Democratic Socialism

REVIEW DClnocratic Socialism Professor Cole's monumental study of socialism, A History 0/ Socialist Thought, of which Communism and Social Democracy, 1914-1931 (in two parts; London: Macmillan & Company Limited [Toronto: The Macmillan Company of Canada Limitedl, 1958, pp. x, 1-456; viii, 457-940, $12.00) is the fourth volume, begins with the French Revolution. He had hoped in a concluding fifth volume to bring his account up to 1945 or later, but his recent death means that these two parts of volume four are the last. The first two books in the series, The Forerunners. 1789-1850 and Marxism and Anarchism, 1850-1890, are mainly studies in the history of socialist thought. But the third volume (also in two parts) on The Second international, 1889-1914, like the fourth, is largely an account of socialist movements throughout the world rather than an examination of socialist ideas. This may be partly explained by the fact that, with the partial exception of the Soviet Union, modern socialism has been more empirical than abstract. Democratic, like Marxian, socialists have apparently agreed with Lenin that it is "more pleasant and useful" to try to put their ideas into effect than to analyse them. Yet, despite the dearth of significant socialist theory from 1914 to 1931, it can be argued that the author might well have devoted more attention to what socialists believed and less to what they did. His discussion of the ideas of Lenin and Stalin is a welcome exception to the dominant empha. sis on the development of radical movements. The uninformed reader of these last two volumes might be likely to conclude that socialists, like the followers of Mussolini and Hitler, think, if at all, with their blood. A thousand pages to cover the seventeen years between the outbreak of the Great War and 1931 might seem to offer ample scope for a detailed analysis, but in fact do not. The author casts his net widely to cover salient events not only in Europe but in North and South America, China, Japan, India, Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand. An outline of socialism in some two score countries exhibits the defects of most surveys. It results in a collection of rapid thumb·nail sketches, a resume of dates and happenings with insufficient examination of motives and policies to make the dramatis personae come alive. Many readers would probably have preferred a more comprehensive treatment of fewer countries. Yet it is less captious and more profitable to assess the competence with which an author performs what he attempts than to quarrel with his choice of subject. REVIEW 403 Professor Cole's account is understandably most valuable for the countries with which he is most familiar, although even the sections on Britain are more factual than analytical. In the Introduction he acknowledges the help of informants in many parts of the globe. Any book which undertakes to discuss socialism in four continents must necessarily rely in part on second· hand sources, but information thus gathered is occasionally inaccurate and often results in a mausoleum of dead bones without the vivifying touch of understanding that comes from personal knowledge. A people's ideas and institutions may be more significantly assessed by an outsider than by a native, as the studies of De Tocqueville and Bryce brilliantly demonstrate, but this goal can scarcely be achieved by an outsider who has not visited the countries he discusses. No one familiar, even at second hand, with the history of Australia and New Zealand, is likely to find much that is new in the thirteen pages divided between them, save the startling comment that prior to 1935 New Zealand was conspicuously backward in social legislation. Canadians can scarcely dissent from Professor Cole's judgment that "of Socialism in Canada during the period covered in this volume there is not much to say." Hence they should perhaps not cavil at his allotment of a page and a half in which to say it, although the United Farmers' movements and the brief career of the Progressives provide an important background for the development of the C.C.F. Unfortunately the Winnipeg strike is ascribed to 1920. Democratic socialism, in...