Economics-less Socialism

For over a decade, I have been actively involved in issues of economics in terms of education, discussions, research, debates, writings, analysis etc. In this time period I have had the opportunity to interact with persons and groups of different schools of Economic thought. From Supply-Siders, Austrians, Libertarians to Socialists of varying degrees, I have interacted with them all and all do have valuable insights. As an African, however, I took an added interest in the Socialism advanced by Pan-Africanists. This brings me to the subject matter of this post.

If you read the heading of this post and thought to yourself “oxymoron” you would be right. After all, Socialism is an economic system so how could it be devoid of economics?

However, when it comes to the Socialism espoused by many in the Pan-African community or movement, from Africa to America, there seems to be a common feature – the lack of economics concepts.
I continue to be at a loss, how extensive and passionate discussions of Socialism and its merits relative to Capitalism, is rarely to never based on concepts of economics. In my interactions with Pan-African Socialists, from Accra to Harlem, concepts such as Supply and Demand, Money, Prices, Capital, Markets, Labor and Unemployment among others are only mentioned as a means to demonstrate what they perceive to be the fatal flaws of Capitalism. But they do not utilize these and other economic concepts in their arguments for Socialism.
It is as if, they actually believe these concepts to be the exclusive preserve of Capitalism and have no role in a Socialist economy. Rather, their preoccupation is on promoting what they believe is the end result of Socialism – a state of utopia where people live in harmony and contentment. But the means of achieving this state of utopia by understanding and applying economic concepts to an economy is not of importance.

How, for example, do they intend to set prices or wages? If they engage in International trade, how is the exchange rate set? How is unemployment, inflation, deflation or the cost of healthcare dealt with? What about the aged, the sick and disabled who cannot work, where will the resources to cater to these groups come from?

They simply do not provide a framework of economics through which these and other issues will be tackled.

Now, just to be clear, this is not about the fake and superficial debate of which is better, Socialism or Capitalism. I don’t believe in artificial dilemmas, especially, since in this case the fact that not a single exclusively Capitalist or Socialist country exists, puts an end to that debate.

The tendency, however, to completely ignore or to grossly downplay the need to incorporate concepts of economics to support ones embrace of an economic system, in my view, is a symptom of confusion.
The term Socialism when used by a Pan-Africanist, is often times a misnomer
Prof. Kwame Gyekye of the University of Ghana gives brilliant analysis of this when he writes in Tradition & Modernity:

“African Socialism suggests a deep conviction that the African advocates of the ideaology of Socialism understand it in terms of the original sense of the latin word socialis, which means “belonging to companionship, or fellowship”… This meaning of Socialism is unambiguously social or ethical but has hardly anything to do directly with an economic arrangement, such as a centrally planned economy”

The use of the term socialism, by Pan-Africanists, is then not in the sense of a system of economics which requires knowledge and application of intricate economic concepts but rather as a socio-ethical ideology.