What is the difference between socialism and communism? They are sometimes confused as being the same thing, but socialism and communism have some key differences. In socialism, all citizens own and share equally in all resources and wealth. In communism, all property and economic resources are owned by the state, which is entrusted to share them fairly.
The word socialism comes from the Latin “sociare,” which means “to share” and “isme,” which is a suffix that means “a state” or “a doctrine”. So, socialism means “the state of sharing”. The ideas behind socialism have existed since the beginning of society and many people consider it the natural human state.
In a socialist society, there is a collective. This collective is made up of all the people in the society and there is a governing body that is democratically elected by the people and works purely for the good of the people. Everything that is produced by the collective is owned by the collective. They own all the tools, all the food, all the buildings, and everything produced. Whatever is produced is divided fairly among all of the people in the collective by the collective. Members of the society produce things to be used and not for profit. The only value in goods is their use. There is no competition as everybody is given what they need, when they need it. All wealth and resources are distributed equally. If someone is unable to work, the collective provides for them.
The earliest human societies were probably socialist. Tribes would have worked together and divided up their food. In fact, this is one trait that sets us apart from animals. If a chimpanzee is sick and not able to find its own food, it will be left to die. If a human is sick and unable to find food, the group will usually provide for it. Collective agricultural communities lasted for thousands of years, until the middle and upper classes rose, and the idea of lords and peasants arose. The ideas behind socialism were first written down by Plato in his “Republic”. Thomas More also wrote about them in his “Utopia”.
The word communism comes from the Latin “communis,” which means “of the community” and “isme,” which is the same suffix that means “a state” or “a doctrine”. So, it means “the state of being for the community”. The ideas behind communism have existed for millennia, but the modern form of communism is descended from the ideas of Karl Marx.
In a communist society, all of the resources and the wealth is owned by the state, which is then entrusted to distribute them fairly. The idea here is to create a society without class and to ensure that everybody gets their fair share.
There was a rise in socialism and communism after the Industrial Revolution. There had been classes of rich and poor for a long time, but people could generally grow enough food to survive. The Industrial Revolution brought hundreds of thousands of people into the cities and created huge inequality. Many people were starving. The ideas of socialism and communism became very popular but were fought down by the people who were in charge. They obviously managed to succeed in countries like Russia and China, which both had revolutions based on the ideas of communism.
Socialism, and even communism if done properly, would be the perfect societies to live in because of their level of equality, but they are very open to abuse. In order for a socialist society to work, the elected government has to be able to distribute the resources fairly. If any unfairness begins to appear, then the system won’t work. The government also must be electable. If the collective loses power over the government, then the system will break down.
Despite starting out with good intentions, all of the experiments with communism in modern society haven’t shown that it is an effective way of running a society. Communism has been used as a tool for the government to take complete control of all the resources in a country. If the government controls and distributes everything, then they have complete power. It is very difficult to remove a government that controls absolutely everything. It is also very difficult for regular people to see how the country is doing because everything they produce is taken by the government. Mismanagement of the economy is not visible until it is too late to do anything about it. Communist governments also tend to be very secretive and come down heavily on dissent because they need to be seen to be effective for the communist society to function. Socialism and communism could be wonderful, but they have been corrupted to provide absolute power for the governments that impose them. And this is what I learned today.
Photo by Leon Huang: https://www.pexels.com/photo/stone-communist-monument-with-crowd-of-people-13430559/
Sources
https://byjus.com/free-ias-prep/difference-between-communism-capitalism-and-socialism/
https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/100214/what-difference-between-communism-and-socialism.asp
https://www.history.com/news/socialism-communism-differences
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/socialism.asp
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/082014/what-exactly-socialist-economy.asp