Fabianism

Fabianism, socialist movement and theory that emerged from the activities of the Fabian Society, which was founded in London in 1884.

(Read George Bernard Shaw’s 1926 Britannica essay on socialism.)

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Sidney and Beatrice Webb.

Brown Brothers

Fabianism became prominent in British socialist theory in the 1880s. The name Fabian derives from Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, the Roman general famous for his delaying tactics against Hannibal during the Second Punic War. The early Fabians rejected the revolutionary doctrines of Marxism, recommending instead a gradual transition to a socialist society. The most-influential early Fabian theorists included George Bernard Shaw and Graham Wallas as well as Sidney and Beatrice Webb, who would remain prominent thinkers in the movement. In the 20th century other prominent Fabian thinkers included the academics Harold Laski and G.D.H. Cole (both of whom were sometimes far more radical than mainstream Fabians) as well as Labour Party politicians and activists such as R.H.S. Crossman, Roy Jenkins, Ian Mikardo, Denis Healey, and Margaret Cole. The Fabian Society survived into the 21st century as a think tank for moderate British socialists.

When Fabianism emerged in the United Kingdom during the 1880s, collectivism was widely considered necessary for human flourishing. Although some traditional liberals clung to laissez-faire politics and economics, theorists of new liberalism, such as T.H. Green in the 1880s, believed that substantial state intervention would be necessary if ordinary individuals were to prosper. In the early years of the 20th century, the dominant liberal position involved the acceptance and advancement of the extension of public control in industry. That dominant position also involved collective responsibility for children’s education and nutrition, housing, and employment, along with support for care of the sick and aged. Fabians, who sought to propagate their ideas by means of what they called “permeation,” targeted collectivist liberal politicians and radical social activists.

Two pioneers of Fabian theory—Shaw and Sidney Webb—were each advocates of the strategy of permeation. Nevertheless, they differed in their views of the most-appropriate target. In his essay Historic in Fabian Essays in Socialism (1889), Webb insisted that unconscious socialism had already proceeded through public control of services, largely by the municipalities. He thus believed that the Fabians should strive to influence the mainstream Liberal Party. Although in his preface to the 1919 edition of the Fabian Essays Webb said that the Fabians had always intended to create a new party, it was in fact Shaw who pressed for that when Webb saw no need. Shaw hoped to gradually replace rather than merely reform capitalism. He considered that Fabianism would be far more fruitful if it sought to inspire and permeate existing radicals who, he hoped, would eventually merge with socialist activists in Great Britain to found a new party of the left.

Although permeation remained a key concern among Fabians, some of the other ideas that characterized Fabian socialism in its formative years became less prominent as the 20th century progressed. That was the case regarding their adoption of David Ricardo’s theory of rent, which Shaw had discussed in his essay Economic in the Fabian Essays. Sidney Webb’s idea that pragmatism should outweigh firm commitments was also abandoned as Fabians influenced by Shaw pressed for more-coherent socialist or social-democratic thinking with the aim of influencing public policy.

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George Bernard Shaw, c. 1934.

Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital file no. 3a26142u)

Shaw had always been more concerned than his fellow Fabians to develop a socialist theory rather than rely on pragmatism. Sidney Webb, nevertheless, came to accept that the failure to sufficiently emphasize equality was a weakness. In his 1919 introduction to the Fabian Essays, he conceded that it was Shaw who insisted that equality had to a key and prominent concern. That should involve not just equality before the law, in eligibility for office and in voting power, but also equality of material circumstances. Notwithstanding that development in Fabian theorizing, the society’s publishing activities waned in the late 1920s. Moreover, in the 1930s, the Webbs became supporters of Soviet communism and Shaw momentarily expressed admiration for Benito Mussolini, Italy’s fascist dictator.

Nevertheless, Fabianism was revived with the New Fabian Research Bureau (NFRB), formed by Cole independently of the society in 1931. The NFRB included a number of social-democratic intellectuals, such as Leonard Woolf, William Robson, Hugh Dalton, and Evan Durbin. Laski was briefly involved in the early 1930s. The bureau amalgamated with the Fabian Society in 1938.

Laski and Cole had by that time begun to juggle social-democratic and Marxist ideas. Nevertheless, in 1952, in his article Towards a Philosophy of Socialism in New Fabian Essays, Crossman disapproved of Laski’s efforts to merge Marxism and Fabianism. The Labour Party needed a sense of direction but not one influenced by Marxism, Crossman wrote, which forced policy into conformity with an imported rigid doctrine. Theory needed to challenge the status quo and expose the inadequacy of tradition as a guide to policy. He singled out Durbin for praise for having realized in the 1930s that this was so. For Crossman, theory was to be based on the principles of the British Labour Party and inspired by the belief that only human will and social conscience can liberate human beings.

As Bernard Crick’s political theory from the 1960s through the turn of the century illustrated, influencing public policy remained a Fabian priority; thus, permeation continued to be a Fabian activity. Poverty, furthermore, persisted as a major concern, and gradualism remained key to Fabian strategy. Nevertheless, the search for a coherent socialist theory that Fabians once thought should replace the early pragmatism waned. In the early 21st century, the society declared that it sought to define progressive politics from the left of centre.

Ellie Levenson, Guy Lodge, and Greg Rosen (eds.), Fabian Thinkers: 120 Years of Progressive Thought (2004); Margaret Cole, The Story of Fabian Socialism (1961); Patricia Pugh, Educate, Agitate, Organize: 100 Years of Fabian Socialism (1984).