NationStates Jolt Archive

Questions

-What do you see as the difference between Socialism and Communism?

- Why are Socialist values deemed bad by a considerable percentage of Americans?

- Can Socialist values actually help society as a whole?

-What do you see as the difference between Socialism and Communism
socialism (dictionary.com)

[Socialism] was first applied in England to Owen's theory of social reconstruction, and in France to those also of St. Simon and Fourier . . . The word, however, is used with a great variety of meaning, . . . even by economists and learned critics. The general tendency is to regard as socialistic any interference undertaken by society on behalf of the poor, . . . radical social reform which disturbs the present system of private property . . . The tendency of the present socialism is more and more to ally itself with the most advanced democracy. --Encyc. Brit.
Communism
A system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a single, often authoritarian party holds power, claiming to make progress toward a higher social order in which all goods are equally shared by the people. The Marxist-Leninist version of Communist doctrine that advocates the overthrow of capitalism by the revolution of the proletariat.

Ok the main differences that I see Socialism can be undertaken by any society looking out for the poor and people in need. They key terms in communism is Authoritarian and revolution and with a important term in totalitarian.


- Why are Socialist values deemed bad by a considerable percentage of Americans?

I don’t know I am just curious I thin it was deemed out of the cold war culture also by the racial inequalities at the time in America. Socialism of equality to all would bring and end to this which large chunks of society were not particularly suited towards although this is just an educated guess.
For socialist values to be seen as evil or unworkable seems quite illogical and would seem to do more harm to society not to implement them. The alternative is keeping the status quo keeping people in poverty or at least making it harder to get out of poverty. Which i know are not Christian values and are are probably not American values


- Can Socialist values actually help society as a whole?

I think education including the right to a university or college education for all just not those who can pay has its considerable advantages giving greater social mobility. Also the encouragement of a stable family environment and allowances for this are obviously apparent.
Free Health care the advantages are quite apparent whilst I feel people should be allowed to chose having the option of going private there should always be a quality service available regardless of peoples ability to pay. I feel this is workable

-What do you see as the difference between Socialism and Communism? Communism is an extreme version of socialism.

- Why are Socialist values deemed bad by a considerable percentage of Americans? The US is politically very conservative.

- Can Socialist values actually help society as a whole? I believe so if socialism is implemented correctly.

- What do you see as the difference between Socialism and Communism
If you're looking for the definitions given to those terms by other people (mostly capitalists), then your dictionary.com quotes are fine. However, if you're looking for the original definitions of Socialism and Communism, here they are:


WHAT IS COMMUNISM?

It is the political and economic system based on the twin principles of Liberty and Equality. Neither can exist for too long without the other: Liberty without Equality leads to the polarization of society into classes, with the ones above exploiting and dominating the ones below, which destroys the Liberty that was there in the beginning. As for Equality without Liberty, that is also a self-contradictory idea: If people are not free, that means there are some with power and some without it - which means that people are not equal. Those with power are obviously not equal to those without power.
In practice, a communist society is a free association of human beings who put all their property in common and co-operate so that each of them will be better off than if he was on his own. The guiding principle of such a society is "From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his need". Communism can also be defined through the things that it seeks to abolish: Private property and the State. In other words, communism is a system with no state and no private property (or with a very limited state and very limited forms of private property).
Although communism has proved itself to be very successful in small communities throughout history (from the early Christian Church of Jerusalem to various workers' communes in the last century to any present-day Jewish kibbutz), it has never been tried on a larger scale, and there have never been any communist countries. The old Soviet Union and all the other countries that followed its example never even claimed to be "communist countries". The West used to call them "communist" out of convenience and for propaganda purposes. They called themselves socialist countries (hence "The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics") and they claimed to be on the way toward communism. Neither of these things was true, of course, and the leaders of those countries were blatantly lying when they claimed to have socialist systems (given the fact that they lacked democracy, a vital element of socialism), but claiming to have a communist system would have been a much bigger lie.


WHAT IS SOCIALISM?

It is the intermediate stage between capitalism and communism, in which the means of production are under the control of the people (as opposed to capitalism, in which the means of production are under the control of a rich minority). In brief, socialism means economic democracy. A socialist economy is a planned economy democratically controlled by the people, and which therefore produces what the people need, not what brings the greatest profit. A socialist economy also involves extensive social services and full employment. As part of the basic human right to Life, every individual is guaranteed certain basic standards of living (food, clothing, a decent home, free healthcare and free education). Beyond those basic standards of living, however, an individual is free to earn more and grow richer, through his/her own work. Socialism does not create absolute economic equality, but it does reduce inequality to very small levels - much smaller than the absurd inequality that exists under capitalism. For example, the poorest person in socialism would earn about 3 or 4 times less than the richest person in socialism - whereas the poorest person in capitalism earns a few hundred million times less than the richest person in capitalism.
Also, it is very important to note that a planned economy will produce what the people need only if it is controlled by the people. If it is controlled by a small minority (like, say, a group who calls itself the "Communist Party"), then it will serve the interests of that small minority instead of serving the interests of the people, and the resulting system will be no better than capitalism. It might even be worse (see stalinism).

So what was the case in the Soviet Union and the other countries who followed its model? Well, the means of production were the property of the state, but the people had no say in what the state did with them. Therefore, since the people did not control the means of production, this system was obviously not socialism (in order for the Soviet Union to have been socialist, it would have needed to be a democracy. That way, the state would have controlled the means of production, and the people would have controlled the state. So, by transitivity, the people would have controlled the means of production). The system used by the Soviet Union and its Cold War allies is a type of oppressive dictatorship which we call stalinism, because Joseph Stalin was the one who created it (afterwards, many other dictators followed his model). Stalinism tried to make itself look like socialism in order to benefit from the very good reputation that socialism and communism had at the time. But eventually, it managed to utterly destroy that reputation...


Note: Those socialists who are not communists (= a majority of socialists) do not see socialism as an "intermediate stage" or a "stepping stone" towards communism. They are usually skeptical about the whole idea of communism, and only wish to establish socialism.

Also:

A socialist is a person who supports socialism, and wants to see a socialist system established as soon as possible.
A communist is a person who supports socialism and communism, and wants to see a socialist system established as soon as possible, followed by a communist system at some point in the future (which should also be as soon as possible).

Notice that the socialists are a larger, broader group, while the communists are a sub-group thereof. All communists are socialists, but there are many socialists who are not communists.

And in case you're wondering, a person who supports a communist system without also supporting a socialist one (and who therefore wants to see communism established immediately, without socialism before it) is called an anarchist. Notice, however, that anarchists usually call their system "anarchy" rather than "communism", in order to draw a clear line between themselves and the communists.

The majority of communists (but not all) are marxists. A marxist is a communist who supports the political ideology known as marxism. Marxism itself has several branches, the largest of them being marxism-leninism.