What is the Socialism? Origin and Socialist Theories

The term Socialism, as the name itself implies “social”, refers to the public rather than private ownership or the control/authority over any property and natural resources. 

 

According to socialism, people in the society don’t work or live in isolation, in fact, they maintain cooperation with each other. Everything that is produced by an individual or a group of people as a product or an entity is shared among the entire set of people in the society. Therefore, society as a whole must control property for the well-being of its members. 

 

 

Understanding Socialism

 

According to the Yes Magzine, several judgments, however, put socialism on a different page from capitalism which is purely based on private property, not only that but also allows individual choices in a free market leading to the establishment of sets and groups of people who then use their power of wealth to strengthen their superiority in society. 

 

Since those people are rich (in a capitalistic society) they may choose to live and reside in their desired place, limiting the choices of the poor at the same time. According to several socialists, true freedom and equality of opportunity require a collective or social control of the resources that provide the basis for success in any society. 

 

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels emphasized this point in  the Communist Manifesto (1848) when they declared in a socialist society that "the conditions for each free development are all free development." 

 

Nonetheless, this core belief leaves socialists with disagreements on two important issues. The first concerns the scope and types of assets that society must own or manage. 

 

Some socialists believe that almost everything but personal belongings, such as clothing, should be public property. This applies, for example, to the society shown by British humanist Sir Thomas More in his utopia (1516). However, other socialists were ready to accept and even welcome private property of farms, shops, and other small businesses. 

 

The second discrepancy concerns how society manages property and other resources. In this case, the main camp consists of a loosely defined group of centralized and decentralized groups. 

 

On the centralist side, there are socialists who want to invest public control of their property in central authorities such as the state, or in states under the leadership of political parties, as in the case of the Soviet Union.
 

People in decentralized camps believe that decisions regarding the use of public property and resources should be made at the local level or as low as possible by those who are most directly affected by those decisions. This conflict has continued throughout the history of socialism as a political movement.

 

Also Read | Capitalism vs Socialism

 

 

Origins of Socialism 

 

As a political movement, Socialism originated during the Industrial revolution. The communist and socialist ideas certainly play an important role in Plato’s, Greek philosophers “Republic”. The early Christian community also practised property and labour sharing. This is a simple form of socialism that later follows a particular form of monasticism. 

 

Some religious orders continue these practices today. Christianity and Platonism were combined in Moa's Utopia. It seems to recommend co-ownership as a means of controlling the sins of pride, jealousy, and greed. 

 

Land and homes are co-owned by Moa's imaginary Utopian island. Here, everyone works on community farms for at least two long years, and people change their homes every ten years so they don't take pride in their ownership. 

 

Money is abolished and people can get what they need from ordinary warehouses. All utopians also live to meet their needs with just a few hours of work a day, leaving the rest to their leisure. 

 

Moa's Utopia is less of a blueprint for a socialist society than a commentary on the flaws he perceived in what appears to be a Christian society at the time. However, religious and political turmoil quickly urged others to practice utopian ideas. 

 

Shared property is one of the goals of simple Anabaptist denomination in the Protestant reformation city of Münster, and after the civil war (1642–51), several communist or socialist denominations moved to England. 

 

The most important of these is the Diggers, whose members created the world for God to share and to use for private gain, not to share. Insisted. They acted on this belief by digging and planting lands that were not theirs and clashed with the forced dissolution of Oliver Cromwell's protectorate.

 

1. Utopian Socialism

 

After observing the settled agricultural life which was disrupted by the demands of industrialism, the conservatives were outraged. However, the radicals were notable for their commitment to equality and their willingness to envision a future in which industrial power and capitalism are separated. 

 

Radical critics of industrial capitalism have increased their moral anger in the dire situation where many workers believe in the power of science and history to create new and illustrious societies. The term socialism was used around 1830 to describe these extremists, some of the most important of which was later called "utopian" socialists.

 

Another early socialist, Robert Owen, was a businessman himself. Owen first gained attention by running a textile mill in New Lanark, Scotland. The factory was very beneficial and very humane by the standards of the time. 

 

Children under the age of 10 were not employed. Owen's basic belief was that human nature was shaped, not fixed. When people are selfish, corrupt, or malicious, it is because social conditions have made them so. He insists that the conditions will change, and people will change. If you teach them to live in harmony and work together, they will do it. 

 

Therefore, in 1825, Owen set out to establish a model of social organization, New Harmony, on land purchased in Indiana. This was to become a self-sufficient cooperative community where the property was shared. 

 

New Harmony failed within a few years and gained most of Owen's fortune, but he soon turned his attention to other efforts to promote social cooperation, especially unions and co-operatives. (Source)

 

2. Marxian Socialism 

 

Despite their ingenuity and dedication to the cause of the workers, none of the early socialists arguably found the full approval of Karl Marx,  the greatest socialist theorist. 

 

In fact, Marx and his longtime friend Freidrich Engels opposed Sansimon, Fourier, and Owen's "fantastic photographs of the future society" and labelled them "fantastic photographs of the future society." I had a great responsibility to attach it. The "utopia" they considered wanted to despise their own "scientific" approach to socialism. 

 

According to Marx and Engels, the path to socialism is guided not through the establishment of a model community, which according to Marx and Engels is a model of harmonious coexistence, but through the conflict of social classes. "The history of society as a whole so far is the history of class struggle," they declared in the  Communist Party Declaration. 

 

Academic understanding of history shows that these struggles culminate in the victory of the working class and the establishment of socialism. Hegel argued that history is a story of the development or realization of the "spirit." This is a process that requires overcoming struggles, pains, and obstacles to achieve self-awareness. 

 

If an individual remains childish or adolescent forever, just as an individual human cannot realize his potential, especially the potential of freedom, the mind must develop dialectically throughout history. It will not be. (here)

 

In other words, even individuals and nations are characters in dramas that lead to greater self-awareness and greater awareness of freedom through conflicting thoughts and conflicts of interest. 

 

For example, slavery has long been regarded as a natural and acceptable practice, but because masters and slaves recognize their common humanity, the struggle for slavery for human recognition is slavery. 

Also Read | Types of economic theory