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the domestic system. It will, however, be admitted that the collectivist ideal has largely supplanted the communist. This is not only due to the enormous development of capitalistic enterprise, but to the education of large and influential elements of the people in such collective institutions as trade unions, cooperative societies, friendly societies, and the civil service.
It is manifest that the ideal of the collective control of cap- ital could not have preceded the industrial revolution and the factory system. The marvel would be that the ideal could even subsequently become effective if we consider only the unpar- alleled expansion of industry and commerce as a result of cap- italistic enterprise. The effectiveness of the ideal is undoubt- edly still limited by the success of capitalism, but it is strength- ened by the inadequacy of capitalism to meet social needs, and the growth of a new machinery of government capable appar- ently of ministering in some measure to those needs. The first man to successfully criticise the capitalist system was Robert Owen. The strengthening of the governmental machine dates from the political philosophy of Jeremy Bentham. If we begin our studies then with these men, we shall find it convenient to divide the history of the century into periods which will show, first, the men and ideals which were chiefly influential ; second, the intervening events which strengthened the growing ideals or gave rise to new ones. We shall find periods of sixteen years, beginning with 1832, to give us convenient and usually homo- geneous divisions.
Previous to 1832 the chief constructive ideals were the reforms of law and government proposed by Bentham, and the reforms of the factory system suggested and in some cases experimentally introduced by Owen. 1
la. In 1832, the year of Bentham's death, the first great act for the reform of parliament was passed, and one of the early
1 References. BENTHAM, A Fragment on Government. Edited by Montague, Oxford, 1891. Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, Oxford, 1876. Works, ii vols., Edinburgh, 1843. LLOYD JONES, Life of Robert Owen, Soc. Sci. Ser. OWEN, Addresses, London, 1835; Observations on the Effect of the Man- ufacturing System, London, 1875.
