Richard Henry Tawney Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Richard Henry Tawney (1880–1962) was one of the most influential social critics and reformers of the twentieth century. Born in Calcutta, India, and educated at Balliol College in Oxford, he began his career at Toynbee Hall, a university settlement in East End, London, where he worked as a lecturer for the Workers’ Educational Association. He became a reader in economic history at the London School of Economics in 1920 and subsequently became a department chair, a position he held until his retirement in 1949.

A leading socialist, Tawney was the ideologue of the Labour Party, and he served on numerous government bodies under Labour administrations.

Tawney was a Christian and a socialist in an age in which socialism was considered the antithesis of Christianity. He viewed socialism in Christian terms, as a means of extending the kingdom of God on Earth. He believed that every human being is of infinite value, and no expediency can justify the oppression of one by another. One of Tawney’s great contributions was his reconceptualization of equality. It was integral to his vision of socialism and it meant the largest possible measure of equality of environment, circumstance, and opportunity. The concept of equality rested on three pillars: (1) all human beings share a common humanity, (2) all human beings must be enabled to make the best of such powers as they possess, and (3) rewards should be linked to social purposes.

Tawney’s analysis showed a solid appreciation of the nature of power and its dynamics. He was deeply opposed to centralization and was critical of over centralization and collectivism as in the Soviet Union. Equally dangerous to Tawney was the fragmentation implicit in capitalism, which he characterized as a juggernaut that sacrificed human ends to the idolatry of material means. He believed that socialism, on the other hand, entailed the cooperation of free and equal citizens generating common purposes.

Tawney further held that a fundamental principle governing the way societies work was function. He argued that rights to property were not basic rights but should be conditional on the obligation to service. Indeed all rights, he wrote, should be conditional and derivative. In a healthy society, people are not owners of rights but trustees for the discharge of functions and instruments of social purposes. A functional or good society is contrasted with an acquisitive society in which production and accumulation become ends in themselves. Function is thus related to purpose and service is participation to further a function.

For Tawney, citizenship was more than membership; it meant relationships among equals resting on consent, accountability, and common humanity. It was the relationship of self-reliant and self-respecting equals in a society where the absolute claims of individuality are respected. Such fellowship could come only under socialism, because capitalist institutions generated acquisitiveness and a loss of social cohesion.

Tawney authored several influential works. In Acquisitive Society (1921), he pointed out the corroding influences of materialism and consumerism. In Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (1922), arguably his most important work, he examined the interaction between religion and the Industrial Revolution that led to the birth of capitalism. In Equality (1931), he tackled the thorny questions of social equality in circumstances and opportunity. In Culture and Anarchy (1932), Tawney advanced the thesis, first put forth by English cultural critic Matthew Arnold, on the nexus between culture and democracy.

Tawney had a lifelong commitment to education. He served as an executive with the Workers’ Education Association for forty-two years and was president from 1928 until 1945. He authored key Labour Party documents on education and served on various public bodies. He believed education had a spiritual dimension that helped to shape a democratic social environment.

Bibliography:

Bryant, Chris. Possible Dreams: A Personal History of British Christian Socialists. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1997.
Jarvis, P. Twentieth Century Thinkers in Adult Education. Beckenham, UK: Croon Helm, 1987.
Terrill, Ross. R. H.Tawney and his Times: Socialism as a Fellowship. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1973.
Williams, Raymond. Culture and Society 1780–1950. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books, 1961.
Winter, J. M., and D. M. Joslin. R. H.Tawney’s Commonplace Books. Cambridge, Mass.: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Wright, Anthony. R. H.Tawney. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1990.

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