Communist societies assume that coercive government would be unnecessary and therefore that such a society would be without rulers. However, until such time that a country can rule itself, communism involves the abolition of private property by a revolutionary movement and responsibility for meeting public needs is then vested in the state. Socialists believe that capitalism and private ownership are flawed. They believe that private ownership leads to levels of inequality. In a democracy, the equality of opportunity is considered an acceptable means of offering everyone a chance to succeed.
Socialism goes one step further and demands substantial equality of outcome as well.
Socialists believe that to be truly free to participate in the many possibilities that democratic states offer, one must be free from hunger, disease and poverty as well. Socialists feel that public ownership and control of an egalitarian society will improve human relations in general. Marx believed that society went through stages, a period of changes gradually over time. Marx believed that societies did not change in fundamental ways as a result of incremental reform, but rather major shifts that occurred only when their basic values and principles were challenged and new ones adopted. Marx felt that society could be divided amongst those who did owned a portion of the wealth and those who did not.