The old socialist idea and the new century

Abstract

For much of the 20th century the progressive “vision” of the future in many parts of the world promoted traditional socialist theory—namely, that equality and democracy could best be achieved by a “system” in which ownership of society's wealth ("the means of production") is vested in a structure controlled by society. This “system theory” has now collapsed. The crisis of mainstream liberalism and social democracy, however, leads to a closely related problem: What happens if socialism's “distant cousin"—the welfare state—also loses its capacity to achieve the fundamental goals its core theory affirms? A less commonly recognized question concerns the implications when the foundation of the conservative theory of liberty also falters. Reviewing these three issues together illuminates the central theoretical problems the old socialism has bequeathed to the new century.