Socialism

We explain what socialism is, its history and characteristics. Also, utopian socialism, scientific socialism and differences with capitalism.

What is socialism?

socialism It is a philosophical current of economic, social and political thought and a diverse set of political theories, movements, parties and socioeconomic systems inspired by said current of thought. It emerged in the context of the expansion of industrial capitalism in the 19th century as a set of doctrines that defended the working classes and favored cooperation and social equality.

The different variants of socialism have in common the defense of public, collective or cooperative property of means of production against the private property characteristic of capitalism. Furthermore, some of the main socialist tendencies propose the planning and organization of social and economic life from the institutions that make up the State.

That is, it is a set of philosophical, political, social and economic models whose objective is to build an alternative to capitalism and the accumulation of capital based on the exploitation of man by man. The ultimate goal is a society without social classes, perceived as a fairer society and with a more equal distribution of wealth.

Among the variants of socialism, two extremes can be distinguished. On the one hand, There are more radical forms (which are usually called communist) who propose the abolition of private property. On the other hand, there are more moderate trends, which propose coexistence with the market economy, although with different forms of state intervention and social welfare policies.

The same occurs in the political field, specifically with democracy and the diversity of parties. Some socialists promote the dictatorship of the proletariat or various forms of single-party authoritarianism (such as political regimes today identified as communist), and others defend democracy and multi-partyism (such as social democracy) or horizontal and assembly-based organization (such as libertarian socialism). or socialist anarchism).

Characteristics of socialism

Although the features of socialism can vary greatly, its general characteristics are:

• Limitation or abolition of private property in favor of collective, cooperative or community models of ownership, especially of the means of production (such as factories or productive land).
• Emphasis on production and the role of the working class in the generation of wealth, and defense of the political and union activity of workers through their representatives.
• Application of various methods of wealth distribution such as taxes or expropriations for those who have the most and economic aid plans for those who have the least, with the aim of achieving an equitable or equal distribution of economic resources.
• Strong intervention of the State in economic and social affairs which can sometimes restrict democracy and the functioning of political parties, but in other cases can be compatible with political freedoms. Some socialist movements defend, however, decentralized or horizontal forms of social organization.
• In the most extreme variants, the aim of achieving a model of society without social classes in which there are no differences between rich and poor but rather an equitable distribution of the wealth generated in a self-managed manner by the workers.

History of socialism

socialism was born within the industrial society of the 19th century although his philosophy has some antecedents. Ideas that today would be called socialist or communist can be traced in texts as old as the writings on the Republic of Plato (c. 427-347 BC) and in the communal practices of the early Christians.

The use of the term “socialist” in the contemporary sense dates back to around 1830. It was used to describe the most radical political movements and philosophies born in Europe shortly after the French Revolution, which held capitalism responsible for the social unrest of the time. In particular, the followers of the Welshman Robert Owen and the Frenchmen Henri de Saint-Simon and Charles Fourier were called that.

These movements proposed alternatives to the social organization of industrial capitalism. and were grouped under the term “socialists” by the philosopher and journalist Pierre Leroux in his article On individualism and socialism, published in Revue encyclopédique in 1833.

Classical socialism was largely the heir of Illustration which advocated the use of reason in understanding and improving society. Its two birthplaces were France and England. Although in its initial stage it lacked a unified body of ideas, it had important thinkers and activists who paved the way for the birth of ideologies such as anarchism, Marxism and social democracy.

It was Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) who gave socialism a unifying theory. Marxist socialism, which they called “scientific communism,” revolutionized the way we understand society. and history from a materialist point of view, and gained popularity within numerous parties and labor organizations in Europe and other continents. One of his theoretical principles was that social change depended on the material and economic conditions of existence and that class struggle was the driving force of history, which is why he proposed that workers should organize to conquer political power.

Marxist socialism reached its political peak at the beginning of the 20th century, with the Russian revolution from 1917 which led to the overthrow of the Tsar of Russia and the political rise of the Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870-1924). This is how the first socialist country (with a Marxist-Leninist ideology) in history was founded, Soviet Russia, which later became the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

The events in Russia provoked an international anti-communist reaction that, among other things, encouraged the birth of fascism. Also led to a break within socialism between those who defended the revolutionary strategy and the authoritarian model of the Bolshevik regime (mostly called communists) and those who favored a reformist or democratic tendency (mostly identified with social democracy and called socialists).

After the Second World War (1939-1945), The world was divided into two blocks of countries facing each other in what was called the Cold War.: the capitalist bloc, led by the United States and the Western powers, and the communist or socialist bloc, led by the Soviet Union. For its part, after the Chinese Communist Revolution of 1949, the People's Republic of China joined the list of communist countries by establishing its own version of socialism, called Maoism after the name of its leader, Mao Zedong.

Similar events occurred in other nations of the world, such as Vietnam (after the August Revolution of 1945, led by the communist and nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh), North Korea (which was consolidated as a communist regime after the Korean War of 1950 to 1953), Cuba (which officially adopted communism in 1961, shortly after the Cuban Revolution of 1959), Cambodia (after the triumph of the Khmer Rouge in the Cambodian civil war in 1975, overthrown in 1979), among others.

These Communist regimes generally emerged from the violence and formed dictatorial regimes who sometimes committed genocides in the name of the “new man.” On the other hand, socialist and social democratic parties generally maintained democratic political participation. They even formed governments that combined the recognition of the market economy with the implementation of state social welfare measures, as was the case in various European countries, especially the Nordic countries.

However, towards the end of the 20th century, and especially after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, most socialist or communist countries were plunged into crisis and were forced to adopt a market economy to a greater or lesser extent. The last decade of the 20th century was considered by many analysts as the moment of the death of socialism. and the global triumph of capitalism and liberal democracy, which was called “the end of history,” in the words of the American thinker Francis Fukuyama.

Even so, A new political experiment took the name “21st century socialism” a term from the German economist Heinz Dieterich Steffan. This term began to gain worldwide renown due to its evocation at the V World Social Forum by the then president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías (1954-2013), who used it to characterize the so-called Bolivarian Revolution that he led since 1999.

Utopian socialism

The term “utopian socialism” was popularized by Marx and Engels to refer to the socialist and revolutionary movements that opposed capitalism at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, and which were prior to the appearance of Marxism. These were very different aspects that, according to Marxists, lacked a scientific method for the correct understanding of reality and the possibility of social change.

The most important utopian socialists were influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment, which advocated a world built on the basis of reason, and They appeared shortly after french revolution from 1789. However, some scholars include in this list various radical militants from the time of the revolution, such as the French journalist François Babeuf (1760-1797), who denounced that the revolution had failed to fulfill its ideals of freedom, equality and fraternity. .

Consequently, these militants advocated the dissolution of private property and the equitable distribution and usufruct of lands. These ideas led Babeuf to be executed, accused of conspiring against the government, which made him a reference for the socialist cause during the 19th century, especially among his followers, called neo-Babuvists.

Another important name was Henri de Saint-Simon (1760-1825), founder of a Christian-inspired socialism. This movement did not advocate the elimination of private property, but instead proposed centralized planning of production.

Thus, Saint-Simonian socialism sought to anticipate the social and economic needs of the population thanks to the joint knowledge of scientists, technicians, engineers and producers (generically called “industrialists”), who would be responsible for directing economic production for the well-being of the society.

On the other hand, Robert Owen (1771-1858) stood out. Owen was a Welsh industrialist whose highly profitable textile factories operated under unusual humane standards for the time (for example, there were no workers under 10 years of age). For Owen, human beings were not predetermined by human nature, but could change depending on the circumstances of the social context. Therefore, he argued that selfishness was a consequence of the conditions of life and was totally reversible.

Thus, Owen bought land in the state of Indiana, United States, where in 1825 tried to establish an ideal community: cooperative, social and self-sustaining. Known as New Harmony (“New Harmony” in English), this community failed after a few years of existence, taking with it most of Owen's fortune, but its ideas exerted much influence on the British labor movement.

Other important thinkers within utopian socialism were Charles Fourier (1772-1837), creator of egalitarian communities called “phalansteries”; Étienne Cabet (1788-1856), founder of the Icarian movement; Jean-Jacques Pillot (1808-1877), a prominent neo-Babuvist; and Pierre Leroux (1797-1871), a journalist and Saint-Simonian thinker, among others.

Continue in: Utopian socialism

Scientific socialism

Scientific socialism or scientific communism It is the theoretical current of socialism developed by Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx who called it that to differentiate it from other previous and contemporary trends, which they called “utopian socialism.” It was the foundation of all subsequent Marxist doctrine, which spread rapidly throughout Europe and other places in the world.

The term “scientific socialism” had already been used by one of the fathers of anarchism, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865), in his book What is property? of 1840, to baptize a model of society governed by reason and science.

In the case of Marx and Engels, the distinction between scientific socialism or communism and earlier socialist ideas had to do with the incorporation of a methodology for analyzing social reality known as historical materialism. This method proposed a historical and empirical view of society, with emphasis on the means of production and their control by a specific social class.

So, Marx and Engels considered that only a rigorous study of the history of class struggle offered the possibility of transforming reality. and overcome capitalism to reach communism.

Socialism and communism

Currently, there is no clear and universal difference between the terms “socialism” or “socialist” and “communism” or “communist.” However, In general, the term communism is associated with the most radical or extremist aspects. while the term socialism is reserved for more moderate forms or combined with democratic principles.

Historically, the term “socialism” was popularized in its modern sense in the 1830s to characterize followers of Robert Owen and other utopian socialists. For its part, the term “communism” was in common use since the 1840s to identify the neo-Babuvists (followers of the legacy of François Babeuf), such as Jean-Jacques Pillot, and the Icarians or Cabetists (followers of Étienne Cabet).

Although Initially both terms were used as synonyms. in some cases the “communists” and “socialists” began to distinguish themselves from each other, mainly due to their degree of radicalism and their commitment to the ideas of class struggle. For this reason, although Marx and Engels used to use the terms “socialism” and “communism” as synonyms, they chose the term “communism” to name the association they founded in 1847, the League of Communistsand to title his Communist Party Manifesto (1848).

However, both Engels and Marx considered that socialists and communists They had a common goal: to achieve a society without social classes.. In this sense, some later Marxist authors interpreted that socialism was a first stage in the transition from capitalism and bourgeois democracy towards the definitive achievement of communism.

Since the triumph of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917, the term “communism” became closely linked to the construction of single-party regimes through revolutionary processes inspired by Marxist dogma. The term socialism, on the other hand, was largely reserved for more moderate political expressions, such as social democracy, or for horizontalist or assembly movements (such as libertarian socialism or socialist anarchism).

See also: Difference between socialism and communism

Socialism and capitalism

Since the mid-19th century, socialism and capitalism (or liberalism, which intellectually defends the foundations of capitalist society) have been considered opposing doctrines in their central philosophical theses.

• Socialism. It advocates public, cooperative or social ownership of the means of production, and for an economy directed or intervened by the State (except in its libertarian variants, which propose horizontal or assembly control).
• Capitalism (and liberalism). It defends private property, the free market and individual or business initiative, with emphasis on economic competition.

However, since the end of the 20th century, and especially after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, capitalism was consolidated as the world economic model in the context of so-called globalization, and only a few nations subsist with socialist models.

In general, these socialist or communist countries were forced to incorporate liberalizing measures. Among them is the People's Republic of China, which since the late 1970s opened up to a market economy and is currently one of the world's economic powers, and North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam and Laos.

socialist countries

Today, few countries proclaim themselves “socialist.” The list includes the following:

• People's Republic of China
• Democratic People's Republic of Korea (also known as North Korea)
• Republic of Cuba
• Lao People's Democratic Republic
• Socialist Republic of Vietnam
• Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

References

• Bobbio, N. et al. (Dirs.). (2015). Politics Dictionary. New edition entirely revised and expanded. 21st century.
• Cappelletti, A.J. (2007). Stages of socialist thought. Anarres Books.
• Dagger, R. and Ball, T. (2024). Socialism. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/
• Gilabert, P. and O'Neill, M. (2019). Socialism. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/
• Paniagua, J. (2010). Brief history of socialism and communism. Second edition. Nowtilus.