Storming the Bastille.
HOW DID SOCIALISM RISE? Many nations around the world have admired the US Constitution. Some have imitated it in their own constitutions. It has set the standard for democratic governing principles in the free world today. How then did socialism gain ground in so many free world nations?
Most of these nations have socialist parties. And in the US, the Democratic Party has recently split between socialist and moderately liberal wings. We may trace the origins of socialism to 1789.
That was the same year that constitutional democracy began in the US. The Founding Fathers aimed to limit government. They separated it into the judicial, legislative and executive branches, following Isaiah 33:22. “For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king.”
Separating the three functions would provide checks and balances on each. In that way no branch could lord it over the other branches or over individuals. For the purpose of government was to protect the equal rights of each individual to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Collective liberty becomes state tyranny
But also in 1789, the leaders of French Revolution began to promote different principles. Instead of individual liberty, they promoted collective liberty. For example, they considered the famed storming of the Bastille—a state fortress and prison—as an act of collective liberty.
Following Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s theory of the “social contract”, the revolution’s leaders compelled all individuals to submit to the “general will” of the people. They institutionalized the general will as the state. Consequently, the individual had to consider the state’s interests as his interests. His freedom consisted only in the freedom of the state to do as it willed.
This stood in stark contrast with the US Constitution. The US Constitution limited government in order to ensure the rights of individuals. The French Revolution limited individuals in order to ensure the rights of the state. Supposedly the state, in turn, would have greater power to benefit individuals.
Instead, the opposite happened. The French Revolution turned into a reign of terror. Then it ended with the absolute rule of Napoleon, a military dictator.
But its ideas persisted and contributed to the theory of socialism. In socialism, the collective state owns the means of production, assigns jobs, and regulates the distribution of wealth.
This theory proved attractive as the Industrial Revolution progressed, roughly from the 1780s to the 1840s. During that era agriculture became more mechanized. So masses of people began to leave rural farm life. They pursued jobs in an increasingly industrialized society.
Torn from the stability of their former communities, workers began to seek guarantees of employment and income. Socialism promised that the state would provide both. Capitalist democracies could only promise equal opportunity to achieve both.
The century of European socialism
In 1848, political revolutions in Europe opened the way for nations to institute a new form of government. Many tended toward socialism rather than toward the American model. Renowned economist Frederick Hayek has called the period from 1848 to about 1948 “the century of European socialism.”
The Marxist version of socialism began to gain popularity in academic circles in the 1870s. As the “century of socialism” progressed, governments became more and more involved in employment, labor unions, social security, progressive taxation, redistribution, housing, town planning and education.
Even the US government intervened in these areas, especially during the Great Depression. But after World War II, the horrors of extremely state-centered socialism in Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia had become tragically obvious.
Therefore leaders of the free world began to restore limits on the powers of the state. Socialism had proven to be less productive than capitalism, more hierarchical, and more easily manipulated by despots. In those times, many saw Hitler and Stalin as precursors of the Antichrist.
Socialism revives in the guise of the welfare state
Still, in the post-war years, old socialists saw new hope for building up state power in the welfare state. The welfare state expanded as capitalism made Western nations more prosperous. Now it has grown so burdensome as to force those same nations deeply into debt.
But Western youth have grown up in the welfare state. They now take it for granted. And they have learned socialist theory in academic departments still dominated by socialist ideologues. Even after the massive collapse of the state-run communist bloc economies.
In 2016, the US had a major socialist presidential candidate in Bernie Sanders. Multitudes of youth supported his campaign. Now they have three socialists among the top ten Democratic candidates.
Moreover, most of those top ten candidates have espoused socialistic causes including like the Green New Deal, universal child care and free healthcare for illegal immigrants. Furthermore, half of them advocate tuition-free public college.
Dependence gives away power
All these sound good. But the more we depend on the state for them, the more power the state has over us. And the less freedom we will have to build businesses and prosper so we can afford their astronomical costs. Which is why our Constitution puts limits on the state, for the sake of our inalienable rights and freedoms.
The more free people are, the more free to choose Christ. And the more free to live for Him. “[T]herefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1).
Also, the more we practice freedom and free private enterprise, the less we will need to buy or sell when the Antichrist state arises. The ultimate socialism will lead to his state-controlled religion and state-controlled economy. And our ultimate choice will be to serve Christ or the beast.
See NT Representative Government vs. Statism
More ETG articles related to how did socialism rise:
God’s Green New Deal vs Sanders-AOC Green New Deal
God’s Kingdom Guarantees vs Socialist Guarantees, Pt.1
God’s Kingdom Guarantees vs Socialist Guarantees, Pt.2
How Believers Will Rule the Earth with Christ
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