Political Change During the 19th Century

By: Ana Newman, Rebecca Warren, and Lauren

Pintabona

Rise of Labor Force

Proletarianization-labor became essential for the marketplaceOften disciplined for drunkenness, being late, etc. Confection-goods are produced in standard sizes and styles

Increased division of laborLess skill requiredLower wagesHazardous conditions

Liberals disapproved laborers strikeReform groups rise

Chartism

Peaceful social change

The first pro-social reform movement

Feargus O’Connor=most important Chartist leader

Reform Act (1832) didn’t extend political power outside of the wealthy creation of the Charter (list of petitions)

1838-William Lovett

Votes for all men

Secret ballot

Annual election

Equal electoral districts

Pay for members of Parliament

End to property qualification

Luddites (1811-1816)

Led by Ned Ludd

Protested against the changes of the Industrial Revolution

Threatened magistrates and merchants

Many mills were destroyed execution and transportation as prisoners to Australia

Early Socialism

One of the major political forces in EuropeGovernment took steps to make changes after the Industrial Revolution

Abolition of slavery, new poor law, state agencies

Divided into four major groups:MarxismTrade unionismAnarchismUtopian socialism

Beliefs of Early Socialists

Free market couldn’t produce goods the way classical markets had

Society should be organized as a community

Capitalism:

Mismanaged

Low wages

Suffering

Goods misdistributed

Marxism

Dominated Soviet Union after Bolshevik RevolutionSpread due to competition with other socialist groups in GermanyBased on German Hegelianism, French Utopian socialism, and British classical economicsConcepts:

Criticized capitalist societyClaimed scientific accuracyRejected reformSupported revolution

Karl Marx

Born in GermanyWent to university of Berlin and studied Hegelian philosophyEdited Rhineland GazetteExiled to Paris, Brussels, then LondonBecame friends with Friedrich Engels

Father owned a textile factory in EnglandThe Condition of the Working Class in EnglandPublished Communist Manifesto along with MarxCreated communism

Abolition of private property

Karl Marx

Communist Manifesto (1848)

“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles…..”

“Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class….”

“The bourgeoisie finds itself involved in a constant battle….”

“The advance of industry, whose involuntary promoter is the bourgeoisie, replaces the isolation of the labourers, due to competition, by their revolutionary combination, due to association. The development of Modern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, above all, is its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable…”

“The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.”

-Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

Revolution

between capitalistic bourgeoisie (middle class) and the industrial proletariat (working class)Inevitable conflict between classes causes revolutionReform cannot eliminate evils. However, social transformation canProletariat victory no one group of people oppressing another for the first time in historyMarxism helped spread ideology and therefore the utopian vision of ultimate human liberation

Anarchism

Rejected both industry and the dominance of governmentSome groups favored terrorism and violence while others were peacefulAnarchists favored cooperative businesses whose goal was to favor the community’s good over that of the individualAbsolute fairness was a belief that all anarchists heldTwo famous anarchists were Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Auguste Blanqui

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon(1809-1865)

Represented the peaceful side of anarchism

What is Property?(1840) attacked the banking system

Believed society should be based on mutualism and the state would therefore be unnecessary

Influenced the French labor movement

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Auguste Blanqui

Represented the violence and terror of anarchismWanted to abolish capitalism and the stateWanted to develop a professional revolutionary vanguard

Auguste Blanqui

Utopian Socialism

Ideas were visionary

Supported the creation of ideal communities

They questioned the structures and values of the existing capitalistic framework

Three types of utopian socialist groups were: Saint-Simonianists, Owenists, and Fourierists

Utopian Beliefs

Life presents many potentials that could be perfected

Human society was a product of the human mind

Lewis Mumford The Story of Utopias

Government should be centralized to permit change

Each utopia was a “closed society for the prevention of human growth”

Saint-Simonianism

Leader was Count Claude Henri de Saint-Simon(1760-1825)

Modern society needed rational management

Private properties should be owned by administrators and not individual owners

Claude Henri de Saint-Simon

Owenism

Leader was Robert Owen(1771-1858)

Wanted to join all British trade unions into a single union=failed

Created a new model for the organization of industry

Believed in environmental psychology

The character of humans can be improved if they are placed in the right surroundings

Robert Owen

Fourierism

Leader was Charles Fourier(1772-1837)

Wanted to create phalanxes (communities free of boredom and dullness)

Louis Blanc (1822-1882)

Created the Organization of Labor

Political reform, suffrage for the working class

Charles Fourier

The Making of the English Working Class (1963)

"I am seeking to rescue the poor stockinger, the Luddite cropper, the "obsolete" hand-loom weaver, the "utopian" artisan, and even the deluded follower of Joanna Southcott, from the enormous condescension of posterity."

-E.P. Thompson

Trade Unionism

Trade unionism came of age when governments extended legal protections to unions during the late 1800sUnions became completely legal in:

Great Britain-1871France-1884Germany-1890

In the beginning, unions did not really participate in politics. This changed as time progressed. Unions grew rapidly during the industrialization of the 19th century, but most of the European workforce never joined unions.

Conservatism

Started by Edmund Burke

Rejected principles of the French Revolution

Respected authority

Wanted to restore traditional values

Social legislation

Cooperation between rich and poor

Edmund Burke

Liberalism

Supported change

Political liberalismWanted to protect individuals from the state

Supported the law

Economic liberalismLittle government interference in the economy

Wanted a capitalistic free market

Ownership of private property

Opposed by socialist groups

Fabianism

British movementWanted to advance society by gradual reform and not revolutionWanted to protect England from foreign competitionThought capitalism was unjust and inefficient Fabian Essays in Socialism (1889)

Contained outlines for social legislation and reform

Democracy

Government by the people for the people

Majority rule

One form of political party

Reduces political instability

Political equality

Opposed by anarchists