Citizens and Saints: Politics and Anti-Politics in Early British Socialism

by Gregory Claeys

• ISBN13: 9780521892766
• ISBN10: 0521892767
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-05-02
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Citizens and Saints is a comprehensive study of the profound rupture in the language of reform and revolution which occurred with the rise of socialism. Focusing upon British Owenite socialism, Professor Claeys argues that two schools of political thinking emerged from the 'social' critique of contemporary political radicalism. One, largely identified with Owenite perfectibilism, aimed to transcend existing forms of democracy and to establish more harmonious, less divisive forms of rule. The other, apparently more democratic, aimed to extend popular control of political institutions to economic organisations. Both were sceptical of the 'political' analyses of socioeconomic deprivation proferred by existing radicalism. Such scepticism was to prove crucial to both liberal and socialist political thought, and Professor Claeys shows that such perennial questions as the intrinsically democratic (or otherwise) nature of Marxist socialism can only be understood by reference to the political and intellectual circumstances in which early socialist ideas emerged.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	ix
List of abbreviations	xii
Introduction: Socialism and political thought	1	(4)
The problem of socialist politics	5	(9)
Owenism and political thought	14	(3)
Labour history and the language of politics	17	(2)
Outline	19	(2)
PART I THE ROOTS OF POLITICAL AND ANTIPOLITICAL SOCIALISM	21	(86)
Republicanism, puritanism and natural jurisprudence	23	(40)
The republican heritage	26	(4)
Millennial republicanism and puritan radicalism	30	(6)
Natural society	36	(6)
Two natural polities: Quakerism and the North American Indians	42	(7)
Independence, specialisation and rational character	49	(9)
The language of socialism	58	(5)
Paternalism and democracy in the politics of Robert Owen	63	(44)
Governing circumstances, 1816--34	67	(8)
`The germ of all party': anti-politics triumphant	75	(9)
`Elective paternal government' and the Chartist years	84	(10)
Paternalism and federalism: the millennial republic	94	(13)
PART II SOCIAL SCIENCE, POLITY AND ECONOMY	107	(60)
The `eye of the community': social science as communitarian government	109	(33)
Social control and natural psychology	110	(5)
The illocutionary force of necessitarianism	115	(4)
Communitarianism and personal liberty	119	(10)
Constitutionalism and early communitarianism	129	(13)
`A mere trifle by comparison': social science, republicanism and political economy	142	(25)
Machinery and the progress of opulence	146	(4)
The case against the taxation analysis	150	(2)
The American model	152	(9)
Intervention and administration	161	(6)
PART III THE ORIGINS OF SOCIAL RADICALISM	167	(160)
Owenism and the emergence of social radicalism, 1820--35	169	(39)
The `unpolitical' years, 1820--29	170	(4)
Socialism politicised, 1829--35	174	(9)
The National Union of the Working Classes, 1831--35	183	(6)
The social radicalism of James Bronterre O'Brien	189	(5)
Union without politics: the Grand National Consolidated Trades' Union and radicalism, 1833--34	194	(5)
The political odyssey of James Elishama Smith	199	(9)
Owenism and Chartism, 1836--45	208	(53)
Chartist complaints	212	(6)
Owenite grievances	218	(5)
Charter socialism	223	(24)
The Rational Society and the revolt over Queenwood	247	(14)
The legitimation of political socialism	261	(24)
Owenism radicalised, 1845--50	262	(6)
Chartism socialised, 1845--50	268	(5)
Alliance strategies, 1850--52	273	(12)
Social radicalism, the state and revolution	285	(42)
Early and modern political socialism	287	(5)
The American model revisited	292	(4)
Politics and revolution	296	(3)
Communitarianism and Marxism	299	(7)
Republicanism revived	306	(3)
Intervention and centralisation	309	(9)
Conclusion: the state and the origins of social radicalism	318	(9)
Bibliography	327	(26)
Index	353