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What's the difference between Socialism, Marxism and

Communism?What is the difference between socialism, Leninism,

communism and Marxism?

How do you explain to a 12 year old the difference

between Capitalism and Socialism and that Marxism

is stupid?

Can it be said that Marxism, Communism and

Socialism in general were a response to the dirty side

of Capitalism?

How does communism differ from socialism?

What are the differences between Communism and

Socialism? Please answer in simple language rather

going with typical political theories.

What is the difference between communism and

Utopia?

What are Communism, Marxism, Socialism, Leninism

and Stalinism? What are the similarities and

difference between them? Please explain in simpl...

What's the difference between Leninism and Marxism-

Leninism?

What is the basic difference between Maoism and

Marxism?

What is the difference between Maoism and

communism?

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Originally Answered: What are the differences between communism and socialism?

In classic Marxist theory, Communism is the final stage of the evolution of human

socioeconomic relations. In the Marxist model, the feudal state is overthrown by the rise of

the bourgeoisie, ushering in the capitalist epoch. Capitalism is then overthrown by the rise

of the proletariat, which ushers in not communism, but the Socialist state. Each previous

step is the necessary precondition for the next.

The socialist state is thus the pre-condition for communism, and its function is to alter the

state of human material conditions in such a way that communism can function. The

socialist state then "withers away," leading to the end of political power in any centralized

form – including nation states, as communism as envisioned by Marx is to be an

international system. Equa ll y important is the disappearance of social class distinctions,

which goes hand in ha nd with the end of political pow er:

When in the course of development, class distinctions have disappeared, and all

production has been concentrated in the hands of a vast association of the w hole

nation, the public power will lose its political charac ter. Political power, properly so

called, is merely the organized power of one class for oppressing another.

These conditions all hav e to be met bef ore the communist society can develop. In the most

reductionist sense, socialism presupposes a strong centralized state, while communism

follows once the state is no longer necessary. Marx summarized communism in this way:

"an association in which the free development of each is the condition for the free

development of all."

Both quotes are from The Manifesto of the Communist Party. Three short works from

which one can get a very basic understanding of Ma rx's political a nd economic theories

are Wage, Labor, and Capital,The Manifesto of the Communist Party , and The

Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonapa rte. Another interesting historical work is Leon

Trotsky 's The Revolution Betrayed (1937 ISBN 0-929087-48-8), in which the author

outlines why the Soviet Union was destained to fail, largely within the context of classical

Marxist theory.

Updated Dec 11, 2012 • View Upvotes

Robert Palermo, Kellogg Institute PhD Fellow at the Notre Dame

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Originally Answered: What is the key difference between socialism and communism?

Countries which were termed communist never in fact were communist, they were socialist

countries where the goal was a chieving communism. Cuba, PRC, DPRK, USSR, Warsaw

pact countries, all of these countries practise(d) socialism, with the intent of achieving

communism by Dialectical materialism . The idea here is that cap italism is the thesis,

socialism is the antithesis (or opposite), and communism is the synthesis (or result of

having gone through the two). The State ideology was definitely communist; they practiced

socialism in order to obtain communism eventually.

Socialism is workers' ownership of the means of production, central planning of the

economy and the absence of markets, and enforced equality; in practice this has invariably turned into the nightmare of single-party totalitarian dictatorship, resulting in warfare,

conquest, famine, poverty, genocide, corruption, absence of the most basic human rights

especially freedom of speech, and intense propaganda and revisionism. What people call

today socialism is more properly termed social democracy, something completely different.

Communism is essentially anarchy, where the state doesn't exist anymore, social classes

Joseph Guindi, thermodynamics engineer; aerospace, buildings & sustainable

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don't exist anymore, nor is there any money (socialist countries all have money). The very

existence of communism is entirely theoretical and mostly pseudoscientific, more akin to

an unobtainable utopia. Communism has never existed, there is no evidence that it is even

possible (or desirable), and every attempt at having it, through socialism, resulted in

complete disaster.

Updated Aug 29, 2015 • View Upvotes

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The terms have been so bastardized that there's really little value in a dictionary definition.

If somebody uses those words, you just need to ask them what they mean by it. Insisting

on historical definitions of them ends up just turning into an argument over semantics.

The terms have been muddled since their coinage anyway. If there's one which should

have a definite meaning, it's Marxism, as that would be "the theories of Karl Marx". Marx

tried to define "communism" and "socialism" in The Communist Manifesto. In his

definition, "communism" is the end state of having key means of production owned in

common (communally) without class, while "socialism" is an intermediate transition state

where a social revolution ( that is, of the workers, the vast majority of society) is required to

get to communism.

Accepting M arx's definitions and the economic a nd social consequences he believed would

arise from them makes you a Marxist, and whether you're a socialist or a communist

depends on where you are in history.

Other self-described socialists and communists define the terms differently; both terms

predated Marx and he has no particular claim to defining them aside from popularity.

They are all loosely-defined theories in which private property (i.e. capital) is no longer the

defining force of economics. Beyond that it's all kind of up for grabs.

Other people who a ren't self-described socialists, communists, or Marxists define the terms

their own ways, generally as "anybody who doesn't want what I want". The chips fall where

they may from there. I find that a particularly useless form of language, and such people

tend to be similarly useless in other areas of thinking (including economics), but if you

insist on communicating with them, you'll just have to infer their usage of terminology. No

dictionary will provide much help.

Updated Sep 10, 2012 • View Upvotes • Answer requested by Vishal Thapa and Soo Kim

Joshua Engel

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Marc Bodnick, Former Stanford PhD student in Politics

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Noam Chomsky (linguist, author) explains that USSR was not a socialist country and

explains what socialism really means:

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Originally Answered: What is the basic difference between socialism and communism?

Both the terms are often used interchangeably as the difference between the terms cease to

exist in today's scenario.

However, if u go deep, you are likely to find a subtle difference:

Socialism is an economic system in which means of production are state controlled.

However communism is broader in sense, it means a social, political and economic

movement to establish a boundary-less, stateless, moneyless and classless system in

which all p roperties and means of production a re controlled by c ommunity (community

itself refers to people).

Thus it can be said that communism is a super set of socialism. That's why countries like

China, Vietnam, Laos, Cuba etc. call themselves socialist countries but not communist ones

for they believe that they are still on the path of achieving a communist system by using

socialist methodology.

Western powers ( Capitalist or Anti-Communist) hardly d ifferentiate between the terms

because both socialism as well as communism oppose cap italism and p rivate ownership.

Written May 6, 2013 • View Upvotes

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Originally Answered: What is the difference between communism and socialism?

If in Engla nd, for instance, or the United States, the working class were to gain a

majority in Parliament or Congress, they could, by lawful means, rid themselves of

such laws and institutions as impeded their development, though they could only do

insofar as society had reached a sufficiently mature development. However, the

"peaceful" movement might be transformed into a "forcible" one by resistance on the

part of those interested in restoring the former state of af fairs; if ( as in the American

Civil War and French Revolution) they are put down by force, it is as rebels against

"lawful" force.

—Karl Marx, 1878

The Paris Commune (French Revolution) of 1789 to 1795 was in some sense the first

socialist regime, though, because it turned so bloody, socialists are reluctant to claim it.

Following came a number of experiments in Communitarianism around the world, but

mostly in France. Some of these communities branded themselves socialist; others were atpains to draw a distinction.

Marx and Engels published The Communist Manifesto in 1848 and blasted all such

communities as naïve experiments in Utopian socialism as opposed to his scientific

socialism that would result from Marxism . That pretty much put an end to

communitarianism as having any pretension to real socialism, which is appropriate given

that communitarian arrangements are equally legitimate in republican governments

employing free enterprise.

Marx's scheme was socioeconomic. Communism was the economic engine that would

bring about a socialist society. Significantly, it is not a governing scheme. Marx felt that

state power existed in all cases to the detriment of the working class and so sought a

Dictatorship of the proletariat as the simplistic governing arrangement.

The parlors of Europe were abuzz with d iscussions of implementing socialism. But Marx 's

distrust of government didn't provide much way to force the issue. Besides, he said it

would come about automatically, a simple matter of communism superseding ca pitalism

as workers threw off exploitation.

It was not until after the publication of Das Kapital , Volume I in 1867 that the first true

efforts to implement the economics of communism took place. Marx himself labeled the

short-lived Paris Commune of 1871 a true dictatorship of the proletariat.

At the same time, with Ma rx's help, Social democracy became the first effort to achieve

socialism, a blend of the ideas of Marx and Engels and also Ferdinand Lassalle . The

Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany would be an effort to achieve socialism

peacefully, which Marx admitted in 1872 would sometimes be possible, rather than via

revolution as he had previously seen as necessary.

Lassalle had no trouble employing the levers of state power to implement reforms. This

eventually alienated Marx who lambasted the use of state power in his Critique of the

Gotha Program of 1875. He felt that use of state power would produce a dictatorship of

the bourgeoisie (Liberal democracy ).

Charles Tips, Serious student of economics

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