To What Extent Have Socialists Disagreed About the Means of Achieving Socialism?

The socialists, believing everyone is equal, saw that the proletariat was being treated poorly and knew that would have to change. The cruel working conditions and little civil rights made a gap that no single man could cross without help. Many believed that socialism was the key. Socialism grew from the problems of the Industrial Revolution. The relationship of the Revolution to socialism was that of a problem to a solution, respectively. If not for the Industrial Revolution, the problems between the classes would never have grown so apparent. Then again, without the Industrial Revolution the world would be stuck in the past.

Socialism is the underlying motivation behind communist movements in history. Socialists believe that it is unjust for a small amount of people to own the biggest portion of the wealth in society. This idea lead to the concept of a communist society, in which the existence of private property is eliminated in favor of government-owned property being shared among all it’s people. The government would provide jobs and care for all people equally. The idea was that through communism, there would be no social classes, thus eliminating alienation for any of the people in the society.

Socialism is a form of a command economy where the government decides what goods are to be sold, how to produce the goods, who has access to the goods, and who owns and controls the factors of production. Some examples of socialism today would be France, Sweden, and India (Pride 17).

Throughout Europe, people of all different classes and moralities had different views of socialism and how it should be achieved/expressed throughout time in that area. An economic and political system based on collective or state ownership of the means of production and distribution is known as socialism. Socialism branched from Republicanism in the early 19th century, because people came to disapprove unequal distribution of wealth and goods. Socialists wanted equal rights for all, but they were opposed to upper class people who received more income for less work with little impact on society. A socialist economic system is the representation of attempting to eliminate economic inequalities and exploitation. Goals of this would be ending

However, believers in socialism would completely disagree with this ideal. Socialism is the economic system in which the workers, instead of a rich minority of entrepreneurs, own all industry. Workers receive the full fruits of their labors instead of being given miniscule compensation for backbreaking labor. Since the people are paid well for their work, work becomes a cooperative entity where people come to rely on one another and people actually are more inclined to do their fair share to help the advancement of society as a whole.

Socialism is defined as a centrally planned economy in which the government controls all means of production. Basically, the government is in control of all business in the country that adopts it as an economic strategy, in our case, The United States of America. Now when we dissect this idea of socialism we find that there are to thought processes behind it. Some truly believe that socialism could truly be the answer to the problems of our nation, both economically and morally. These people try to push socialist policies in hopes of helping the nation and they are doing so with the purest of intentions. However, there are also the people who completely understand what socialism leads to, and want nothing more than to gain while others

Workers may earn more money today than they did in the last century, but so do the capitalists. The wealth and income gaps between the bourgeois and proletariats is greater than ever. The workers relations to their labor, products and capitalists are unchanged from Marx’s day. The only difference between today’s capitalism and Marx’s is because of a more direct involvement of the state in the capitalist economy. Plus Marx theories concentrate on the more advanced industrial capitalist, he never thought that socialism would be achieved in relatively poor, politically underdeveloped countries. Marx’s vision of socialism emerges from his study of capitalism. Socialism is the unseen potential of capitalism. For a more just and democratic society in which everybody can develop their own qualities of being human.

It is considered to be the transitional phase between the capitalism and communism. Thus, you would find all communists advocating for socialism because it lays the foundations for communism. It advocates an egalitarian society where everyone shares equal wealth and power. There is a considerable disagreement over how the distribution should take place. Hence, socialism can be said to be between extreme capitalism and extreme communism with it being nearer to communism.

Socialism unfairly concentrates power and wealth among a small segment of society that controls capital and derives its wealth through exploitation.

Throughout history, class structures have invaded every crack of society. People were characterized based on their job, their family background, their income, and etc. With those of higher status holding all the power, class struggles were inevitable. The poor would battle the rich and the oppressed would battle the oppressor. During the time “The Communist Manifesto” was written, we can see two distinct classes battling out as well. These two classes are the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. According to Karl Marx in “The Communist Manifesto”, the battle will end “either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes” (Marx 8). Marx argues that in the end the proletariat would remain because the bourgeoisie are unstable and the bourgeoisie unknowingly armed the proletarians to rebel.

There are a variety of similarities and differences between Communism and Socialism. These two ideologies came from the same goal; however, they are considered to be very different in today’s world. Socialism and communism are alike because they both focus on equality for the people. They didn’t want rich people or poor people; they just wanted everyone to live happily and equally. However, would many people say that living in a communist country would make them “happy?” They both wanted to eliminate private ownership and believed that a variety of economic resources should be owned by the government and not privately. Under communism, each man would work according to their ability and receive according to their need. Also, there would be no

Accordingly, one idea or fact that is often raised to differentiate socialism from communism is that socialism in general is the political movement that refers to an economic system in that they believe that the state should be in charge of all important producing industries thus taking hold of the control of free market in order to promote economic parity and egalitarianism. Theoretically, socialism seeks to distribute wealth equally among its citizens in a way that the rich don’t take

“a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.”

In seeking to highlight the key differences between socialism and capitalism, it would be prudent to first offer a concise definition of the two terms. Capitalism in the words of Brinkerhoff, White, Ortega, and Weitz (2007) "is the economic system in which most wealth (land, capital, and labor) is private property, to be used by its owners to maximize their own gain." As the authors in this case further point out, this particular economic system is largely founded on competition. Socialism on the other hand is defined as "an economic structure in which productive tools are owned and managed by the workers and used for the collective good" (Brinkerhoff et al., 2007). From the definitions, it is clear that unlike capitalism, socialism favors a situation whereby there is deliberate control as well as planning of economic activities on behalf of the entire community. In the case of capitalism, no attempt is made to have economic activities controlled from a central point on behalf of the community. Here, enterprises are allowed to compete in the supply of goods and services as they seek to rake in monetary returns. The key

In stark contrast to revisionist socialism is revolutionary socialism which in itself has a number of divides i.e Marxist vs Trotskyist. One common belief that they all share is that capitalism is wrong and a bad economic policy, in the sense that a few become richer whilst