What's the Difference Between Socialism and Communism?

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. But there are clear differences between authoritarian communist regimes like the Soviet Union and China and far more democratic forms of socialism practicing countries like Sweden, Canada and Bolivia. To understand the differences between socialism and communism, we have to start with their common enemy, capitalism. Marx and Engels viewed the entirety of human history as a history of class struggles. In ancient Rome, there were patricians, plebeians,

and the enslaved. In feudal societies, there were lords, apprentices and serfs. In the seventeen hundreds, political and economic revolutions in England, America and France did away with feudalism and replaced it with capitalism. For the article this Episodes based on How Stuff Works, spoke Norman Markwitz, a political history professor at Rutgers University. He said, by the eighteen twenties and eighteen thirties, capitalism had produced a world of progress

and poverty. Even at that early point, the Industrial Revolution and the creation of free market economies had greatly benefited the wealthy classes, who owned the factories and the farms, that is, the means of production, while leaving the average worker even worse off than the Marx and Engels divided the modern world into two classes, the bourgeoisie, who owned the means of production, and the proletariat, or the working class.

A capitalism, with its emphasis on cheap labor, had created an ever widening gulf between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, a problem they said could only be fixed by completely dismantling the political and economic system that had created it. But Marx and Engels, writing in the eighteen forties, weren't the first to have these ideas. They were the latest in a long line of economic and political theorists who

all identified as socialists. A Socialism as a movement began in the early eighteen hundreds with thinkers like Henri de Sinsman, Robert Owen, and Charles Fourier. Disgusted with the inequalities created by capitalism and competition, early socialists proposed the creation of workers collectives with shared ownership of property, farms, and factories.

Markwitz said from the eighteen twenties through the eighteen forties there were various different socialist movements that attracted workers, farmers, and alienated intellectuals, and all kinds of plans and programs to establish socialist collectives. The aforementioned Robert Owen, a wealthy Scottish industrialist, even founded such a community called New Harmony

in Indiana in eighteen twenty five, which eventually failed. Socialism, both then and now, advocates for cooperation rather than competition, by opposing an unrestricted market economy. Under a socialist system, citizens pay high income taxes in exchange for free access

to government run programs and services. In some socialist models, all industry and means of production are state owned, while other models allow for private ownership of businesses, with public control of certain sectors like health care, energy, education, and transportation. The goal of socialism is to create a more egalitarian society.

A Marx and Engels were fierce critics of the earlier utopian forms of socialism that were, in their words, doomed to failure because they said they were based on the naive belief that class struggle could be resolved through peaceful means. Markowitz explained, A Marx and Engels believed that eventually the struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat would create a crisis in which the capitalist system would need to be

abolished and replaced with a socialist system. It wouldn't be a utopian system, but a system in which the working class have the political power. So you can think of the communist Manifesto as a socialist called arms in it. A. Marx and Engels argued that the only way to end the class struggles that had defined history was through a socialist revolution. After the revolution, society would be ruled by

a dictator leadership of the proletariat. Under capitalism, the bourgeoisie called the shots, but a government ruled by the workers would put the worker's interests first and not those of a wealthy elite. For Marx and Engels, communism was the most advanced form of socialism. They saw the evolution of advanced societies as starting with capitalism, moving to socialism, and

finally reaching the ultimate goal of communism. Under proletariat rule, the communists would abolish private ownership of land, farms, and factories and hand all control over to the state. Housing, medical care, and education would all be free, and every worker would have a job. In a way, Marx and Engel's vision of a truly communist society was also utopian.

They believed that at some point the state itself would cease to exist and the workers would simply share everything, as Marx famously wrote, from each according to his ability, to eacharding to his needs. Markowitz said, in that higher stage of communism, there would be general equality and general abundance. People could do whatever they want without harming others. They would be genuinely free. But Marx Engels's version of revolutionary socialism,

also known as Marxism, was never really put into practice. Instead, the world's first communist revolution happened in an unlikely placed, Czarist Russia, and its political mastermind was Vladimir Lenin. Lenin was a Marxist, but he put his own twist on communist theory. He was a champion of the workers, but he wasn't confident that a dictatorship of the proletariat would

spontaneously form after the revolution. Instead of leaving governance up to an election or appointment by the workers, Lenin installed the Communist Party. All power was put in the hands of a political elite that controlled every asset aspect of Soviet economic, cultural, and intellectual life, with the ostensible goal of creating the more equitable socialist society. In reality, Leninisms slipped into authoritarian and tolitarian territory with violent crackdowns on

dissent and opposition. The ideas put forth in the Communist Manifesto inspired generations of political thinkers and economic theorists. Some of those individuals formed socialist political parties to win power by democratic means, while others, like Lenin and Malo Zadong launched communist revolutions. The results today are countries and governments that identify as either socialist or communist or both. Scandinavia

is home to a cluster of democratic socialist countries. Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark have elected socialist democratic parties into power, and their legislatures have passed laws establishing expansive welfare states. In a socialist welfare state, citizens pay high taxes, but enjoy generous social services, including free education including college of free health care, retirement pensions, paid parntal leave, subsidized housing, and more.

Socialism hasn't had much success in American politics since Eugene Debs ran for president in the early nineteen hundreds, but there are currently three members of the House of Representatives who belong to the Democratic Socialists of America, including Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York and Rashida Talib from Michigan. The organization has over ninety two thousand members in the US.

Proponents of the democratic socialist model say that it allows for the democratic ideal of individual liberty while also providing the socialist ideal of egalitarian social programs. Critics say that providing those egalitarian social programs requires a level of redistribution of wealth and government regulation that necessarily hampers individual liberty.

It's important to point out that in democratic socialist countries today, private ownership of business and free market capitalism are also allowed to exist, and while socialist parties may currently be in power, they're not one party governments. Other political parties are allowed to campaign and run for office. That's not the case in so called communist countries like China, Cuba, and Vietnam, and it wasn't true in the former Soviet

Union either. Those nations are one party regimes where the authority of the communist Party is unquestionable and the party chooses government officials, not the people. While there is no real democracy in these countries, capitalism has made significant inroads, particularly in China and Vietnam. Meanwhile, just to keep things confusing, all of the countries that we call communist still think of themselves as socialist at just different flavors of socialism.

Markwitz said, China is developing its own model of socialism that's very different from the Soviet Union. China's model retains power in the hands of a government controlled by the Communist Party, but it's also created a capitalist sector that's become the second biggest economy in the world over the last forty years. The truth, says Markowitz, is that there has never been an actual communist country in Marx's sense of the word justice. There has never been a true democracy.

He said, these are ideals that one works toward and struggles to achieve. Today's episode is based on the article what's the difference between socialism and communism on how Stuffworks dot Com, written by Dave Ruse. The brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the Arheartradio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows s