Statism ≠ Socialism

Feb 5, 2010 at 4:46 PM

By Elliot Engstrom

More often than I can even remember, I have heard Barack Obama and his policies referred to as socialist. This demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of what we are up against in terms of attempting to reform our current government. We do not live in a socialist country -- we live in a statist one. Obama is not pushing for equality across the board, he is pushing for centralization of power in the hands of the state, via large proxi corporations to maintain the guise of "free market capitalism." While this has some similarity with socialist ideals, they are not the same thing (not to mention that referring to Obama as a "socialist" is an ad hominem attack, and would be the equivalent of referring to a libertarian as an "anarchist" without putting forth an argument.)

From Dictionary.com:

Socialism - a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.
Statism - the principle or policy of concentrating extensive economic, political, and related controls in the state at the cost of individual liberty.

Which one sounds more like our Barack Obama to you? Kevin Carson takes up this idea in his most recent column. He writes:

If Goldman-Sachs and the auto industry are the new hotbeds of socialism, it’s been a remarkably successful ideology. It’s a success comparable to converting the largest cotton planters in South Carolina to abolitionism ca. 1850—while they continued to work their plantations with slave labor.
...Government interventionism does not equate to “socialism,” any more than being in favor of free markets implies a “pro-business” stance. Business interests are some of the biggest supporters of state intervention in the economy, and some of its biggest beneficiaries.

Read more here.

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Great post, Elliot. This is a point far too many people miss.

Submitted by Bonnie Kristian on February 5, 2010.

While they are two different terms and should be used appropriately, statism and socialism come about from the same underlying principles and usually end up with the same results as a matter of necessity. America right now is what you would call a Corporatist Welfare State (I refuse to use the sociologist term of welfare capitalism because it is an anti-concept).

Submitted by Ryan Bell (not verified) on February 5, 2010.

While your points split hairs between the two definitions, my response is that both seek to eleminate personal liberty. Both must be fought in the arena of ideas and at the ballot box. So lets not waste a lot of time on academics, or we condemn ourselves to look as silly as liberals and progressives.

Submitted by Matt (not verified) on February 5, 2010.

Crying out "Obama is a socialist" when he is nothing of the sort seems to me to be a better way to make yourself look "silly." It makes the entire Tea Party movement look like a bunch of uneducated reactionaries, because instead of critiquing the actual problems with our government, they are creating a straw man and attacking it. Thus they appeal to their own base, but nothing more, as falsely accusing your opponent of being something they are not is no way to bring in people from the other side.

Leftists know that Obama is not a socialist, but we sure as hell can convince them that he is a statist, and that this is a very problematic ideology.

Submitted by Elliot Engstrom on February 6, 2010.

While I would agree that Obama is not a socialist as the left sees socialism, it is important to take into account that all forms of social planning and organization, whether they are autocratic and statist or not, is in fact socialism. Statism is a "byproduct" of the drive for socialism, and is required to achieve any field of socialism, as pointed out by F.A. Hayek and Ludwig von Mises.

Yes, Obama is a Statist. Yes, he is a socialist. A Marxist socialist? Probably not... If anything, he's more along the lines of Mussolini's Corporatism, but nonetheless still a socialist when it comes to philosophy. And it is important that we do not seperate Socialism from Statism, since they generally go hand in hand. The only modernday statist that I can think of that was NOT a socialist in some form was Augusto Pinochet. Hell, even the Neo-conservative movement is socialist in some regard.

Submitted by Harrison Karlewicz (not verified) on February 7, 2010.

You try to use that argument against a leftist or Obama-supporter, and see how far you get.

Submitted by Elliot Engstrom on February 8, 2010.

I couldn't say it any better than you. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Submitted by Scott Keller (not verified) on December 2, 2010.

Obama is not pushing for equality across the board, he is pushing for centralization of power in the hands of the state, via large proxi corporations to maintain the guise of "free market capitalism." Audi A1

Submitted by Anna (not verified) on April 7, 2011.

So far so good. We aren't screwed up yet and its time to dance.

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Submitted by Binaya Aryal (not verified) on May 29, 2011.

I really think Obama has the best idea for this. We will not know until it happens more. I will be glad to see the future in this.

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Submitted by james lee (not verified) on June 7, 2011.

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Submitted by abser888 (not verified) on July 22, 2011.

Leftists know that Obama is not a socialist, but we sure as hell can convince them that he is a statist, and that this is a very problematic ideology. hausbau

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