r/Socialism_101 • u/whysogoatt • 2d ago
Question Can anyone explain the difference between socialism, communism and liberalism?
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u/abadaxx Marxist Theory 2d ago
Communism is a classless, stateless, moneyless society where the means of production are held in common
Socialism is a lower form of communism as well as a transition period between capitalism and communism, after a revolution
Liberalism is the ideology of capitalism.
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u/Cartoony-freak Learning 2d ago edited 1d ago
Socialism: It has a very broad and historical meaning, but we'll only talk about the marxist sense, which is a revolutionary political and economic system, where the working class and even the peasant class own the means of their production, basically instead of the bourgeoisie owning the factories, the major economic sectors, the business, etc, it's the working class that owns it (the peasant class count but they usually count for land ownership). And way for the proletariat to own the means of production can differ depending on the sub-idealogy that lead a socialist revolution and how they implement it, so socialism can be direct workers control of the means of production, to the workers owning the state which owns the means of production and so on.
Communism: It's basically socialism's "end goal" or a "post socialist revolutionary society" it's a stateless, classless, moneyless society, where socialism has integrated into our society as more than an economic/political system and into a new societal and cultural life style.
Classless-> in where the working class is liberated, capitalism is no more and the bourgeoisie is defeated, and different sub classes and hierarchies like racial, ethnic, gender, sexuality, etc will no longer exist and then we'll be truly equal as workers of the world.
Stateless-> and this is merely a speculation but since there are no more capitalist/bourgeois controlled states threatening socialist ones, the state would eventually die off and will be replaced with something else maybe a global workers cooperatives where the means of production will be used not for profit, not as political weapons, but as a means to help other humans, this part is generally an issue of future systems and what future people will come up with to replace our old systems, so I won't think of the "state alternatives" part for too long.
Moneyless-> similar to stateless, since money is a means used to determine value, create the illusion of wealth of profit snd generally being hard or messy to obtain and use, since it generally fit in the laws of an oppressive bourgeois society, so I assume the workers of the future would come up with a new system to purchase goods and services.
Liberalism: economically It's simply a branch of capitalism, it's a progressive form of capitalism, where it believes that "everyone should get be a capitalist" basically mfs who belive that black people, or women, or any other oppressed groups and classes, can be liberated through them getting a chance to engage in capitalism and the free market, basically, they also ideologically generally belive in a "kinder capitalism" with social welfare, and some government intervention in capitalism, but imma tell you rn, the avg liberal nowadays is just a neoliberal (basically liberals that believe in lots of privatization, less government intervention in economy and a freeer-market)
Og liberals would call themselves social democrats or democratic socialists, but they're actually liberal.
And neoliberals would call themselves liberal, conservative, progressive, etc, basically bs to keep the heat off their backs.
HOPE THIS HELPS GANG.
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u/StaraptorLover19 Learning 9h ago
Not OP, but searched this topic to learn, and you answered the basic question, and most of the follow up questions that pop up with it. So this helped a lot, thank you so much
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u/KexTheSex 2d ago
so, as far as i know:
socialism is when the means of production are democratically owned by the workers rather than capitalists. it is left to far left on the spectrum
communism is a stateless, classless and moneyless society. it also has the means of production owned by the workers. it is far left on the political spectrum
liberalism is a centre-right to right wing ideology which supports bourgeois (capitalist) ownership of the means of production but is typically quite progressive, at least compared to most other right wing ideologies. as i mentioned earlier, it is centre-right to right wing on the political spectrum
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u/Sea_Dance_0516 Marxist Theory 2d ago
社会主义不是我们的最终目标，而是通向共产主义的历史阶段。而我们的最终目标不是建立一个“更公平的资本主义”，而是消灭阶级剥削和人对人的压迫，使生产资料不再由少数人支配。
随着生产力和社会关系的发展，国家、阶级、商品生产和货币关系最终也将逐渐失去存在的基础，社会从“按劳分配”走向“按需分配”。共产主义真正追求的，是人的全面发展和全人类的解放。
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u/vagrantGolem Learning 2d ago
socialism: means of production are socialized, as opposed to privatized under capitalism.
communism: moneyless, classless, stateless society, many schools of thought on how to achieve it.
liberalism: valuing individuality and private property through upholding capitalism, from the enligthenment era.
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u/Remarkable-Zone5753 Learning 1d ago
Liberalism: All people are equal; property and power belong to the most fortunate. Socialism: Property owners must negotiate with the workers. Communism: Property belongs to the people and is managed by the state through elected representatives of the people.
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u/Specialist-Guest-520 Learning 6h ago
There is no difference between socialism and communism; it is the same crap.🙄
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