This paper develops from the marxist critique of social policy under capitalism a speculative picture of socialist social policy. It draws its ideas from:
(a) socialist theory of the state, human nature, family life, and the relationship between need and resources
(b) 'socialist' countries such as Russia and Cuba
(c) struggles about welfare policies under capitalism.
It attempts to answer a number of questions posed by the discipline of social administration about the nature of socialist social policy.
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References
1.
V. George and P. Wilding, Ideology and Social Welfare, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1976, p. 105.
2.
I. Gough, 'State Expenditure in Advanced Capitalism', New Left Review , 92, 1976, p. 92.
3.
An expanded version of this discussion also appears in I. Gough, The Political Economy of Welfare, Macmillan, 1979
4.
E. Wilson, Women and the Welfare State, Tavistock, 1977, p. 187
5.
J. Kincaid, Poverty and Equality in Britain, Penguin, 1973, p. 234. In fact Bill Jordan in Freedom and the Welfare State, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1976 offers us a far more detailed picture of a future society in which there would be a 'guaranteed income' for all and in which work would be done without monetary incentive as 'work is an essential characteristic of man'. Bill Jordan however surprisingly does not suggest that his 'Utopia' has anything in common with socialism. Indeed he seems to reject earlier in this book the marxist proposition that the working class will be the agents of this social change.
6.
See for example the papers of the Political Economy of Housing Workshop, Cambridge, Octopress, 1975 etc
7.
P.Corrigan *and P. Leonard, Social Work Under Capitalism, Macmillan, 1978
8.
V. Navarro, Social Security and Medicine in the USSR. A Marxist Critique, Lexington Books, 1977, p. 118. In fact there are more examples to be found in the literature of socialist speculation regarding the future form of medical care provision than for the other social services. Thus Rossdale in 'Health in a Sick Society', New Left Review 34 and Sil Schmid 'Prevention is Revolutionary' in M. Jaggi, Red Bologna, Writers and Readers Co-operative, 1977, both indicate the central role of prevention in socialist medicine, and describe prevention in terms of the ordinary working populations' self-conscious control over detrimental working and living conditions and social habits.
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D. Donnison, Social Policy and Administration Revisited, George Allen and Unwin, 1975, p. 38
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R. Pinker, Social Theory and Social Policy, Heinemann, 1971, p. 133
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D. Donnison, op. cit., p. 35
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V.I. Lenin, State and Revolution, 1917 Republished in Lenin's Selected Works, Lawrence and Wishart, 1969
13.
There seems to be no agreed convention as to how to avoid the sexist term 'man' when referring to both men and women. This article offers the form wo/man and s/he as a contender for this convention. I'm indebted to Fiona Williams for this idea.
14.
Lenin's State and Revolution, op. cit., remains one of the clearest accounts of how it was envisaged by those engaged in revolutionary struggles that the state would wither away in post-capitalist society. He indicates here the mechanisms for the establishment of a 'fuller democracy' in which, for example, all servants of the state shall be paid at workmen's wages.
15.
1. Deutscher's Essay On Socialist Man (Merit, New York, 1967) stands as one of the more thoughtful shorter polemics on the possibilities of socialist wo/man. I. Meszaras, Marxist Theories of Alienation , Merlin Press, 1970 is also helpful here.
16.
I. Bruegel's essay 'What Keeps the Family Going', International Socialism, Series 2, No. 1, July 1978 reviewing marxist writings on the family indicates five dimensions of the family all of which might be transformed during the development of socialism.
17.
The realm of plenty is indicated by Marx in Critique of the Gotha Programme, Marx and Engels Selected Works, p. 320; Lawrence and Wishart, 1968. In this context, Lenin adds 'each will take freely according to his needs', op. cit., p. 338
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G. Lukacs, History and Class Consciousness, Merlin Press, 1971, p. 80
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N. Harris, The Mandate of Heaven, Quartet, 1978 , p. 172
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M. Raptis, Socialism, Democracy and Self-Management, Allison and Busby, p. 185 quoting from Engels, 1891 Preface to Karl Marx's The Civil War in France.
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ibid., p. 190
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ibid., p. 191
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ibid., p. 198
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L. Panitch , 'The State and the Future of Socialism', Capital and Class, No. 11, 1980, p. 133
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ibid., p. 134
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ibid., p. 135, quoting from G. Therborn, What does the Ruling Class do when it rules, N. L.B., 1978
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I. Deutscher , op. cit., p. 212
31.
I. Meszaras , op. cit., p. 164
32.
Diana Adlam provides a useful discussion of the relationship between socialist feminism and socialism in Politics and Power, I., p. 81. In a footnote she suggests contrary to the view expressed by me that some of those who advance even the strongest radical feminist position profess a commitment to socialism. 'The overthrow of patriarchy would install a form of social organisation in which relations of domination and submission would no longer exist. This state of aftairs is seen to be coterminious with socialism.'
33.
Alix Holt, Selected Writings of Alexandra Kollantat, Allison and Busby, 1977, pp. 116 and 137
34.
I. Breugel , op. cit.
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M. Kidron, Capitalism and Theory, Pluto Press, 1977, p. 147
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K. Marx, op, cit,, p. 320
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D. McLellan, Marx's Grundisse, Macmillan, 1971, p. 148
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A. Heller, The Theory of Need in Marx, Allison and Busby, 1976, p. 95
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ibid., p. 130
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ibid., p. 125
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M. Carpenter , 'Left Wing Orthodoxy and the Politics of Health' , Capital and Class, II, 1980, p.77
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V. George and N. Manning, Socialism, Social Welfare and the Soviet Union, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1980, p. 21
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ibid., p. 27
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ibid., p. 27
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ibid., p. 183
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ibid., p. 169
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ibid., p. 184
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ibid., p. 8
49.
ibid., Ch 2, especially pp. 58 and 59
50.
ibtd., Ch 3
51.
ibid., p. 120
52.
ibid., Ch 5, especially p. 156
53.
ibid.,
54.
Ch 3-see also S. Castles and W. Wustenberg, The Education of the Future, Pluto Press, 1979
55.
ibid., Ch 4 - see also V. Navarro, Social Security and Medicine in the USSR, Lexington Books, Toronto, 1977, p. 19
56.
V. Navarro , 1977op. cit., pp. 22-l
57.
Alix Holt, Selected Writings of Alexandra Kollantat, Allison and Busby, 1977, pp. 116 and 137
58.
ibid., p. 267
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R. Mishra, Society and Social Policy, Macmillan, 1976, p. 132
60.
ibid., p. 124
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ibid., p. 146
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ibid., p. 148
63.
V. Navarro , 1977, op. cit., p. 117
64.
ibid., p. 118
65.
ibid., p. 118
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J. Griffiths and P. Griffiths, Reeves: Cuba The Second Decade, Writers and Readers Publishing Coop. 1979
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ibid., p. 173
68.
ibid., p. 173
69.
ibid., p. 180
70.
Guttmacher, 'Changes in Cuban Health Care', Social Science and Medicine, 13C, 1979, p. 94
71.
ibid., p. 194
72.
J. Griffiths and P. Griffiths, op. cit., p. 158
73.
ibid., p. 162
74.
V. Navarro , 'Workers' and Community Participation and Democratic control in Cuba', International Journal of Health Services, Vol. 10, No.2, 1980, p. 211
75.
Quoted in ibid., p. 120
76.
McKnight, 'Politicising Health Care', Social Policy9, 3, 1978
77.
D. Widgery, Health in Crisis, Macmillan, 1979.
78.
Also G. Dawson, International Soctalisim No. 99 and Socialist Review 5 for accounts of the attempts to prevent the closure of hospitals such as Bethnal Green.
79.
London Edinburgh Weekend Return Group, 'In and Against the State', Black Rose Press, 1979, p. 64
80.
ibid., p. 62
81.
ibid., p. 62
82.
ibid., p. 51
83.
E. Wilson, op. cit., p. 9
84.
A discussion of socialist child care is to be found in Changing Child Care. Cuba, China and the Challenging of our Values by the Socialist Child Care Collective, Writers and Readers Publishing Coop , 1975.
85.
F. Bennet, R. Heys, R. Coward, 'The Limits to Financial and Legal Independence', in Politics and Power, 1, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1980
