Social Darwinism refers to 19th-century authors who used evolutionary and biological principles in their analysis of society, especially related to topics of social inequality, and social conflicts. There are several issues that Social Darwinism focuses on. The first is the issue of race. Social Darwinists saw race as a biological category and the struggle between races as normal or even as a positive process. The second issue is related to their view that social, political, and economic inequalities between individuals and groups (classes) in the same society as inherent, normal, and positive for every society. Social Darwinists viewed inequalities and conflicts between races and classes as parallel to the process of “the survival of the fittest” between biological species. Some of the most famous and influential Social Darwinists were: Herbert Spencer and Walter Bagehot from Great Britain, William Graham Sumner, Frank Lester Ward, and John Fiske from the USA, Ludwig Gumplowicz and Gustav Ratzenhofer from Austria, Franz Oppenheimer from Germany,  and Cesare Lombroso and Enrico Ferri from Italy.

                                       Herbert Spencer    

British sociologist and anthropologist Herbert Spencer formulated the universal law of evolution and applied this view of evolution to all phenomena, both inorganic and biological species, but also to the development of human society, which he calls „super-organic“ matter. Spencer developed his theory of biological evolution independently, even before Charles Darwin did so. Spencer applied the rules of universal evolution to the development of society and culture, and he drew a parallel between biological and social evolution. 

Spencer believed that every society must achieve three fundamental "functional needs" for their survival and those are: operative - providing the resources necessary for survival; reproduction - the creation of new members; regulatory - coordination and control (through the power and cultural symbols); and distributive - distribution of resources, products, people and information. These functional needs are fulfilled by specialized social structures. Spencer even states that all social structures, whatever needs they fulfill in the larger society, have their own operative, regulatory and distributive needs. The challenges that exist in the environment and within society itself, and which relate to meeting these functional needs in a society, are the most important sources of selection pressures that guide social evolution and influence the creation of new structures. 

Spencer views the evolution of both societies and cultures as a spontaneous process. The evolution of a system is a random consequence of the interaction of that system with its own environment, as well as the processes that take place within the system itself. This process of evolution is spontaneous and there are uncertainties in its entire course, that is, the evolution of a system does not follow any predetermined deterministic flow. Dissolution is the opposite of evolution. In developed societies, dissolution occurs either due to an attack by another state or due to internal processes. Revolts and revolutions within society lead to a decline in political and economic integration and coordination and this leads to the dissolution of society.

Spencer believed that class-related economic differences could only be justified as long as the whole economic system functioned in such a way as to efficiently supply consumers and that when it ceased to operate in such a way, it should be replaced with a more efficient system. Similarly, he justified the differences in political power between those who have power and those who do not. Differences in political power are justified only when the minority that governs makes decisions that benefit the majority of society. He viewed the rentier class of landowners as parasitic, and their debauched life spent in leisure as immoral.                                      

In the book The Man Versus the State (1884) Spencer expresses his belief that society exists in order to achieve the well-being of its members, and therefore the state cannot have separate imperatives that exceed the interests of individuals who live in it. His concept of justice is a state in which the individual rights of people have absolute priority, that is when people are completely free to regulate their own activities and seek happiness, as long as they do not diminish the freedom of other individuals to seek happiness. The freedom of every human being is complete, and it is limited only when it violates the freedom of another person.

The goal of democracy should be to achieve equal freedom for all, so the government and the parliament should have a very limited role, that is: to act to ensure equal freedom for all; to ensure the fulfillment of treaty obligations; to prevent crime; and to provide military defense from other states. People's self-government should be maximally developed until it enters the domain of the prerogatives of the administrative system. Spencer was a great opponent of British imperialism, and he was a supporter of peaceful relations between states. He also advocated complete economic freedoms and the absence of state intervention in the economy, so he was a great opponent, not only of socialism, but also of all forms of social benefits, charities, and state institutions (schools, museums, etc.) that are financed through taxes, and which are not necessary for the functioning of the state.

                                     Walter Bagehot

Walter Bagehot's social Darwinism is presented in his book Physics and Politics published in 1872, in which he applies the latest knowledge from anthropology and evolution to the study of the development of societies and nations. This book represents one of the first applications of Darwinism to politics. Bagehot studied social evolution and defined progress as: "an increase of adaptation of man to his environment, that is, of his internal powers and wishes to his external lot and life" (1872). In his view progress is rare and happened only in a very small number of societies which represented exceptions, while stagnation is the norm for most societies. Human history is analogous to natural history in that both are based on heredity and progress. Variations in both culture and biology, between different populations weren't the product of chance and randomness but were achieved through will and effort. 

in prehistoric times savages lacked the moral and intellectual capacity or discipline, which is true for modern savages as well. In the next stadium, people united and adopted the laws that demanded obedience to an elite, blind adoption of collective norms, and total submission to religion. Those united groups waged wars against each other and the strongest defeated all others. Bagehot call this stage the "preliminary" stage of civilization, or the "fighting age". People in those societies were directed by imitation, customs, and religion, which all reinforced conformity and precluded novel variations from emerging which brought a period of long stagnation. The third stage arrived with the emergence of the society in which politics was based on rational discussion and "popular government". The discussion helped to demystify political and religious power, and insured the growth of intelligence and tolerance, 

                                William Graham Sumner

Both the scientific and political ideas of American sociologist William Sumner were influenced by Spencer's evolutionism. Sumner believes that social evolution, like natural evolution, is a spontaneous and automatic process. Any conscious attempt to change social conventions encounters resistance, has little chance of success, and requires a lot of time. It follows that any attempt at social and economic reform that goes against the spontaneous course of social evolution has very little chance of success. This is exactly how Sumner defends capitalism and the free market because any attempt to limit or abolish the free market would be doomed. State interference in the free market goes against the spontaneous flow of social evolution and is an obstacle to progress. In addition, the state has much less ability to manage the economy, compared to private initiative and the free market; and, at the same time, the interference of the state in the economy prevents the state from performing its true function - preserving order, peace, and individual and civil liberties.

Sumner presented his defense of extreme economic liberalism in his book What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1877). Sumner especially respects the middle class, which he considers valuable, independent, and modest, and which gives the greatest contribution to the development of society. He believes that any expansion of state intervention brings the most damage to the middle class. In addition, paternalistic legislation leads to the exploitation of society by corrupt plutocracy. In the end, Sumner concludes that social classes owe each other nothing but mutual respect and the pursuit of freedom and security in society.

                                     Ludwig Gumplowicz

Austrian sociologist Ludwig Gumplowicz believed that sociology is the basis of all special social sciences. The basis of his sociology is the conflict theory of society. He starts from the assumption that the struggle for the realization of economic interests is the basis for the creation of deterministic laws of social development. However, unlike historical materialism, he believes that the idea of ​​the possibility of transforming society through collective action, or the application of sociological knowledge, is wrong. Gumplowicz studies social evolution. He advocates the idea of ​​the polygenetic origin of humanity. These biologically diverse populations were gathered in large numbers in small groups or hordes. These groups were united by blood, they had common economic interests, and there was social equality and free sex life.

Later, society goes through stages of matriarchy and patriarchy. As there is a natural, inevitable, and innate tendency of individuals and social groups to improve their economic situation, the first conflicts arise. With the emergence of the patriarchy comes the emergence of the first wars. Initially, these wars end with the physical destruction of the country that lost the war. Later, the defeated group is subdued, and the winners begin to carry out the economic exploitation of the defeated. This is how the first states and classes were formed. Gumplowicz believes that the state is always created by conquest and that ethnic differences, which existed between the two societies before the war, precede class differences. Thus the emergence of classes is a consequence of war and conquest and the implementation of a relationship of exploitation of one ethnic group over another. After the creation of the state, at first, there were only two classes - the rulers and the subordinate class. Later, a third class was formed, consisting of foreign merchants. These merchants later formed the bourgeoisie. From these three classes emerge other derived classes - clergy and craftsmen.

The formation of classes follows the economic law that every need creates a means to its satisfaction. In the later periods of the state's development, cultural assimilation took place. Over time, the subordinate group gradually adopts the language, religion, nature, and customs of the conquerors. That is how nations are formed. Although over time, there are different class struggles and coalitions, the very nature of the state - that it always represents political domination and economic exploitation of the minority over the majority, will never change. The only kind of progress that Gumplowicz saw is certain periods in some societies when there is social and cultural progress, but those periods are short-lived and end in social collapse. He believes that civilizations go through cyclical periods of development and decline. According to Gumplowicz, the individual is not important for sociology, even when it comes to the most powerful ruler, because he, like the whole society, only obeys laws that they don’t have influence over. The only significant role that individuals have in Gumplowicz's sociology is the role of the leader. A leader always takes control of a group, class, company, or party, and then leads his subordinates as if they were a herd.

                                    Franz Oppenheimer

German sociologist and political economist Franz Oppenheimer developed his macro-sociological approach under the influence of Word, Giddings, Edward Ross, and Gumplowicz. He saw sociology as a general science of society, while he taught of society itself as an organism. With the help of sociology and the philosophy of law, the normal state of the social organism can be determined. Normal is a society that is regulated by justice. Justice comes from a sense of justice, and that sense is of socio-psychological origin. This sense of justice is similar to the concept of natural law. From that, it follows that justice should be defined as restricting the complete freedom of individuals in order to enable cooperation in society. The principle of justice should be applied to all social groups, especially in states. The task of sociology is to determine how far a society is from the ideal of justice or the normal state. In addition, since sociology has general deterministic laws, it can determine the social, political, or economic causes of deviations from the norm.                                            

Oppenheimer studied social evolution and came up with the law of systematic uniformity in the origin of several social areas: state, law, property, and class. He believed that, in the societies that existed before the state, there was no use of economic means in order to achieve economic or political goals. Each individual worked for himself and not for someone else. It was only when one group of people subjugated another group by political means and took their fields, that wealth was created based on the work of other (subjugated) people. This transpires by the process of warrior tribes invading and conquering the territory of a peaceful people. When the conquest was over, then the conquering group consolidated itself as the nobility and established a monopoly over land ownership (agricultural land). The land monopoly led to the emergence of other monopolies. In this way, classes were created, as was the state.

The state is a product of the need to normatively regulate the monopoly ownership of the land, so the emergence of the state led to the creation of a legal system. The specific legal form of land monopoly regulation has varied throughout history, and from state to state. Somewhere the subjugated population worked as a slave force on the land of the slave owners, while in other societies there were serfs or semi-independent tenants of the land, who paid taxes or feudal levies to the owner of the land. Oppenheimer is very explicit in his view that every primitive state was created by conquest and that power has no other purpose than to enable the economic exploitation of the conquered population, by the conquerors. Since land and other monopolies are not based on labor, but on conquest, this order is not in accordance with natural law and justice.

                                  Gustav Ratzenhofer

Austrian sociologist Gustav Ratzenhofer saw original power (Urkraft) as a source of social behavior, that is, instincts or innate interests. Ratzenhofer singles out the following innate interests: 1) pro-creative interest - it is based on biological sexual impulse and represents the basis of social structures of family, tribe, and race; 2) physiological interest - the need for food and biological self-preservation; 3) individual interest - biological interests that an individual strives to satisfy in society; 4) social interest - represents the expansion of pro-creative interest and individual interest because the survival of the individual depends on the interaction within society; 5) transcendental interest - arises as a consequence of the struggle between individual and social interest and refers to the intellectual relationship to transcendental things, and is most often expressed through religious teachings.

In Ratzenhofer's interpretation, interests represent a combination of biological needs and a rational response to the awareness of the existence of those needs. In that sense, interests have a biological, but also a conscious (rational) component. For Ratzenhofer, every interaction in society is the result of the modification of evolutionarily acquired innate instincts. Ratzenhofer sees society, not as a whole, but only as a set of reciprocal social relations between individuals, and the relations themselves are always based on the pursuit of interests. He defines society in a dynamic sense (as a process). The basis of understanding society is the notion that intra-social conflicts, between different groups, are the basic driver of social processes.

Ratzenhofer created his evolutionary scheme. In the beginning, in the natural state, there was absolute enmity between individuals, due to the struggle for survival. Kinship-based communities made it possible to eliminate hostilities because they had economic cooperation. The territorial expansion of the population across the planet gave rise to racial differentiation. Rival communities, of different races, clashed, and the struggle always ended in one group overpowering the another. When the conquering group started using the defeated group for economic exploitation, then come about the relationship of domination, and consequently, social organization and the state emerged. The function of the state is to maintain a balance between the process of differentiation and the process of socialization. With the evolution of the conquering state, a "cultural" state emerged, marked by peace, creativity, and freedom. The end of social evolution is a state in which humanity will be led by an intellectual and moral elite that will achieve political, cultural, and social equality. Although Ratzenhofer emphasized the need for mutual cooperation, he still believed that wars between states strengthen the social structure and strengthen power. Although society strives to reconcile individual and group interests, the causes of social conflicts will continue to exist.

                                     Frank Lester Ward 

American sociologist Lester Ward's sociological teachings were greatly influenced by the theories of the evolution of Charles Darwin and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. Ward views sociology in the context of a wider range of both natural and social sciences. He accepts Comte's classification of sciences, which starts from the most exact and the least complex, to the least exact and the most complex: astronomy, physics, biology, and, finally, sociology. Every more complex and less exact science requires the possession of knowledge from simpler and more exact sciences. Ward sees sociology as a science that is above all other sciences and the last level in the genesis of science. Sociology is the youngest of the basic sciences and requires a wide range of knowledge in order to induce its conclusions. Sociology represents a broad order of natural phenomena, under which we can place other social sciences: economy, ethnology, history, and demography. Sociology is not an aggregation of all special social sciences, but their specific, organic synthesis. According to its subject, psychology lies in between, that is, it includes parts of both biology and sociology. The subject of sociology is human achievements, and the focus is on function, not structure.

Sociology is divided into two parts. "Pure sociology" or "genesis" is theoretical and seeks to determine the principles of society and the origin and development of its structure and function. The second part is "applied sociology" or "telesis" and it is practical and is aimed at applying the knowledge of pure sociology to improve society, that is, to accelerate natural processes, but in the right direction. The goal of applied sociology (telesis) is to master the dynamic forces of nature and society and adjust the means to achieve the goal - the improvement of society.

Ward introduced several terms and concepts into sociology, some of which he took from biology. The natural or genetic development of a society has the form of "sympodic" development, therefore, society develops to a certain level, when the development of secondary branches or "sympods" begins. When the branch develops enough, then new branches grow on it. This process of branching represents a sympodic development. "Creative synthesis" refers to the emergence of a new phenomenon by combining and synthesizing previously existing parts. "Synergy" is a consequence of the natural spontaneous development of society and represents a systematic and organic unification of opposing natural forces. The "law of economics" refers to the tendency of natural forces to follow the path of least resistance, and is one of the basic laws of social mechanics.

Ward divided sociology into social dynamics and social statics. Social statics studies the formation of social order and the construction of social structures. The formation of a social order depends more on the formation of structures than on the struggle for survival. Only the best structures survive, that is, those that have managed to achieve the principle of "synergy" of opposing forces of nature. Social progress and changes in social structure are studied by social dynamics. Social dynamics is governed by three principles: 1) difference of potential - crossing of cultures by assimilation or amalgamation, 2) innovation - is a product of psychic creativity and is analogous to a mutation in the organic world, 3) conation - application of social energy (social effort) to achieve a goal (satisfaction of desire, preservation of life and change of environment). Social forces can take three different forms: ontogenetic (preservation), phylogenetic (reproduction), and sociogenetic (spirituality).

The love of freedom, which for Ward represents the ability to act in accordance with one's own desires, is instinctive and innate to the whole human race. However, absolute freedom is not good because, in that situation, the autocracy of individuals occurs. In order to limit the absolute freedom of the people, society builds the state and government institutions. In this way, the state prevents the anti-social actions of individuals. In that sense, the origin of the state is both genetic and "physical", that is, the state is a consequence of the actions of both genesis and telesis. The goal of the state is to ensure the well-being of society and enable the unhindered development of human intellectual powers, which contribute to the development of industry, art, literature, and science. Political struggles within the state, as well as those between the parties, lead to the interaction of opposing forces, and these forces intersect in such a way as to create political and social structures.

Ward believed that society has gone through four stages in its evolution. In the first stage, people live alone in a state of "autarchy", and enter into relationships only to continue the species. In the second stage, people live in a state of "anarchy" and "constrained aggregate", they create social communities, but there is no form of political power, so there is unlimited freedom and unrestraint. The third stage is "politarchic" or "national" and then a rough form of government emerges. Wars between such societies lead to the enlargement of society and thus create the basis for the emergence of the fourth stage - the state. The state is founded by ambitious and cunning individuals who want to secure power for themselves. They seize power because they conceal their true intentions by pretending that they are working in the interests of the weak and exploited. Although the origins of power are unfair and oppressive, the state and society have the opportunity to build a better government that works in the interest of all. The final stage that will be realized in the future is "cosmopolitan" or "pantarchic" and then all societies will be integrated into one world state.

Ward classifies different forms of government and divides them into "autocracy", "aristocracy" and "democracy". Democracy has three forms: 1) "physiocracy" - a liberal-individualistic form of government, 2) "plutocracy" - corrupt and selfish degeneration of physiocracy, 3) "sociocracy" - an ideal democracy in which exploitation is abolished and enlightenment is enabled. Ward also singles out four functions that the state can perform: restraint (illegal function that aims to enable exploitation by the ruling class), protection (policing function of maintaining order and peace), accommodation (representing the interests of individuals), and amelioration of society. The improvement of society will be achieved only when the legislators acquire basic sociological knowledge (especially about telesis) so that they can apply that knowledge to the achievement of social progress.

Books:

Gumplowicz, Ludwig. Outlines of Sociology (2020, in German 1885).

Oppenheimer, Franz. The State (2018, in German 1907);

Ratzenhofer, Gustav. Sociological Knowledge: The Positive Philosophy of Social Life (1975, in German 1898).

Spencer, Herbert. Principles of Sociology, 3 vols. (1876-1896);

     -     Principles of Ethics, 2 vols. (1879-1893);

     -     The Man Versus the State (1884);

Sumner, William Graham. What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1877);

Ward, Lester Frank. Neo-Darwinism and Neo-Lamarckism (1891).