The "Alternative" Socialism of Professor Alexander Tsankov

Articles The "Alternative" Socialism of Professor Alexander Tsankov Pencho D. Penchev* country. His influence is determined mainly by two factors. First he held important Summary: positions in the executive, legislature and had a major role in the political life of the The paper presents the economic country as Prime Minister, Speaker of the views and political activities of one of National Assembly, Minister of Education the most influential Bulgarian political and leader of the National Social Movement. economists – Alexander Tsankov. They From these positions, he had the opportunity were strongly influenced by his socialist to control and determine some of the most worldview. The socialism of professor important trends in Bulgaria’s economic Tsankov is alternative only if one accepts policy. He was also professor of political the self-definition of Marxism as the sole economy and Rector of Sofia University, scientific socialism. Then any deviation with a significant number of publications from orthodoxy should be considered as and thus he was able to influence the alternatives to scientifically based ideas. formation of part of the economic elite of In the context of what is seen as socialism Bulgaria. during the nineteenth and almost up to the The main thesis of this paper is that end of the twentieth century, the views of socialism is one of the main characteristics professor Tsankov are not a departure from, of economic views and had a strong impact but a variant of the socialism. He combined on the political activities of professor the elements which are characteristic of Tsankov. His socialism was not orthodox or social democracy and conservative statist "scientific" with respect to Marxist concepts, (and hence nationalistic) socialism. but that does not make it less socialist. Key words: Alexander Tsankov, Bulgaria, For this reason the definition alternative socialism in the title is in quotation marks. From the beginning to end of his scientific and JEL Classification: B30, P20, P26 public activities, while experiencing some fluctuations, Tsankov remained loyal to lexander Tsankov was among his socialist credo. It cannot be related to Athe most influential Bulgarian political parties and organizations of which economists, representative of the German he was a member or founder. The reasons Historical School of economic thought in the that account for for entering or leaving a * Associate Professor, Ph.D., Department of Political Economy, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, e-mail: [email protected] 61 The "Alternative" Articles Socialism of Professor Alexander Tsankov political organization and the consequent The term socialism began to be used political career involve not only a given in the 1830s and from the beginning its ideology, but rather personal ambition and most important characteristic was the opportunism. ambition to eliminate the private ownership Binding the economic views of Al. of the means of production and to replace Tsankov with the theory and practice of it by public ownership. The process of socialism requires a brief clarification of the elimination of private property is defined as nature and content of that concept. socialization, nationalization, democratization of ownership, etc. However, it is difficult to 1. Theoretical framework or more on find any fundamental difference between the question - what is socialism and the content of these terms1. Ultimately what the Bulgarian Socialists are? hostility towards private property lies behind The temptation and over-confidence all of them. In 1848, in The Manifesto of the that the intellectual efforts of one man can Communist Party Karl Marx and Friedrich change the social structure in accordance Engels are more specific: "In this sense, the to his own views for good and bad, resulted theory of the Communists may be summed in the birth of the socialist idea. Its roots are up in the single sentence: Abolition of to be found in classical philosophy. In his private property."(Marx, K., Fr. Engels, 1999, "Republic" Plato hints at some of the basic p. 46). In that case, it is necessary to clarify th elements of socialist ideology, among which that in the middle of the 19 century, there were criticism of private property (which was no clear distinction between socialists and communists. is defined as the source of the corruption Since its inception, the socialist of morals) and traders, moneylenders, etc. movement was characterized by the (Platon, 1981). All these elements were not lack of agreement on a number of key developed in a complete system. Among issues. Contradictions were to be found the forerunners of socialism which worked with respect to several problems such as: respectively in the sixteenth and seventeenth atheism-religion, reforms-revolution, state- century were Thomas More and Tommaso anarchy etc. These contradictions were the Campanella. In their works "Utopia" and reason for the formation of different types of "The City of the Sun" they described their socialism: Christian, conservative, utopian, dreams of social order in which there is military, Marxist (claiming to be scientific), no private property. These authors did not Fabian and others. In the development of use the term socialism to characterize of the socialist movement the statist form of the new social order. The very concept of socialism gradually took the upper hand, socialism appeared at the beginning of the although it never became the only one. nineteenth century. Then the first serious Statist socialism relies on governmental attempts to define socialism were made, power and its apparatus of coercion to although the way in which a socialist was achieve its goals. All kinds of socialism, realized was not clarified. The first socialists however, albeit in varying degrees, share relied heavily on the individual efforts as a the negative attitude towards private method for building a socialist society. property and insist on its abolition. This 1 Among the various types of socialism there is some difference between these terms. According to Fr. Engels, for example, nationalization of private property is not yet socialism, but a step towards Socialism (Engels, 1950) 62 Economic Alternatives, Issue 2, 2014 Articles content of the concept is adopted by the Analysis" defines socialism as "policy which main reference books, regardless of their aims at constructing a society in which the ideological basis, or the time at which they means of production are socialized"(Mises, were written2. 1951, p. 20). In this study Mises proved A certain shift in the content of the that the socialist society is utopia, as in the concept of socialism emerged after the absence of private property and market end of World War Two. At the end of 1950s prices the rational economic calculation the social democrats in Germany gradually becomes impossible. In another classic softened their views on the need for direct work J. Schumpeter defines socialism as and complete nationalization of the means an "institutional pattern in which the control of production and paid more attention to the over the means of production and over need of redistribution of income in favor of production itself is vested with a central the poor through tax system instead (Hoppe, authority" (Schumpeter, 2008, p. 167). The 2007, p. 43). It was only in the 1990s, main thesis of the author is that capitalism however, that the idea for the nationalization is doomed, because of its success and not of the means of production was no longer because of its inherent problems. among the socialist goals. This happened Still with the beginning of the socialist in the program of the British Labour Party. movement in Bulgaria at the end of the 19th Nationalization was replaced by the vague century the Bulgarian Socialists argued that desire for justice, which became the main "making public ownership all the means principle the socialists adhered to. A similar of production that make all people happy, evolution could be traced in Bulgaria. At the healthy and able to develop mentally and beginning of the 21st century the Bulgarian morally, that is the total content of the Socialist Party also rejected nationalization doctrine which is called socialism" [italics and perceived socialism as "more equitable D. Blagoev] (Blagoev, 1951, p. 448). In the social order, based on respect of labor early 20th century the Bulgarian Socialists and equitable distribution of its results" split. Although the controversial point was (Stanishev, 2008, p. 10). revolution or reforms, there were other The definition of socialism as a theory secondary reasons for the conflict. The so- and movement that seeks to remove called narrow socialists, led by D. Blagoev, the private ownership of the means of upheld the "integrity" of all Marxist principles, production is applied by many researchers in while the so-called broad socialists, grouped their analyses of the various economic and around Y. Sakazov, rejected some of the social aspects of socialism. The definition Marxist postulates. The revision of Marxism by of socialism remains the same even when Edward Bernstein in Germany, which proved the conclusions reached by the individual that the views of Marx on the concentration authors are completely divergent. Thus of capital, the growing rate of proletarization, Ludwig von Mises in his fundamental study the absorption of small businesses by the big "Socialism. An Economic and Sociological companies etc. cannot be proved to exist in 2 For more details see: Тhe New Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 27, 1993, p. 393; Большая Советская Энциклопе- дия, 24, кн. 1, Москва, 1976, с. 222 (according to the Marxist orthodoxy here socialism is presented as the first phase on the way to communism, but the definition of socialism is the same as in Britannica); Энциклопедический словарь, т. ХХХI, С. Петербург, 1900, с. 21-22. 63 The "Alternative" Articles Socialism of Professor Alexander Tsankov reality served as a conceptual basis of this The division into narrow and broad division.

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