ABSTRACT
The Beatrice Webb's examination of their socialist ideas began with a statement of their views on the state. Their principal definition of the state as an association of consumers sharply separates their socialist thought from the Marxist tradition. Under socialism, the state would emerge from its barbaric infancy to take up its mature role as the beneficent and pacific guardian of the national interest. The Webbs' pre-war restatement of their ideas reflects a number of assumptions which separate their views at outset from Marxism and indeed from most other varieties of socialist thought. His socialism grew out of their belief that somehow men who had always thought in terms of social conflict would be led to a commitment to social integration. Paternalism and racialism are equally compatible, as the Webb's themselves illustrated in their writings on the non-white world. He also believed that the women's movement was a concurrent advance in the formation of the political base for British socialism.
