Socialism is an economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes the economic, political, and social theories and movements associated with the implementation of such systems. Social ownership can take various forms, including public, community, collective, cooperative, or employee. As one of the main ideologies on the political spectrum, socialism is the standard left-wing ideology in most countries. Types of socialism vary based on the role of markets and planning in resource allocation, and the structure of management in organizations.
The socialist political movement includes political philosophies that originated in the revolutionary movements of the mid-to-late 18th century and out of concern for the social problems that socialists associated with capitalism. By the late 19th century, after the work of Karl Marx and his collaborator Friedrich Engels, socialism had come to signify anti-capitalism and advocacy for a post-capitalist system based on some form of social ownership of the means of production. By the early 1920s, communism and social democracy had become the two dominant political tendencies within the international socialist movement, with socialism itself becoming the most influential secular movement of the 20th century. Many socialists also adopted the causes of other social movements, such as feminism, environmentalism, and progressivism. (Full article...)
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Socialism with Chinese characteristics, meaning socialism adapted to Chinese conditions, is the official ideology of the Communist Party of China (CPC), claimed to be based upon scientific socialism. This ideology supports the creation of a socialist market economy dominated by the public sector since China is, as claimed by the CPC, in the primary stage of socialism. The People's Republic of China (PRC) government maintains that it has not abandoned Marxism but has developed many of the terms and concepts of Marxist theory to accommodate its new economic system. The CPC argues that socialism is compatible with these economic policies. In current Chinese Communist thinking, China is in the primary stage of socialism—a view which explains the PRC government's flexible economic policies to develop into an industrialized nation.
Eduard Bernstein (German: [ˈeːduaʁt ˈbɛʁnʃtaɪn]; 6 January 1850 – 18 December 1932) was a German social democratic politician and socialist theorist. A member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Bernstein is best known for his reformist challenge to Marxism known as evolutionary socialism or revisionism, in which he questioned the revolutionary predictions of Karl Marx and advocated for a gradual, parliamentary path to socialism. His political and theoretical work played a significant role in the development of social democracy and democratic socialism.
Born into a lower-middle-class Jewish family in Berlin, Bernstein became active in socialist politics in his early twenties. He spent years in exile in Switzerland and London during the period of the Anti-Socialist Laws in Germany, where he became a close associate of Friedrich Engels. During his time in London, his interactions with the reformist Fabian Society and his observation of the stability of late Victorian capitalism led him to question key tenets of orthodox Marxism. (Full article...)
The following are images from various socialism-related articles on Wikipedia.
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Image 2Pierre Leroux founder of the Parisian newspaper Le Globe in which the term socialism first appeared (from History of socialism)
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Image 3New Harmony, a utopian attempt as proposed by Robert Owen (from Socialism)
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Image 4Arabic letters "Lam" and "Alif" reading "Lā" (Arabic for "No!") are a symbol of Islamic Socialism in Turkey. (from Socialism)
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Image 5"Is The World Turning Socialist?" An article by Allen D. Albert published in The Rotarian commenting on the rising popularity of socialism in the postwar era, January 1918 (from History of socialism)
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Image 7Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist Vladimir Lenin in 1920 (from Socialism)
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Image 8Statue of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in Alexanderplatz, Berlin (from History of socialism)
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Image 10This map shows the 35 countries that adopted some form of socialism on the African continent from the 1950s to the 1980s. (from Socialism)
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Image 11 States that had communist governments Other states allied with the Soviet Union at some point (from Socialism)
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Image 12New Harmony, a utopian attempt as proposed by Robert Owen (from History of socialism)
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Image 13The first anarchist journal to use the term libertarian was Le Libertaire, Journal du Mouvement Social, published in New York City between 1858 and 1861 by French libertarian communist Joseph Déjacque, the first recorded person to describe himself as libertarian. (from Socialism)
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Image 14Albert Einstein advocated for a socialist planned economy with his 1949 article " Why Socialism?" (from History of socialism)
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Image 16Socialist feminist Clara Zetkin and Rosa Luxemburg in 1910 (from Socialism)
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Image 17Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin opposed the Marxist aim of dictatorship of the proletariat in favour of universal rebellion and allied himself with the federalists in the First International before his expulsion by the Marxists (from History of socialism)
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Image 18The fist and rose, a common symbol of democratic socialism and social democracy (from Socialism)
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Image 19Map showing socialism in Latin America, the pink tide (Foro de São Paulo members) in 2023: Socialist government Member not in government (from Socialism)
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Image 20Edward Carpenter, philosopher and activist who was instrumental in the foundation of the Fabian Society and the Labour Party as well as in the early LGBTI western movements (from Socialism)
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Image 21Albert Einstein advocated for a socialist planned economy with his 1949 article " Why Socialism?" (from Socialism)
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Image 22The Soviet of Workers' Deputies of St. Petersburg in 1905, Trotsky in the center. The soviets were an early example of a workers council. (from Socialism)
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Image 23Presidents Fernando Lugo of Paraguay, Evo Morales of Bolivia, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, Rafael Correa of Ecuador and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela in World Social Forum for Latin America (from History of socialism)
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Image 24Socialists in Union Square, New York City on May Day 1912 (from Socialism)
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Image 25Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, main theorist of mutualism and influential French socialist thinker (from Socialism)
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Image 26Soviet national income 1928–1987 growth in % based on estimates of the official statistical agency of the Soviet Union, the CIA and revised estimates by Grigorii Khanin (from Socialism)
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Image 28Project Cybersyn was an early form of computational economic planning (from Socialism)
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Image 30The capital letter A surrounded by a circle is a common symbol of anarchism. (from Socialism)
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Image 32Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana and theorist of African socialism, on a Soviet Union commemorative postage stamp (from History of socialism)
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Image 33Socialist Alternative holding a mass anti-war protest, 2007 (from Socialism)
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Image 34Mikhail Bakunin speaking to members of the IWA at the Basel Congress in 1869 (from History of socialism)
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Image 35Barricades Boulevard Voltaire, Paris during the uprising known as the Paris Commune (from History of socialism)
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Image 36World Map of Socialist countries in 1985 (from History of socialism)
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Image 37Soviet stamp showing the orbit of Sputnik 1 (from Socialism)
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Image 38The writings of Karl Marx provided the basis for the development of Marxist political theory and Marxian economics. (from Socialism)
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Image 39Encounter between Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre and Che Guevara in Cuba, three radical icons of the 1960s (from History of socialism)
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Image 40R. H. Tawney, founder of ethical socialism (from Socialism)
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If, therefore, considered from the angle of political effect the conquest of political power by the working class cannot materialise itself “too early” then from the angle of conservation of power, the premature revolution, the thought of which keeps Bernstein awake, menaces us like a sword of Damocles. Against that neither prayers nor supplication, neither scares nor any amount of anguish, are of any avail. And this for two very simple reasons.
In the first place, it is impossible to imagine that a transformation as formidable as the passage from capitalist society to socialist society can be realised in one happy act. To consider that as possible is, again, to lend colour to conceptions that are clearly Blanquist. The socialist transformation supposes a long and stubborn struggle, in the course of which, it is quite probable the proletariat will be repulsed more than once so that for the first time, from the viewpoint of the final outcome of the struggle, it will have necessarily come to power “too early.”
In the second place, it will be impossible to avoid the “premature” conquest of State power by the proletariat precisely because these “premature” attacks of the proletariat constitute a factor and indeed a very important factor, creating the political conditions of the final victory. In the course of the political crisis accompanying its seizure of power, in the course of the long and stubborn struggles, the proletariat will acquire the degree of political maturity permitting it to obtain in time a definitive victory of the revolution. Thus these “premature” attacks of the proletariat against the State power are in themselves important historic factors helping to provoke and determine the point of the definite victory. Considered from this viewpoint, the idea of a “premature” conquest of political power by the labouring class appears to be a polemic absurdity derived from a mechanical conception of the development of society, and positing for the victory of the class struggle a point fixed outside and independent of the class struggle.
Since the proletariat is not in the position to seize power in any other way than “prematurely,” since the proletariat is absolutely obliged to seize power once or several times “too early” before it can maintain itself in power for good, the objection to the “premature” conquest of power is at bottom nothing more than a general opposition to the aspiration of the proletariat to possess itself of State power. Just as all roads lead to Rome so too do we logically arrive at the conclusion that the revisionist proposal to slight the final aim of the socialist movement is really a recommendation to renounce the socialist movement itself.
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| — Rosa Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution, 1900
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