Capitalism, Socialism and Communism (simplified)
Karl Marx came up with the idea of Communism. He saw it as a better system than Capitalism. What are some of the features of each system?
Capitalism
Private ownership of property
- encourages competition among citizens
The state is present
Upper class Vs Lower or Working class (aka proletariat)
- in Capitalistic societies, there are a few wealthy individuals who exploit the numerous poor
- very bad living conditions
Communism
Public ownership of all property
Ideally, the state disappears in this system
Produce according to your abilities, and consume according to your needs
- shared effort and shared resources
- everyone would have what they needed; no one person would have more than another
- is ideally a classless society
Karl Marx predicted that because the poor were exploited under capitalism, they would eventually come together and rebel through a revolution to overthrow capitalism. After this happens, a communist society would be established.
Socialism
Some people use the term ‘socialism’ and ‘communism’ interchangeably.
However, there are people who argue that socialism is the stage between Capitalism and Communism. They claim that under Socialism, there is no private property – they are owned and controlled by the state. In other words, the state is still present (unlike in the ideal form of Communism, in which the state should disappear).
posted by | 6:34 PM
3 Comments:
i have a doubt-so since communism is not controllable, is capitalism good or bad. is socialsm such that there are some factors of capitalism (e.g. everyone under one ruler) and some factors of communism (e.g. people get sufficient of what they need). does socialism mean that the ruler rules justly and everyone gets equal rights?
In answer to Manisha's question:
In any system, we can't simply determine if it is good or bad - i think we have to ask good or bad for whom? Under Capitalism, if you were the rich upper class, of course it would be good for you because you get to privately own property and enjoy a rich lifestyle. But if you were the poor working class, would this be the case? So it is not clearly good or bad, but depends. Communism often is an ideal. Although ideally there is not supposed to be a state, a dictator emerges who controls people. Hence Communism is not perfect either.
Since socialism is one of the stages on the way to Communism, we could assume that socialism would tend to have more features of communism. There is a state which owns and controls property - ideally this should be a just and fair state but whether this is the case in reality, we often do not know. Hope that helps. Do read up online for more information on these 3 systems.
the notes are a good help....................
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