The Future of Socialism
| Author | Anthony Crosland |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Socialism -- Great Britain |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape |
|
Publication date
|
1956 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 540 pp. (first edition) |
| OCLC | 2162209 |
| LC Class | HX246 .C87 |
The Future of Socialism by Anthony Crosland, published in 1956, was one of the most influential books in post-war British Labour Party thinking. It was the seminal work of the 'revisionist' school of Labour politics.
The book defined Labour's perspective on the Post-war consensus, by which the major parties largely agreed on issues of the welfare state and economic policy from 1945 to the late 1970s.
Crosland, an Oxford University academic before entering Parliament, had lost his seat in the 1955 general election, and so was able to finish the book he had been working on for several years, seeking to offer a new argument for social democracy in the context of the new political and economic consensus introduced by the 1945-1951 Clement Attlee governments.
However, The Future of Socialism has continued to be a reference point for intellectual debates within the Labour Party and the centre-left in succeeding generations - including the SDP-Labour split in 1981, the modernisation of Labour under Neil Kinnock and the rise of New Labour. The book's 50th anniversary in 2006 sparked a new debate with leading Labour figures including Gordon Brown, Jack Straw,Ed Miliband,Roy Hattersley and others setting out views of its relevance to the next generation of 'post-New Labour' politics. The Fabian Society, which co-published the 2006 edition, set out the argument about 'renewal' of Labour's thinking after a decade in power requires a further generation of 'revisionist' thinking which seeks to emulate Crosland's contribution in the 1950s.
A central argument in the book is Crosland's distinction between 'means' and 'ends'. Crosland demonstrates the variety of socialist thought over time, and argues that a definition of socialism founded on nationalisation and public ownership is mistaken, since these are simply one possible means to an end. For Crosland, the defining goal of the left should be more social equality. Crosland argued that
Crosland also argued that an attack on unjustified inequalities would give any left party a political project to make the definition of the end point of 'how much equality' a secondary and more academic question.
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