What Is Socialism?
We may have preconceived notions about socialism because of countries that consider themselves Socialist, such as Cuba and North Korea. Or, we may have forgotten what we learned about socialism in high school world history classes. Here is a brief refresher about what socialism really is.
According to Webster's New World College Dictionary, socialism (with a lowercase s) refers to a system wherein "...the ownership and operation of the means of production and distribution [is] by society or the community rather than by private individuals, with all members of society or the community sharing in the work and the products." Socialism also refers to doctrines or methods of political parties that espouse these principles. Socialist (with a capital s) denotes a political party with that name, or an adherent thereof. (For another answer to the question, "What is socialism," see "Definition of Socialism.")
History of Socialism
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1788) was a philosopher during the Enlightenment, and his writings strongly influenced French revolutionaries and socialist thinkers. The philosophers and revolutionaries who followed him, such as Morelly, Mably, and Babeuf, took his criticism of private property further, advocating, instead, egalitarianism and communal ownership of property. During the first quarter of the nineteenth century, the Utopian Socialists (Charles Fourier, Robert Owen, and Henri de Saint-Simon) were confronted by the increasing industrialization of society. They decided that the world's woes could be solved by improving the lot of workers and making production more efficient and less tedious and dangerous. In turn, they influenced Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who are commonly understood to be the fathers of communist theory. (Socialism, according to Marx, is a temporary state controlled by the workers, leading up to the goal of a classless Communist society.) Das Kapital, Marx's masterwork on political economy, was a criticism of capitalism and expounded on the necessity of class warfare by the proletariat against the bourgeoisie.
Famous Socialists
The most famous American Socialist politician was Eugene V. Debs, a union organizer who ran for president five times between 1900 and 1920, including once from a prison cell after he had been arrested for protesting World War I. Helen Keller and Margaret Sanger were both active Socialists, as was Albert Einstein, who even wrote a defense of socialism in the socialist magazine Monthly Review in 1949. And of course, revolutionaries such as Che Guevara and Fidel Castro considered themselves Socialists.
What Is Socialism Today?
The Socialist Party USA is alive and well (albeit small). They fielded a presidential candidate in 2008, publish a bimonthly magazine, and run social action campaigns. The International Committee of the Fourth International leads the Socialist Equality parties in countries around the world, and runs the World Socialist Web Site, where you can read world news and editorials written with a socialist point of view. Thousands of smaller socialist organizations and websites are also flourishing on the web. In addition, there are many governments that consider themselves socialist. In the Marxist/Leninist (Communist) tradition, there are:
- Cuba
- North Korea
- China
- Laos
- Vietnam
India, Bangladesh, Libya, and Sri Lanka have straight socialist elements in their governments and constitutions.
Political and economic philosophers have been arguing over the best (both for efficient production and for producing a good life) types of government and economic policies for hundreds of years. Starting more than three hundred years ago, some came to the conclusion that socialism (i.e., communal ownership of the means of production, abolition of private property, and ascendance of the working class) provided the best solution to society's ills. Over the years, socialism has proven to be a better theory than practice, at least on a large scale, but some idealists keep trying.