Socialism and the Common Good

de Preston King

Socialism and the Common Good brings together a set of writings by some of the leading social and political thinkers at work in Britain today. Its object is to place before the public some seminal discussions of a central theme which is both theoretical and practical, namely the role of the state in achieving social justice in modern market systems from a socialist perspective. These essays touch many subjects, such as state ownership, collectivism, communitarianism, individualism, equality, citizenship, and national identity. Is state ownership essential to the common good? Is it only one among many possible means of securing social justice? Is communitarianism a threat to civil liberty? Is it, by contrast, a necessary condition for efficacy and fairness? The authors of these essays, all members of the Socialist Philosophy Group of the Fabian Society, follow no single line and approach these problems in diverse ways. The contributors, however, prove remarkably uniform in their rejection of the cult of choice and of rational egoism and in their promotion of a more robust and inclusive notion of community and of social responsibility.