Other editions of book Proposed Roads to Freedom illustrated

In this book Russell weighs the respective advantages and disadvantages of socialism, marxism, anarchism, and democracy. Roads to Freedom is a fascinating glimpse of progressive intellectual politics. Written at the end of the first world war in the midst of great and rapid world change, the book is an historical analysis and criticism of the dominating political systems.

SOCIALISM, like everything else that is vital, is rather a tendency than a strictly definable body of doctrine. A definition of Socialism is sure either to include some views which many would regard as not Socialistic, or to exclude others which claim to be included. But I think we shall come nearest to the essence of Socialism by defining it as the advocacy of communal ownership of land and capital. Communal ownership may mean ownership by a democratic State, but cannot be held to include ownership by any State which is not democratic. Communal ownership may also be understood, as Anarchist Communism understands it, in the sense of ownership by the free association of the men and women in a community without those compulsory powers which are necessary to constitute a State. Some Socialists expect communal ownership to arrive suddenly and completely by a catastrophic revolution, while others expect it to come gradually, first in one industry, then in another. Some insist upon the necessity of completeness in the acquisition of land and capital by the public, while others would be content to see lingering islands of private ownership, provided they were not too extensive or powerful. What all forms have in common is democracy and the abolition, virtual or complete, of the present capitalistic system. The distinction between Socialists, Anarchists and Syndicalists turns largely upon the kind of democracy which they desire. Orthodox Socialists are content with parliamentary democracy in the sphere of government, holding that the evils apparent in this form of constitution at present would disappear with the disappearance of capitalism. Anarchists and Syndicalists, on the other hand, object to the whole parliamentary machinery, and aim at a different method of regulating the political affairs of the community. But all alike are democratic in the sense that they aim at abolishing every kind of privilege and every kind of artificial inequality: all alike are champions of the wage-earner in existing society. All three also have much in common in their economic doctrine. All three regard capital and the wages system as a means of exploiting the laborer in the interests of the possessing classes, and hold that communal ownership, in one form or another, is the only means of bringing freedom to the producers. But within the framework of this common doctrine there are many divergences, and even among those who are strictly to be called

Completed in April 1918, "in the last days before a period of imprisonment," Proposed Roads to Freedom contains Bertrand Russell's astute political commentary on anarchism, socialism, and syndicalism. Russell begins with a historical overview of socialism and anarchism, the teachings and organizations of Marx and Bakunin, and the syndicalist revolt against socialism. He then turns to more pressing problems of the future, and how these movements could contribute to reconstruction after the war. Although he has criticism for each movement, Russell respected what they attempted to achieve. "What is new in Socialism and Anarchism is that close relations of the ideal to the present sufferings of men, which has enabled powerful political movements to grow out of the hopes of solitary thinkers. It is this that makes Socialism and Anarchism important, and it is this that makes them dangerous to those who batten, consciously or unconsciously, upon the evils of our present order of society."