' The House of Commons he felt must develop 'into the
central government which will be the organ of federating the
municipalities.' Fabianism thus implied no central bureaucracy; what it
demanded was partly, indeed, a more efficient and expert central
government (and there is plenty of room for that), but primarily an
expert local civil service in close touch with and under the control of
a really democratic municipal government. It is difficult to say that
this is bureaucracy or that it is not desirable. Many men who are not
Fabians or Socialists of any kind feel strongly that the breathing of
more vigour and interest into local politics, and the creation of a
proper local civil service, are the great problems of the future.
"The policy of Fabianism has thus been somewhat as follows. An
intellectual circle has sought to permeate all classes, from the top to
the bottom, with a common opinion in favour of social control of
socially created values. Resolved to permeate all classes, it has not
preached class-consciousness; it has worked as much with and through
Liberal 'capitalists' as with and through Labour representatives.
Resolved gradually to permeate, it has not been revolutionary: it has
relied on the slow growth of opinion. Reformist rather than
revolutionary, it has explained the impossibility of the sudden
'revolution' of the working classes against capital: it has urged the
necessity of a gradual amelioration of social conditions by a gradual
assertion of social control over unearned increment.
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