The Socialism of to-day

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 835096955

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-28834

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Laveleye, Émile de

Title:: The Socialism of to-day

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Field & Tuer

Year of publication:: 1884

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (XLIV, 331 S.)

Collection:: Economics Books

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268 THE SOC/AL/SM OE TO-DAY. in order to live on the fruit of their toil \ the modern man attains the same result by paying them wages. Inasmuch as, at different stages of civilization, men have different wants, different motives, and different methods for the production, distribution, and consumption of wealth, It follows that economic problems do not admit of these general and à priori solutions which economic science is called upon to supply, and which it has too often ventured to offer. The question must always be examined relatively to a given country, and thus it is necessary to summon statistics and history in aid of Political Economy, Hence the historical and realistic " method, as the Katheder-Socialisten call it, that is to say, a method founded on facts.* Similarly in politics, It IS generally admitted that the question is, not to discover ari ideal constitution suitable to man in the abstract, but the forms of government most in harmony with the traditions, the lights, the temperament, and the wants of this or that particular country. According to the Katheder-Socialistcn, it is a further mistake to allege, as Bastiat has done in his “ Harmonies of Political Economy,” that the general order results from the free play of personal interests, and that consequently the mere removal of all fetters will suffice to distribute welfare in proportion to the efforts of each individual. Personal interest leads men to iniquity and spoliation ; it must, therefore, be restrained and not given free scope : and this is the proper mission, in the first place, of morality, and then of the State, as the organ of justice. True, if men were perfect and desired only what is right, liberty of itself would secure the reign of order ; but, taking men as they are, their unrestrained self-interests lead to antagonism, not to harmony. I'he employer wishes for a fall in wages, the workman for a rise. The landowner endeavours to raise the rent, the farmer to get it reduced. Everywhere the strongest * Although in h ranee no new school of economics has been formed as 1? h-ngland, and Italy, yet many writers adopt the historical and realistic method with a soundness of learning and a wealth of knowledge unsurpassed. It will suffice to mention the works of MM, Léonce de Lavergne, Wolowski, Victor Bonnet, and Paul Leroy-Beaulieu,

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