Socialism and Society Author:James Ramsay MacDonald Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Chapter VI. POLITICAL PARTIES AND SOCIALIST THOUGHT. Socialism has sometimes been defined in such broad terms as to include philanthropic endeavour and mor... more »al effort which rests upon individual will. Such a definition is inaccurate. The community, acting through law,x and organised into definite forms determin- ) ing the lines of individual action, is an essential part of the Socialist idea. The Socialist considers that the State is as essential to individual life as is the atmosphere, and he regards the evolution of political democracy as having been necessary in order to create a State which could respond to the common will. The modern State in most civilised countries is democratic, and, in spite of the remaining anomalies and imperfections, if the masses of the ordinary people are agreed upon any policy, neither rich electors, privileged peers, nor reigning houses could stand in their way. That being the case, the Socialist sees that so soon as the problem: In whom does the sovereignty rest?the problem underlying political democracy has been solved, progress presents to the community, as a sequel, the further conundrum : What is the sphere of the State ? the problem underlying industrial democracy the problem which creates the Socialist conception of Society. This involves a positive view of tl.:' State. The Socialist refuses to regard the State as a mere atomic collection of individuals, the majority of whom coerce the minority. He regards it as the means of expressing a will which belongs to the minority as well as to the majority, because the minority is organically connected with the community for which the State is acting; he, therefore, does not consider legislative and administrative work to be a coercive limitation of individual liberty, because he ca...« less