Socialist equality, Marx versus Utopians: the conflicting treatment of the idea of equality in European and African socialism.
Abstract
The thesis is on the discussion and analysis of socialist equality as it is contrasted in European and African socialism. The thesis contends that Africa has passed through a decade of momentous transition. From a continent shimbering in patience and passivity, it has now come to the fore as an area of turbulence, and, of promise. Two factors are attributed to this change. First, the burgeoning self-consciousness of the peoples of Africa and their consolidation into an anti-colonial force expressing itself in the demand for the recognition of independent nation states. Second, the urge for self-realisation of the African personality taking the form of an unprecedented desire for socio-economic development combined with a hope that this can be achieved without passing through the industrial anarchy and class conflicts experienced under capitalism in the metropolitan world. These factors have tended to highlight one idea, that of 'equality', as is evident even from a cursory examination of the speeches and documents of African spokesmen. A further dimension has been added however, by the fact that these aspirations have been accompanied by a growth of socialist awareness so that the problems of national emancipation are merged with those of socialist construction. In the resultant ideology, egalitarianism takes a central position as an ethical goal and as a prime programmatic principle to determine the broad lines of socialist development. In their totality therefore, these policies may be summed up in the expression 'Socialist Equality'. However the difficulties facing African leaders are many, and African Socialism, still in its germinal period, reveals theoretical ambiguities reflecting policy dilemmas of African governments bringing socialist goals to bear on unformed heterogenous social systems. These ambiguities are reminiscent of the theoretical and practical difficulties experienced by the Utopian Socialists and the Russian Populists of nineteenth century Europe. The Utopian Socialists saw socialism as a moral alternative to the evils of capitalism. Marx developed a critique of the Utopian Socialists, and of utopianism in general. The arguments developed by Marx were later applied to the Russia populists with some modifications. However, African Socialism arose in a society where industrialization had not yet begun and where there were no deep-seated class divisions. African socialists assert the need to creating a socialist society in which the country side will be the centre of gravity.
Description
Keywords
Equality, Socialism in Europe, Socialism in Africa
Citation
Turok, B. (1971). Socialist equality, Marx versus Utopians: the conflicting treatment of the idea of equality in European and African socialism. Masters dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam. Available at (http://41.86.178.3/internetserver3.1.2/detail.aspx?parentpriref=)