Phillip Bryson - Socialism: Origins, Expansion, Decline, and the Attempted Revival in the United States

SOCIALISM

Origins, Expansion, Decline, and
the Attempted Revival in the
United States

PHILLIP J BRYSON

Copyright 2021 by Phillip J Bryson

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All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or manner, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the express written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

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Created in the United States of America

ISBN:Softcover 978-1-63871-442-2

eBook978-1-63871-443-9

Republished by: PageTurner Press and Media LLC

Publication Date: 08/17/2021

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Also by Phillip J. Bryson

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End of the East German Economy with Manfred Melzer

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The Consumer under Socialist Planning: The East German Case

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SOCIALISM

Origins, Expansion, Decline, and
the Attempted Revival in the
United States

PHILLIP J BRYSON

To Patricia
and to all those who love her most

Contents

The Corporation in the Capitalism of the
United States46

Anti-Corporate, Anti-Market Intellectuals and Social
Learning52

Part II Traditional Theoretical Conceptions of the Modern
Corporation61

Part III Contemporary Theories of the Corporation and the
Theory of the Firm79

Socialism before Marx: Pre-Marxian and
Utopian Socialism.94

Part 2: The Economic Theories of Karl Marx
Marxian Hatred for and Critique of Capitalism132

German Inspirationists at Amana, Economy, and Zoar
At Amana203

Bureaucracy: How Governments Manage Economic
Activity252

The Difference between Government and Corporate
Bureaucracy269

Central Planning Reform, Decentralization, and
Decline under Gorbachev333

Goals and Objectives of East German Consumption
Planning362

The Female Double Burdens (Doppelbelastung) in
Socialism.378

Needed: the Continued Development of an Independent
Small-Enterprise Sector.398

Designing Chinas New Economic Order: Market
and/or Plan407

Social Groups and the Future of the Party: A Schumpeterian
View410

Reform: The International Economy and the State-Owned
Enterprises422

Market Socialism: In Theory, in Hungary and
in Yugoslavia438

The Nature and Characteristics of Fascism, the Atypical
Socialism473

Socialism and Marx in the Era of Henry George and
Richard Ely524

Socialism and Marx in the Era of John
R. Commons and Walter Lippman533

Still no Socialist or Communist Party in 20th
Century America?544

Additional Strains of Socialism vs. Capitalism in
Contemporary Society560

Obama and Marx: Socialism in America at the End of the
Obama Presidency564

Economic Theory: Optimal Income Distribution is not
Equal Income Distribution589

Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility from the
Viewpoint of Stakeholder Theory647

The State-Owned Enterprise under Soviet-type Central
Planning649

Reform of U.S. Corporations: Regulation Advocacy and
Stakeholder Theorists652

The Stakeholder Agenda vs. the Traditional Regulatory
Agenda657

A Practical Implication of Effective Administrative
Intervention663

The Status of Stakeholder Theory around the End of the
Obama Presidency664

Ethics and Stakeholder Theory: An Economics
Perspective673

The Stakeholder Agenda vs. the Traditional Regulatory
Agenda691

Purposes and Conclusions of Chapter 1,
Before the Age of Adam Smith.748

Purposes and Conclusions of Chapter 2,
Adam Smith and Market Exchange.749

Chapter 3, The Corporation and
Capitalism in the United States.751

Purposes and Conclusions of Chapter 6,
Marxism after Marx.755

Chapter 8, Bureaucracy: How Government
Manages Economic Activity.758

Chapter 10, Central Planning Reform,
Decentralization, and Decline under Gorbachev762

Purposes and Conclusions of Chapter 11,
East German Consumption Planning.763

Purposes and Conclusions of Chapter 15, Socialism in
Democratic Western Europe.767

Chapter 16, Socialism of the National Type in the
United States.771

Purposes and Conclusions of Chapter 18, Socialism and
the Welfare State.774

Chapter 19, The Academic Contribution to American
Socialism: Stakeholder Advocacy.776

Chapter 20, Ethics and Stakeholder Theory: An
Economics Perspective.777

Purposes and Conclusions of Chapter 21, Socialism
and Tyranny.780

Preface

Each of the three parts of this book represents a self-contained topic and theme. The three parts are clearly related, but each addresses a completely different aspect of the more general topic of socialism.

First, the origins and ideas of socialism represent, more or less, a history of economic thought. Socialism is more than a topic of economics, of course, although that is the core aspect of the subject. I also find fascinating the facets of religion, ethics, politics, etc., in Marxism. Socialism is not a religion, of course, but it is a substitute for religion for many of a progressive nature. Most progressives are apparently of a religious bent only when a political campaign is in progress, but for them socialism is an answer to the moral and ethical questions that historically have tended to grow out of religion.

My approach to the second part of this project to the attempts to implement socialist economic theory is a question of comparative economic systems addressed to the most important actual economies of our era. I spent a career researching the Soviet- type economy and central economic planning. I also did some teaching for quite a few years in those areas. I watched the attempts of the socialist countries over nearly three decades to find a way to reform the Soviet-type economic system, and I watched the failure of the final effort under Gorbachev.

I was living in Berlin when the East German SED (Communist Party) built the Wall through the middle of the city and around West Berlin. I saw the red banners posted in East Berlin proclaiming the victory of socialism and its glorious achievements. I talked to people who had successfully escaped East Berlin and read of those who died in the attempt. Nearly thirty years later I was attending an academic conference in West Berlin in the Reichstag, which had been reconstructed as a conference center. That was in November of 1989. In the middle of the week I spent at that conference, the Wall was declared open and there was rejoicing in both sides of the city. I walked from one side to the other with East German friends who saw the West on that occasion for the first time. What remarkable, contrasting experiences I had when the Wall went up and when it came down.

Unfortunately, I also lived through the social phenomena described in the third part of the book the attempt to bring about a fundamental transformation of the United States into a socialist country. That was under President Obama whose full socialist ideology was hidden from the electorate of the United States in 2008. The president was well aware that the country had from its founding steadfastly and resolutely opposed organized socialism. However, the dismal economic conditions prevailing in the country at the time President Obama came into office facilitated a shift to the left, just as the Great Depression had paved the way for the introduction of collectivist policies under Franklin D. Roosevelt. Whether Mr. Obamas attempted transformation of the country will ultimately prove successful after his tenure in office is not yet clear. It is apparent that he moved the Democratic Party and the country well to the left of where it had traditionally functioned. At the time of writing, it was apparent that Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee for the presidency in the 2016 elections would advocate for an extension of the Obama policies in pursuit of redistributing incomes. The socialists of the Democratic Party are a strong constituency, but it is not clear whether they will be able to pull the nation further in the direction of socialism.