The Role of Cultural Elites - Assignment Example

Socialism when analyzed, is found to embrace four main elements. The first of these is the common ownership of the material instruments of production. It is not stated precisely how this common ownership is to be brought about, or exactly what form it is to take (Lichtheim, 1970). Opinions may and do differ about the practical steps which are to be taken to secure the desired end, and also about the nature of the collective organization in which this ownership is to be vested. But no one can be called a socialist in the modern technical sense who does not accept the doctrine of the common ownership of the material instruments of production.

 It is simply necessary to exercise one's imagination and to picture to one's self the extension of that which already exists in a comparatively small way (Lichtheim, 1970). It is said substantially all land and capital because it is held that it is not necessary that the common ownership should be absolutely all-inclusive. It is a weakness of the extremists to insist on all-inclusiveness in common ownership, which much damages their cause. What is necessary is that the collective ownership should become dominant in such a manner as to control all other ownership and confine it within narrow limits.

All the great instruments of production, like telegraphs, telephones, railways, forests, arable lands, and large manufacturing plants, must become collective property; but socialism does not imply that it is necessary to restrict individuals in the acquisition of the instruments of production on a small scale, -- for example, a wheelbarrow or a cart. Socialism, then, presented in the strongest form, does not proceed so much negative as constructively. Society is to acquire the instruments of production; but individuals, for the most part, are not to be restrained, except indirectly, by positive social action.

Modern socialism is the natural outcome of modern industrial conditions, and its origin is contemporaneous with the origin of those conditions. We must seek its beginnings in the beginnings of the modern industry. We can express this thought differently by saying that modern socialism is the product of the industrial revolution. It has grown with this revolution, becoming international as the industrial revolution has spread over the nations.