We explain what the socialist mode of production is, its origin, characteristics, advantages and disadvantages. Furthermore, socialist countries.
What is the socialist mode of production?
According to Marxism's interpretation of the economic history of humanity, the socialist mode of production or simply socialism It is a form of social, political and economic organization. It is intermediate between capitalism and communism, the latter being the final stage of a utopian society without social classes and freed from relations of exploitation of man.
According to what Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels postulated, socialism would be the stage after the capitalist model, which would occur when humanity entered a post-mercantile stage. Its production is completely oriented towards use value and not exchange value.
However, neither of these two main theorists of historical materialism (or Scientific Socialism, as they called it) left much in writing regarding how socialism could be organized. For this reason, the models that have been tried in real life strictly respond to later interpretations of neoclassical and Marxist economists.
The socialist mode of production has been attempted on numerous occasions throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Since its full functionality was not completely clear, in many cases it became statist or popular capitalism.
In other cases, they were ferocious genocidal dictatorships such as those experienced in the Soviet Union under the command of Stalin, in Cambodia under the government of the Khmer Rouge or in the revolutionary China of Mao Tse Tung.
See also: Class struggle
Characteristics of socialism
The main characteristic of this model is that it privileges use over consumption and profitability. Thus, the production of a socialist society is channeled by the consumption needs of its population, and not by the desire to generate wealth.
For this to be possible, generally the need for a planned economy is imposed that is, controlled by the State, which determines in which sectors it is advisable to produce more and in which less. Such planning can be interpreted as central, rigid and autocratic, or decentralized and democratic.
The typical accumulation of capitalism here becomes ineffective, and gives rise to a rational organization of production based on needs and the availability of materials. In this way, everyone's needs are satisfied, without having to worry about the cyclical market fluctuations that plague capitalism so much.
To achieve this, furthermore, private property becomes a hindrance, and the taking of the means of production by the working class becomes an obligation. According to Marx's predictions, Socialism would give way to “pure communism” through the implementation of a dictatorship of the proletariat.
The dictatorship of the proletariat is a society without social classes, composed entirely of workers, without dynamics of exploitation or extraction of surplus value. Market units are nationalized and socialized. The individual is not alienated from his own work, that is, he does not consider it something foreign to him and, therefore, from which he only deserves to receive a salary.
Origin of the socialist mode of production
Socialism as a historical stage of human production It was devised by Marx and Engels. They baptized it Scientific Socialism, to distinguish it from other theories regarding socialism (such as utopian Communism) that did not apply the scientific method in their theories, as they attempted.
That is to say, they were not the first to talk about socialism, but they were the first to propose it. as the result of a critical analysis of economic history of humanity.
Socialist property
Cooperation is a fundamental feature of socialism, as opposed to the individualism central to the capitalist mode of production. That is to say, collective needs are privileged over individual desires, in search of social, economic and political equality, for which the abolition of private property is fundamental.
This is how social, communal or socialist property is born, which belongs to the entire community who lives there or whose work takes place in its vicinity. This would be guaranteed by the State, through a regime of nationalizations and expropriations.
Both private property and corporate property are abolished since being a planned economy, the State must direct the means of production (peasant, industrial, scientific, etc.) towards common well-being and not towards profitability, betting on cooperation instead of competition.
Advantages of socialism
The socialist model has certain advantages over its competitor, the capitalist one. To mention a few:
- Greater social justice The main objective of socialism is to combat economic and social inequalities among the population, which is why it aspires to a higher rate of social justice through a more equitable distribution of wealth, given that the State would have the monopoly of everything, and not some private actor of individual interests.
- Planned and stable economy Given that the laws of the market do not play a major role in socialist economic dynamics, there is no need to fear the fluctuations typical of unstable markets, since all forms of productive activity are planned from the public.
- State Empowerment If the socialist State, the main (if not the only) productive actor in the country, is compared with the diminished and defenseless State of certain forms of capitalism, it can be concluded that a virtue of socialism is its vigorous State, capable of intervening in the areas of life that are considered a priority and make quick decisions.
- There is no class struggle Since there are neither rich nor poor, nor are the means of production in private hands, the class struggle would not take place within a socialist society, so there would be no basis for economic discrimination. The minimum conditions required by citizens would have to be guaranteed for everyone equally.
Disadvantages of socialism
The disadvantages of socialism, as an abstract system, are difficult to pin down in the imagination. Not so, however, in the historical attempts to put it into practice, which have generally ended catastrophically. From these experiences, we can point out the following disadvantages of socialism:
- Bureaucratization and concentration of power Since the State is in charge of leading society, its presence becomes omnipresent, and can also result in a form of overwhelming authoritarianism, without any counterweight. Thus, their organizations must grow and multiply, as their control intentions generate more and more paperwork and more bureaucratic structures that slow down processes, since effectiveness becomes a secondary criterion.
- Loss of freedoms Not only economic, as is obvious, but also civil, religious, moral, even individual, since the all-powerful State has ideological control of society. This, in the long run, leads to injustice and the benefit of a state leadership above the rest of society.
- Lack of incentives for production Why put in effort at work if the rewards will be the same for everyone? By preventing economic competition, the desire for improvement and innovation is also hindered, slowing down the economy and often destroying work culture, replacing it with political ideology.
- State exploitation of the individual The great paradox of socialist regimes is that, instead of the worker being exploited by private initiatives, he is generally exploited by the State, lacking competitors and counterweights, owner of economic power, as well as public powers.
socialist countries
Currently there are few countries that call themselves socialist:
- People's Republic of China
- Democratic People's Republic of North Korea
- Socialist Republic of Cuba
- Lao People's Republic
- Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Socialism as a prevailing political project It also exists in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela although under the name “Socialism of the 21st Century”.
In the past, however, there were important socialist-oriented nations that no longer exist, such as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the German Democratic Republic, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia or the Democratic Republic of Cambodia, among others.
Other modes of production
Just as we talk about the socialist mode of production, there are:
- Asian mode of production Also called hydraulic despotism, since it consists of controlling the organization of society through a single resource needed by everyone: water. This was the case of Egypt and Babylon in Antiquity, or the irrigation canals in the USSR and China. Thus, the loyal receive water to plant their fields, while the fields of the disloyal dry up.
- Capitalist mode of production The model of the bourgeoisie, imposed after the fall of feudalism and aristocracy, in which the owners of capital control the means of production. The working class offers them their labor power, but they are exploited in exchange for a salary with which to consume the goods and services they need.
- Slave mode of production Typical of the classical societies of antiquity, such as the Greek or Roman, their production of agricultural goods was based on a slave class, subject to a particular legal and social status, sometimes inhuman, that reduced them to being the property of a master. individual or the State. These slaves had no political participation, no property, nor did they receive any reward for their work.
Continue with: Modes of production
References
- “Socialism (Marxism)” on Wikipedia.
- “Socialist mode of production” in Webdianoia Glossary of Philosophy.
- “What is socialism?” on Philosophy.net.
- “The Socialist mode of production” in Political Economy.
- “Socialism” in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.
