At a different level of intensity, but with comparable potential for violence and destruction, there prevails a long-standing struggle within South Africa between the ideologies of capitalism and socialism. Currently this is focused mainly on the organisation of the economy and the related organisation of the state. My aim is to establish if, and how, it might be possible to avoid or overcome ideological disputes in this case, between capitalism and socialism. My thesis is that it is indeed possible if we place the disputes in a functional perspective by clarifying the concrete human needs which each ideology tries to satisfy. This can be facilitated by gaining an understanding of the internal mechanisms by which each operates and exerts its power over the minds and actions of people.
Capitalism rests on the bases of private property and the competition of the free market.
The free market provides for individuals to buy and sell their property by entering into voluntary transactions with one another. The basic assumption is that these individuals are rational utility maximisers, which means that they will not enter into transactions detrimental to their own well-being. By implication the government has no role to play in this free market, except to establish the conditions under which the market can function unfettered. Socialism rejects the notions of private property and the free market. Instead of allowing the economic forces of competition to regulate the market and fix the price of labour, goods and services, socialism opts for collective ownership of the means of production and central planning of the economy.