The Politics of Democratic socialism- Durbin

Educational background: - ANS Lionel Robbins his economic tutor for PPE Oxford 1929, scholarship to study under-consumptionist theories at UCL 1929, 1930= appointed to a lectureship in economics at LSE Political background: - ANS nonconformist, active in Union and Oxford Uni Labour Club 1930s Works= - ANS Purchasing Power and the Trade Depression, The Problem of Credit policy Not in its abstract form that economics caught his imagination but in: - ANS the role economists could play in developing a democratic socialist society Which left-wing intellectual groups was he part of, who were committed to finding new directions for socialism and economic policy? - ANS New Fabian Research Bureau and the XYZ Club WHat was he convinced of by 1930s? - ANS That economic planning was the most effective means to achieve socialist ends believed a fullu planned economy was a precondition of - ANS socialism Example of how he was unafriad to tow an unpopular line: - ANS He emphsised the affinities between soviet communism and European facism- insisting that both Germany and Russia were dictatorships characterised by similar cruelties and injustices= at a time when soviet-style communism recieved much support from leading British socialists such as Harold Laski He insisted that communism was incompatible with: - ANS the commitment to democracy, social justice and personal freedom which lay at the heart of British socialism