The Social Sciences as the Home of Utopia
Although so called "Rational Socialism" was not embraced by the majority of the population, it did find a ready home in academia, at our colleges and universities, in the social sciences. Roughly, the social sciences are economics, political science, sociology and psychology. Social science is differentiated from philosophies such as Classical Liberalism by its attempt to use a systematic, scientific study of humankind and its institutions to arrive at a factually justified conclusion; it attempts to apply scientific values to the study of man.
Economics, which some people do not consider to be part of the social sciences, has existed as a science since the 1700's. However the other disciplines did not begin to develop until the mid 1800's, in continental Europe. It was not until the late 1800's that the European notion of social science crossed the Atlantic to America. At that time a scholar named John Burgess, who had traveled through Europe, introduced sociology to Columbia University in New York.
By the start of the 20th century, America's fledgling social science community was embroiled in a debate over what direction the discipline should take. The debate was set off by developments being made in a branch of behavioral psychology called industrial psychology in the early 1900's. Industrial psychologists had begun experimenting with ways in which the environment affected worker's performance and how to increase productivity by manipulating work place conditions such as lighting and cleanliness. The realization that people could be influenced by controlling their environment led to a split in the ranks of social scientists as to the role in society they should play. One faction wished to continue in the traditional academic sense, studying the institutions of society in an effort to understand and explain their workings. Another faction, however, saw the possibility of a much larger role for the social sciences. It was believed that by combining knowledge of the institutions of society, and the techniques being developed by behavioral psychologists, society could be manipulated to create a rational social structure for the benefit of all.
It was this second faction which embraced the so called "Rational Socialism" utopia described in Bellamy's Looking Backward. Its adherents believed that with their skills and knowledge, humankind could impose a rational social order on society, implementing a centrally planned, collectivist system which would bring the utopia Bellamy had described. It was primarily sociologists who held this view, however members of the other disciplines were also intoxicated with visions of what they could do with society if only they were put in charge. Our colleges and universities are still the main home of this so called "Rational Socialism" utopia. Probably everyone who has attended college has had at least one professor who was clearly socialist.
Economists were also in the midst of a debate along much the same lines. Older economists of the "Classical" school of thought saw the study of economics as a tool for understanding the workings of the economy, and little more. A growing number of younger economists of the school of thought of "New" economics saw their discipline as a tool which could be used to control the economy by using the rational techniques of scientific management. Scientific management was starting to be applied at the factory level and showed signs of greatly increasing productivity. The New Economists saw no reason why scientific management couldn't be applied to the economy as a whole.
Generally, New Economists did not think of themselves as socialists; they weren't concerned with philosophy, but the workings of our economy. Yet essentially what they were suggesting was a centrally controlled, planned economy identical in many ways to socialism. They saw the free market as cruel and inefficient. They felt it was wasting enormous amounts of productive potential and taking a heavy toll on people's lives; an unemployed worker was both an unused productive asset and was forced to endure terrible hardship. Instead of depending on the randomness of the market economy, the New Economists thought one could use the techniques of scientific management to make sure all assets were used productively. Scientific management promised to unlock the abundance of industrialism while eliminating the misery and uncertainty it could create.
World War I reinforced the New Economists faith in scientific management. During the war the government had taken control of large parts of the economy. The central planning implemented to supply the war effort had eventually created greatly increased industrial and agricultural output. It seemed to offer solid proof that a planned, collectivist system using the techniques of scientific management would be able to greatly increase output.