“The Social System, Chapter V [Continued], Constitutions, Laws and Regulations of a Community”, New Harmony Gazette, 21 February 1827

The Social System, published in five instalments in the New Harmony Gazette between November 1826 and March 1827, is based on a manuscript dating back to 1821. Building upon the Report to the County of Lanark, it provides in vivid detail a comprehensive account of community arrangements, rules and regulations in the proposed “Villages of Co-operation”. In contrast to earlier versions of the “Plan”, the Social System puts greater emphasis on social and economic equality in the form of communal living, including the rearing of children, and the abolition of private property. This text also popularised the phrase “social system”, which was used as a variant of Robert Owen’s “science of society”, and from which the word “socialism” is derived in English. To prepare individuals for these communities, measures should be adopted according to the localities, character and condition of the parties who are to form them.