ABSTRACT
A concept of right and faith in a true and progressive doctrine were essential to Shaw’s socialist realism. In his Fabianism he had typically pursued a pragmatic, welfarist approach to politics, devaluing theory as a guide to action, viewing realism more in terms of an empirical account of the immediate consequences of policy for the happiness of the individual and the efficiency of the nation, than in relation to any grand scheme of social reconstruction. That approach to politics and the policy of compromise and permeation it entailed bore many fruits. Because of it, the Fabians were to gain a reputation as the ultimate technicians of reform. Of course like any other policy it had its faults and pitfalls; the most crucial for Shaw was that in practice it tended to blur the critical distance between himself and the established reality. Through Fabianism, the radical outsider came to participate in the civil life of British politics at many levels; he served as a vestryman in St Pancras for six years, in 1904 he stood (albeit unsuccessfully) as a Progressive candidate in the London County Council election; and, in harness with the Webbs, he sought to influence the doyens of high politics-including Earl Rosebery and Balfour. In this way, Shaw’s vision of the realities of political reform was more and more construed in terms of the established parameters of power.
