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57) Was To Eschew And Nullify Direct Political Debate. In Adorno's Terms ...

57) was to eschew and nullify direct political debate. In Adorno's terms (Horkheimer & Adorno, 1973), the pursuit of passive satisfaction usurped and rendered obsolete the collectivised struggle within the class system, and thus pushed the central ideological tenets of socialism off the agenda.
Objectives
- To detail the relationship between socialism and fascism in the Inter war period. Gramsci argues that fascism was effectively the corporate creation of a simulated revolutionary state in which the proletariat remains effectively powerless. However, the growth of fascism is often attributed to the same effects occurring within socialist and communist debate. Indeed, the alienation of the proletariat occurred within socialism itself, and the abstract economic theories of Marxism and Communism led to the alienation of the proletariat itself.
- To detail the effect of World War II on the production and subsequent implementation of the plans laid out in the Beveridge Report. The Beveridge Report was criticised both by Conversatives and socialists during and immediately after World War II. Radical socialists and communists believed that the Beveridge Report didn't go far enough, and feminist Marxists commented on the lack of rights for women. Also, some critics comment that the Beveridge Report was used simply to boost flagging morale during the war, and was effectively ignored until popular debate forced it to be considered and implemented.
- To detail how the Beveridge Report was eventually implemented, and what the immediate consequences of and opinions on this newly established socialist economic model were among the electorate.
- To detail how mass "Americanised" culture eventually encroached upon socialist ideals, and pushed many of the issues within socialism concerned with class struggle, ideology and economic theory off the agenda of mainstream debate. This subsequently marginalised the left and led to the formation of the passive culture that was critiqued so firmly by the "Cultural Marxists" and especially by the Frankfurt School critics and theorists. The Left at this point suffered a sharp and significant decline and still remains in crisis to this day.
Research Question
What sociological, political and ideological factors led to the development of the mixed economy and the welfare state immediately following the Second World War, and how, within the six years of Labour government rule, did the political socialist agenda become so marginalised as an ideology that could be applied practically?
Bibliography
Primary Resources
Beveridge, W., Power and Influence, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1953
Mass Observation Archive: Part 4, Topic Collections on social welfare and the Beveridge Report, 1939-1949 etc.


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