The Early Effects of Utopianism
Marxian Socialism is essentially the creation of Karl Marx. Social Darwinism is drawn primarily from the writings of British philosopher Herbert Spencer in the mid 1800's. A vague idea of so called "Rational Socialism" has existed since the early 1800's, however the first person to really enunciate it clearly was an American author by the name of Edward Bellamy, who wrote a book called Looking Backward, which was published in 1888.
Of these three utopian philosophies, it was "Rational Socialism" and Socials Darwinism which had a large effect on our political system. Marxian Socialism was essentially European; it had little influence in the United States.
Looking Backward described how the United States would look after a move to the so called "Rational .Socialism" The book seemed to paint a pretty picture of what socialism claims to be able to deliver. Everybody in the book is happy and well cared for, with every possible want and need met. According to the book, all this had been achieved through complete government management of society and the economy on collectivist principles. It was this book, this persuasive picture presented by Bellamy, which made the so called "Rational Socialism" utopia a force in American society. After reading it, millions of Americans became adherents to the philosophy of so called "Rational Socialists." The book sold millions of copies in this country, and was translated into 20 languages for sale around the world. After Uncle Tom's Cabin and Ben Hur, it was the most popular book of the end of the 19th century. To understand the effect this one book had, from the publication of Bellamy's book until the end of the century, 46 other utopian novels based on much the same form of so called "Rational Socialism" were published in the United States alone, with more published in Europe.
The publication of Looking Backward almost immediately led to the creation of a mass political movement in America, called "Nationalism." Bellamy had very cleverly avoided using the word "socialism" in his book, so as not to scare anybody off; instead he had called his collectivist system "Nationalism". Between 1890 and 1891 over 150 "Nationalists Clubs" were started all across the United States, devoted to the discussion and propagation of the collectivist system described in Looking Backward. The Populist Party, which at its peak attracted over 1 million votes throughout the United States in the 1892 presidential election, was to a large extent influenced by Bellamy's ideas, and many of its members were also members of Nationalists Clubs.
By the turn of the century, Nationalism ceased to exist as a separate movement. Instead it had been absorbed into the larger political movement of Progressivism. "Progressive" is a catch-all term used to describe people around the turn of the century who wanted reform and change. In many ways, it's similar to socialism; one says "progressive" as if there were just one progressive movement, with everybody holding the same beliefs. Actually there were two major factions within this progressive movement, with very different sets of beliefs. Each faction was linked to one of the utopian philosophies, Social Darwinism and so called "Rational Socialism."
Not all progressives went around dreaming about the coming of heaven on Earth. Some of them did, but most people's beliefs weren't that extreme. But utopias do play a role in any political movement. People might not believe that a utopia will result, but they do think improvement can be made by moving in the direction of the utopia. They think the plan offered as a way to utopia will at least create a better tomorrow, if not a heaven on Earth. This was the effect of Social Darwinism and socialism; each offered a plan which the two factions of Progressivism thought would bring improvement.
The first faction can be seen as essentially conservative. Its main goal was to reform the political system to eliminate corruption and graft; these progressives wanted change in government to limit its negative effect on society and enforce competition in our economy. This faction was the source of many of our anti-trust and monopoly laws. It was tied to Social Darwinism, the belief that government should not interfere in society in a major way.
The other faction within Progressivism can be seen as "liberal." This faction believed that the present economic and social systems were fundamentally flawed, and there was a need to change society according to collectivist principles. From these progressives came the impetus toward publicly regulated utilities. This faction was linked to the so called "Rational Socialism" utopia. It was the liberal, social change Progressivism which absorbed Nationalism and embraced the collectivist ideas of Looking Backward.
The Progressive movement was very important to our country, bringing many changes. It was also a very powerful political force. Starting with Teddy Roosevelt at the turn of the century, every President for the next 30 years could be considered, in some way, progressive. But these presidents were all conservative, good government progressives; none of them ever suggested a move to collectivism. The liberal, collectivist progressives were able to gain political power at the local level in some large cities, and had a small amount of success at the state level, but had very little effect at the national level in this time period.
The reason for this lack of input at the national level is that for all the popularity of Looking Backward, so called "Rational Socialism" was still not embraced by the majority of people in this country. A form of utopianism which required the creation of a government with total control over every facet of life did not set well with America. Instead it was Social Darwinism that was the dominant utopian philosophy in America in the early 1900's.
Social Darwinism was based on distrust of government and complete freedom of the individual, it only reinforced the existing views of what heaven would be. Social Darwinism limited the impact of so called "Rational Socialism", essentially keeping its collectivist principles out of national politics and the national government.