work, and trade make the most natural and productive
economy. It is no coincidence, as Max WEBERshowed,
that individualism tends to converge in Modern, CAPI-
TALIST, DEMOCRATIC, Protestant culture (Switzerland,
Holland, Britain, the United States).
Individualism is contrasted with CLASSICAL“social”
views of humanity (PLATO, ARISTOTLE); MEDIEVAL CORPO-
RATISM(St. Thomas AQUINAS); and later SOCIALIST, FAS-
CIST, and COMMUNISTthought in the West (Karl MARX
Friedrich ENGELS); as well as more collectivist cultures
and religions in the East (CHINESE, Japanese, ISLAM,
HINDUculture). In these, group, family, race, nation, or
community is the most important unit in society, to
which the individual should be subordinated. Even
contemporary U.S. COMMUNITARIANtheory (Benjamin
BARBER) rejects the private individualism or “atomism”
of the Modern United States.
So, individualism can be presented favorably (as
in “rugged American individualism”): symbolizing
independence, initiative, self-reliance, creativity, and
personal piety and responsibility; or unfavorably (as
in “selfish individualism”): representing greed, ava-
rice, pride, selfishness, and arrogance. Most recent
expressions of individualism in political thought
occur in John Stuart MILL’s idea of intellectual liberty
within a “free market place of ideas”; Alexis de TOC-
QUEVILLE’s analysis of American society in his book
Democracy in America; Robert NOZICK’s LIBERTARIAN
ANARCHISM; Ronald REAGAN’s CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN
PARTY IDEOLOGY; and Jimmy CARTER’s emphasis on
HUMAN RIGHTS.
Because individualistic political ideals tend to
emphasize FREEDOMof individual conscience, religious
belief, action and movement, economic enterprise, and
private PROPERTY, they are often associated with LIBER-
ALISM, EQUALITY, CAPITALISM, and democracy.
Further Readings
Arieli, Y. Individualism and Nationalism in American Ideology.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1964.
O’Neill, J., ed. Modes of Individualism and Collectivism.London:
Heinemann, 1973.
industrial/industrialism
A MODERNeconomic system characterized by the use
of industrial machinery, capital, advancing technology,
a division of labor, wage labor, rational production,
and market exchange. Since the emergence of indus-
trial CAPITALISMin Europe in the 18th century (begin-
ning with steam power and metallurgy in Britain),
replacing the predominantly agricultural economy of
the MIDDLE AGES, industrialism has featured promi-
nently in Western political thought. The social and
political effects of mass production, the rise of cities,
increases in population, and increased exchange eco-
nomics changed political thought to accommodate the
new historical order. Industrial society becomes a
major political concept in the writings of SAINT-SIMON,
Herbert SPENCER, Adam SMITH, and Karl MARX.
The idea that societies were distinguished by their
manner of economic production (as opposed to their
political, military, or religious characteristics) began in
the political theories of England and Scotland, where
industrial capitalism first emerged. To describe a soci-
ety in terms of its commerce, transportation, commu-
nication systems, average income, and so on began
with the economic social analysis of Adam Smith’s cat-
egorization of whole countries in terms of the goods
produced there, the modes of trade, and the growth of
wealth (as exemplified in the title of his famous book
The Wealth of Nations). This was radically different
from the religious worldview of the Middle Ages or the
ethical approach of the ancient world (St. Thomas
AQUINAS, ARISTOTLE). But that perspective has spread
around the world.
Industrial society is marked by increasingly com-
plex economic specialization. Where the traditional
farmer performs many work tasks, requiring a multi-
plicity of skills, the modern worker assumes more and
more minute and limited labor processes. This division
of labor is seen as more productive and efficient but
for Marx dehumanizes the worker with boring, rou-
tine, monotonous work. This causes ALIENATIONand
misery in the midst of material plenty. Such unhappi-
ness in the midst of prosperity became both the
CONSERVATIVEand the radical COMMUNISTcriticism of
industrial society. For Tory Conservatives (like Ed-
mund BURKE), the solution is to preserve the past
agrarian traditions and lifestyle as much as possible, a
solution expressed in Thomas JEFFERSONand seen in
Modern U.S. suburbs, where a preindustrial rural envi-
ronment is encouraged. MARXISMsees the main prob-
lem of industrialism not with mass production or
urbanization, but with private ownership of PROPERTY,
which leads to EXPLOITATIONand privation. The corre-
spondence of social ownership (SOCIALISM) with social-
ized production humanizes industrialism, for Marxists.
This may explain the unaesthetic development of
industrialism in the SOVIET UNION, China, and Easternindustrial/industrialism 157