Socialism and the New Zealand Liberal Party in a philosophical, historical and international context

Abstract

The focus of this Masters thesis is the claim that the New Zealand Liberal party implemented socialism without doctrines. On one reading, this claim is an oxymoron; socialism is a collection of doctrines. Generally, the claim is that policies pursued by the New Zealand Liberals were pragmatic reactions to the socio-economic conditions they faced; it just happened to be the case that these policies were ones advocated by socialists. Looking into this claim will naturally have both conceptual and empirical elements. Recognition of this should not lead to a false dichotomy where there is no relationship between these two elements. On the conceptual side, the thesis will establish the meaning of socialism. We must recognise that history has influence over this meaning. What socialism means now will have changed from what it meant during the Liberal's time in government. Still, to be coherent and not use the same word to refer to two essentially different systems, it is desirable for socialism to have a core meaning, which is consistent. In the first chapter, I will give a broad and general definition of socialism; but to give an idea of how socialism was defined while the Liberals were in power, there will be an examination of the state of socialist thought during this period. Of course, the nature of socialism will be discussed throughout the thesis.