Champagne socialist is a political term commonly used in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. It is a popular

epithet An epithet (, ), also a byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) commonly accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a real or fictitious person, place, or thing. It is usually literally descriptive, as in Alfred the Great, Suleima ...

that implies a degree of

hypocrisy Hypocrisy is the practice of feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not. The word "hypocrisy" entered the English language ''c.'' 1200 with the meaning "the sin of pretending to virtue or goodness". Today, "hypocrisy" ofte ...

, and it is closely related to the concept of the liberal elite. The phrase is used to describe self-identified anarchists,

communists Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, d ...

, and

socialists Socialism is an economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes the economic, political, and socia ...

whose luxurious lifestyles, metonymically including consumption of

champagne Champagne (; ) is a sparkling wine originated and produced in the Champagne wine region of France under the rules of the appellation, which demand specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from designated places within it, spe ...

, are ostensibly in conflict with their political beliefs.

United Kingdom

The term has been used by left-wing commentators to criticise centrist views. Some traditional left-wingers regard the first Labour

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Ramsay MacDonald James Ramsay MacDonald (; 12 October 18669 November 1937) was a British statesman and politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The first two of his governments belonged to the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party, where he led ...

as a "champagne socialist" who betrayed the

Labour movement The labour movement is the collective organisation of working people to further their shared political and economic interests. It consists of the trade union or labour union movement, as well as political parties of labour. It can be considere ...

. MacDonald's lavish lifestyle and his mingling with

high society High society, sometimes simply Society, is the behavior and lifestyle of people with the highest levels of wealth, power, fame and social status. It includes their related affiliations, social events and practices. Upscale social clubs were open ...

is supposed to have been a corrupting influence that led to the end of the Labour Government in 1931 and the eventual formation of the National Government. More recently, the epithet has been levelled at supporters of the New Labour movement which brought

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...

to power in 1997. In an article about

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...

's 1891 essay " The Soul of Man under Socialism", political commentator

Will Self William Woodard Self (born 26 September 1961) is an English writer, journalist, political commentator and broadcaster. He has written 11 novels, five collections of shorter fiction, three novellas and nine collections of non-fiction writing. Se ...

expressed the view that Wilde could be considered an early champagne socialist because of his

aesthetic Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy,'' , acces ...

lifestyle and socialist leanings. The writer and Labour supporter John Mortimer, when accused of being a champagne socialist, said that he preferred to be thought of as "more a

Bollinger Bollinger () is a French Champagne house, a producer of luxury sparkling wines from the Champagne (wine region), Champagne region. They produce several labels of Champagne (wine), Champagne under the Bollinger name, including the vintage ''Vieil ...

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

". In the fourth series of the British television comedy '' Absolutely Fabulous'', Saffron is offered a job with New Labour. While she is at pains to avoid being seen as a champagne socialist, her grandmother considers the family to be " Bolly Bolsheviks". The label has also been applied to the Labour politician Geoffrey Robinson MP on account of his large personal fortune. Singer Charlotte Church has described herself as a "prosecco socialist", referring to the increasing popularity and lower price range of non-champagne sparkling wines such as

prosecco Prosecco (, ) is an Italian wine, Italian Denominazione di origine controllata#Denominazione di origine controllata (DOC), DOC or Denominazione di origine controllata#Denominazione di origine controllata e garantita (DOCG), DOCG white wine pro ...

and cava. In the UK, the term is often used by critics to disparage people with a leftwing political view. This argument claims that the champagne socialist espouses

leftist Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politi ...

views while enjoying a luxurious lifestyle; one example might include Labour Party supporters who stereotypically live in

Inner London Inner London is the group of London boroughs that form the interior part of Greater London and are surrounded by Outer London. With its origins in the bills of mortality, it became fixed as an area for statistics in 1847 and was used as an area ...

and consume

highbrow Used colloquially as a noun or adjective, "highbrow" is synonymous with intellectual; as an adjective, it also means elite, and generally carries a connotation of high culture. The term, first recorded in 1875, draws its metonymy from the pseud ...

media. This usage of the term has been criticised by Caitlin Moran as a fallacious argument, because she claims it assumes that only those who are poor can express an opinion about

social inequality Social inequality occurs when resources within a society are distributed unevenly, often as a result of inequitable allocation practices that create distinct unequal patterns based on socially defined categories of people. Differences in acce ...

Australia and New Zealand

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, the variant "Chardonnay socialist" was used, as

Chardonnay Chardonnay (, ; ) is a green-skinned grape variety used in the production of white wine. The variety originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern France, but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from England to New Zealand. For new a ...

was seen as a drink of affluent people. By the late 1990s, chardonnay had become more readily available and generally consumed in Australia; today it is the most dominant white wine variety produced in the country. As a result, the drink's association with elitism has faded. Staunch Australian

right-wing Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property ...

ers also used the term to deride those who supported what they considered "middle-class welfare"—government funding for

the arts The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices involving creative expression, storytelling, and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thought, deeds, and existence in an extensive range of m ...

, free tertiary education, and the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...

United States

'' Current Affairs'' ran a lighthearted article featuring a

political cartoon A political cartoon, also known as an editorial cartoon, is a cartoon graphic with caricatures of public figures, expressing the artist's opinion. An artist who writes and draws such images is known as an editorial cartoonist. They typically co ...

of guests at a

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

gathering dressed in fancy attire and sipping on champagne. The central argument was that

conspicuous consumption In sociology and in economics, the term conspicuous consumption describes and explains the consumer practice of buying and using goods of a higher quality, price, or in greater quantity than practical. In 1899, the sociologist Thorstein Veblen c ...

was not inherently antithetical to leftist values so long as luxuries were shared equally. As the magazine put it, "When we say let them eat cake, we are serious: there must be cake, it must be good cake, and it must be had by all. The reason

Marie Antoinette Marie Antoinette (; ; Maria Antonia Josefa Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last List of French royal consorts, queen of France before the French Revolution and the establishment of the French First Republic. She was the ...

needed beheading was not that she wished cake on the poor, but that she never actually gave them any." The term appears in ''Blind Alleys'', a 1906 work of fiction by the American author

George Cary Eggleston George Cary Eggleston (26 November 1839 – 14 April 1911) American writer and brother of fellow writer Edward Eggleston (1837–1902). Sons of Joseph Cary Eggleston and Mary Jane Craig. After the American Civil War he published a serialized acc ...

which distinguishes the "beer socialist" who "wants everybody to come down to his low standards of living" and the "champagne socialist" who "wants everybody to be equal on the higher plane that suits him, utterly ignoring the fact that there is not enough champagne, green turtle and truffles to go round". A 2021 article in the libertarian magazine ''

Reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing valid conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, religion, scien ...

'' written by Jason Brennan and Christopher Freiman derided

Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician and activist who is the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from the state of Vermont. He is the longest-serving independ ...

Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Ann Warren (née Herring; born June 22, 1949) is an American politician and former law professor who is the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States senator from the state of Massachusetts, serving since 2013. A mem ...

, and political commentator Hasan Piker as so-called "champagne socialists." In the article, Brennan and Freiman chide these "socialist figureheads" to "open their wallets before they open their mouths" on the basis that each had supposedly donated little of their personal wealth to causes they support, but had instead called for increased taxes. In the case of Sanders and Piker, Brennan and Freiman criticize their supposedly excessive living arrangements, while Warren is reprehended for donating only a small portion of her net worth to causes she advocates for.

Other related terms

The term is broadly similar to the American terms " limousine liberal", " Learjet liberal", or " Hollywood liberal", and to idioms in other languages such as the Spanish '' Izquierda caviar'', The Portuguese ''Esquerda Caviar'', The Indian " Khan Market Liberal" which represents a highly affluent shopping area of South Delhi that is popular among leftists, the French '' Gauche caviar'', the German ', the Italian '' Radical chic'', the Swedish ' (), and Polish '' kawiorowa lewica''. In Turkey, "Cihangir leftist" ( Turkish: ''Cihangir solcusu'') is commonly used, since Cihangir is a high-income neighborhood of Beyoğlu,

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

although "champagne socialist" can be used as well. In Switzerland, '' Cüpli-Sozialisten'' () is used. Other related terms include "", " Hampstead liberal", "

Gucci Guccio Gucci S.p.A., doing business as Gucci ( , ), is an Italian Luxury goods, luxury fashion house based in Florence. Its product lines include handbags, ready-to-wear, footwear, accessories, and home decoration; and it licenses its name and ...

socialist", "

communist", " Neiman Marxist", " cashmere

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

", and in Ireland, " smoked salmon socialist".

References

External links

Dylan Jones: Card-carrying champagne socialists are looking to swap sides - but they want to do it with dignity
''The Independent''
Champagne socialist
at

The Free Dictionary ''The Free Dictionary'' is an American online dictionary and encyclopedia that aggregates information from various sources. It is accessible in fourteen languages. History The Free Dictionary was launched in 2005 by Farlex. In the same year, ...