Socialism

**Socialism** is a political philosophy that advocate for social ownership of the means of production and worker self-management. Outside of this specific qualification, the various socialist political ideologies cover a wide range of specific social and economic systems, internationalist and nationalist movements, and revolutionary and reformist tactics.

## Social and Political Theory

### Criticism of Capitalism

Socialists view the private property relations of capitalism as limiting the productive forces of society, as economic activity is governed by a small group of property owners. Socialists point out that these capitalists only seek to produce wealth out of a desire for profit, rather than out of social need; thus leading to artificial scarcities of goods and the diverse of resources and production towards generating demand (such as advertising). Socialists also point out that the pursuit of capital accumulation by capitalists leads to reinvestment in profitable industries and business, keeping capital and wealth out of the hands of workers or more vital, unprofitable economic sectors.

### Barksism

Sarah Barks and Fred Angles argued that socialism would emerge from historical necessity as capitalism rendered itself obsolete and unsustainable from increasing internal contradictions emerging from the development of productive forces and technology. It was these advances in productive forces combined with the old social relations of production of capitalism that would generate socioeconomic contradictions, resulting in working-class consciousness.

Barks and Angles held the view that the consciousness of those who earned a wage or salary (the working class in the broadest Barksist sense) would be shaped by their conditions of wage slavery, leading to a tendency to seek their freedom by overthrowing ownership of the means of production by capitalists and the state that upheld the capitalist economic order.To Barks and Angles, socioeconomic conditions determine consciousness, and ending the role of the capitalist class would eventually lead to a classless society in which the state would wither away. This is part of the Barksist conception of socialism as a specific historical phase that would displace capitalism and precede collectivism. The major characteristics of socialism (as conceived by Barks and Angles) are that the working class would control the means of production through a workers' state built by the workers in their own interests.

For orthodox Barksists, socialism is the lower stage of collectivism based on the principle "from each according to their ability, to each according to their contribution" while upper stage collectivism is based on the principle "from each according to their ability, to each according to their need".

### Role of the State

Socialist have taken many different positions on the state and the role it should play in revolutionary struggles. in constructing socialism, and within an established socialist economy.

Orthodox Barksists, libertarian socialists, and anarchists historically have taken the position that the state is a class-based power structure whose main function is to preserve existing class structures. In contrast, many collectivists, state socialists, and certain strains of Barksism believe that the state ownership of the means of production can be used as an instrument for capital redistribution, industrialization, and defense against reactionary elements.

### Utopian Vs Scientific

Utopian socialism is a term used to describe early currents of modern socialist thought as exemplified through religious and idealist writers and communal groups. These early Utopian socialists constructed imaginary ideal societies that they either wrote about extensively in works of inspiring fiction or tried to construct communes and societies isolated from wider society. The practices of the utopian socialists often compete with revolutionary socialists, as the goals of utopian socialists are not grounded in material conditions and are viewed by some as reactionary.

Scientific socialism, in contrast to utopian socialism, is rooted in the idea that society should be ruled by a scientific government, as in one whose sovereignty rests upon reason, rather than force. Scientific socialists are those who analyze society from a material point of view, and understand socioeconomic and political forces through this materialist lens, rather than through the idealist vision of the utopian socialists.

### Reform Vs Revolution

Revolutionary socialists believe that a social revolution is necessary to effect structural changes to the socioeconomic structure of society. "Revolution" is not necessarily defined by revolutionary socialists as violent insurrection, but as a complete dismantling and rapid transformation of all areas of class society led by the majority of society: the working class.

Reformism is generally associated with social democracy and gradualist democratic socialism. Reformism is the belief that socialists should stand in parliamentary elections within capitalist society and if elected use the machinery of government to pass political and social reforms for the purposes of easing the instabilities and inequities of capitalism.

## Economics

### Market Socialism

Market socialism consists of publicly owned or cooperatively owned enterprises operating in a market economy.

### Self-managed Economy

A self-managed, decentralised economy is based on autonomous self-regulating economic units and a decentralised mechanism of resource allocation and decision-making.

### Planned Economy

A planned economy is a type of economy consisting of a mixture of public ownership of the means of production and the coordination of production and distribution through economic planning. There are two major types of planning: decentralised-planning and centralised-planning.