaining—The Practic- ability of Vocational Self-government in Municipal Government—The Industries and Services of Local Authorities—Emulation among Local Authorities — The Federation of Local Authorities — The Relation of Municipal Institutions to the Social and Political Parliaments. CHAPTER V The Sphere of Voluntary Associations of Consumers IN THE Socialist Commonwealth .... 247 The Co-operative Movement—The Limitations of the Co-operative Movement—Constitutional Changes in the Co-operative Movement Other Voluntary Associations pf Consumers—Adult Education The Future of the Country House—The Extension of Personality The Problem of the Press—The Safeguarding of the Public Interest. CHAPTER VI The Reorganisation of the Vocational World . 273 The Trade Union Movement as the Organ of Revolt against the each Vocation Capitalist System—The Right of Self-determination for Enterprise for —What constitutes a Vocation—The Right of Free as a Stratified Socialised Administrations—Vocational Organisation Rise of New for Employment ; (d) The Democracy : (a) Qualification be recruited ? (rf) The {c) How will each Vocation Vocations ; Organisation in a Relative Position of Obligatory and Voluntary Organisation Subject {f} The Function of Vocational ; (/) Vocation ; of Professi6nal Ethic; {A) Associations; (g) The Development — 8 CONTENTS PAGE (;') Vocational Administration of Industries and Services ; Is tliere any Place for a National Assembly of Vocational Representatives ? CHAPTER VII The Transitional Control of Profit-making Enterprise 3 1 The Policy of the National Minimum — The Promotion of Efficiency and the Prevention of Extortion—The Standing Committee on Productivity—The Fixing of Prices —The Method of Expropria- tion—Taxation—The Relation of Prices to the National Revenue The Continuous Increase in a Socialist Commonwealth of Private Property in Individual Ownership—How Capital will be provided The Transition and its Dangers —The Spirit of Service—The Need for Knowledge. INDEX 357 INTRODUCTION We do not seek in this book to attempt any indictment of what is commonly known as the CapitaHst System. The situation which has to be faced is that, at the present moment, that system, as a coherent whole, has demonstrably broken down. From one end of the civilised world to the other it has, at least among the young generation that is growing up, lost its moral authority. Whole nations have avowedly rejected it basis their social and economic structure as the of ; and, in all countries of advanced industrialism, great masses of people are increasingly refusing to accept it as a permanent institution. Among Socialists of all schools of thought, in all nations, there is no difference of opinion as to the purpose of the economic, social and political reconstruction that they recog- nise as Socialism. Under the Capitalist System the government of industry is vested in the hands of a relatively small fraction of the community, namely, the private owners of the instruments of production. The Dictatorship of the Capitalist This Dictatorship of the Capitalist is directed funda- mentally to one end — the extraction of the largest attainable income for the owners of the land and capital in the form of interest, profit and rent.