Research On Crosland's Thought Of Ownership

Anthony Crosland(1918-1977)is important politician and theorist in the history of the British Labour Party.His democratic socialist ideology has a profound influence on the party's governing philosophy and policy formulation.Especially his thought of ownership provides important theoretical sources for European Socialist Party Constitution formulation.Therefore,he was known as one of the founders of contemporary western democratic socialism theory in Western Europe.Crosland's thought of ownership has provided the classic expression of ownership problem of postwar democratic Socialist,which plays a key position in the history of the development of the ideology of Labour Party.His thought inherited Bernstein's revisionism,modified and developed the Fabian socialism,inspired Giddens and Blair's "third way" thought.It can be said that his thought is the standard of the orthodox democratic socialism.He investigated the development of British society during the ten years after World War II,and he found that the traditional theoretical framework of capitalism has been unable to properly explain the characteristics of the British society after.He made many amendments to the traditional socialist which include marxism and Fabian socialism,especially to the public ownership.He believes that the goal of socialism is a series of values,such as improving social welfare and realizing social equality.He also believes that nationalization is only a means to achieve those goals,and may not be the most appropriate means.These views directly led to the Labor Party's internal debate about nationalization over the 40 years,which has led the Labour Party to give up the massive nationalization policy.These views also provides an important inspiration to Giddens' s thought of "the third way" and the policy of the New Labour government.Obviously,he has great limitations.On the one hand,he misunderstood and underestimated the Marxism,while on the other hand,he overvalued Keynesianism too much,also one of the major deficiencies of Crosland's ideology is overlook of economic globalization.But Crosland's theoretical courage which seek truth from facts and keep pace with the times is worthy of recognition.Ownership is the core of production relations,and it is the most important issue in the theory and practice of socialism.What is socialism? How to transition to socialism? How to build socialism?Answers to these questions are not separated from ownership.Whether it is in efforts of the western socialist transformation of capitalism,or in the construction and reform of the eastern socialistcountries,the problem of ownership is a difficult problem which causes great controversy and brings great confusion.The history of the reform of a socialist country is almost synonymous with the history of the reform of ownership.Today,China in the tough stage of ownership reform.Therefore,research of Crosland's thought of ownership on the position,viewpoint and method of the development of the Marxism is inordinately valuable.It is helpful for us to understand Marx's thought of ownership accurately and western democratic socialists to reform capitalism objectively.It has important referenced significance to building socialism with Chinese characteristics and improvement of the socialist market economy.