I'm presently writing a book review of Tony Smith's A Socialism for the Twenty-First Century, for Marx & Philosophy. It should be published sometime in late September 2025.
The central thesis of Smith's book is that there is a 'feasible and superior alternative' to capitalism. It's called republican socialism. It's a society in which people work collectively together in units of production (workers co-operatives, if you like) within a system that's based on 'production for social needs'. It's also a system in which people govern themselves without domination from others ('self-governance without domination' is how Smith puts it in his book).
The underlying goal of this model of socialism is to enable 'human flourishing' in the way that's captured by Marx's 'ruling principle' of society, namely, 'the free and full development of every individual'. For this to happen, then the right sort of 'institutional frameworks' and 'social practices' must first be put in place; otherwise it's all 'pure phantasy', as Smith says. If such a society is ever actually constructed (which of course depends on many other contingencies, like especially there being no human annihilation from an all-out global nuclear war or the climate crisis hasn't become so great that it makes life on this planet unviable), then as far as Smith is concerned it 'would count as a world historical advance' over capitalism. This is principally because the latter is a system which not only lacks self-governance without domination (given the social structural nature of the capital/wage labour relation), but is one which also lacks production for social needs (given the nature of the underlying imperative of capitalism in terms of capital accumulation, which is about the endless drive of profit-making on an ever-expanding scale). It's a system, in short, which does not allow 'human flourishing'.
If anyone takes the socialist project of developing a real alternative to capitalism seriously, then it's hard to overlook Smith's powerful case for republican socialism. It will convince you that models of market socialism, for instance, don't go far enough; that's because these models, while they get rid of capitalists, they don't get rid of the capital imperative. For Smith, republican socialism is a type of society in which there are not just no capitalists but also no capital itself!
Here's a basic overview of Tony Smith's book.
After initially laying out in Chapter 1 the nine main theses
of his book and discussing what republicanism is as a political philosophy and
the strengths and weaknesses of its five main forms, Smith then develops his
socialist republican model as follows. Firstly, in Chapters 2 and 3, Smith
presents reasons for developing a socialist alternative to capitalism via
Marx’s critique of political economy and his own critical analysis of
contemporary capitalism. Then, in Chapter 4, he lays out the essential principles
of a socialist constitution based on Marx’s ‘ruling principle’ of society,
which is about ‘the free and full development of every individual’
(121). Importantly, for Smith, this ‘ruling principle’ of Marx’s is what guides
him in his construction of a republican socialist model of society. Next, in
Chapters 5 to11, Smith lays out in great, systematic detail his model of
republican socialism, as well as defending it. In doing so, Smith goes from a
socialist republican model developed at the ‘local’ level (Chapters 5 and 6)
through to one at the ‘regional’ (Chapter 8), then at the ‘national’, and
finally at the ‘international’ level (Chapters 9 and 10). Smith calls what he’s
doing here a ‘scaled up’ approach. In the process, Smith clarifies in Chapter
7 how his model of republican socialism isn’t just another form of ‘market
socialism’ via his important discussion of the role of ‘money’ in a socialist
society. Also, in Chapter 10, Smith responds to two major concerns about a
socialist model of society, namely, questions about i) incentives and ii)
efficiencies. (It’s worth noting that as Smith develops his model of republican
socialism, he does so within the framework of Marx’s two concepts of the ‘realm
of necessity’ and the ‘realm of freedom’. So, Chapters 5 through to 10
constitute the ‘realm of necessity’ within his model of republican socialism,
while Chapter 11 constitutes its ‘realm of freedom’.) Finally, after all this,
Smith, in Chapter 12, not only reviews his book but also concludes it on a positive
note about how ‘we get there from here’ (487), that is, to a republican
socialist society from contemporary capitalism.
