What is the difference between communism and socialism? I have tried to find an unbiased comparison of the two on the internet, but to no avail!
I am under 30 and do not recall ever being taught this in school.
This seems accurate:
1 a: a theory advocating elimination of private property b: a system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed2capitalized a: a doctrine based on revolutionary Marxian socialism and Marxism-Leninism that was the official ideology of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics b: a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production c: a final stage of society in Marxist theory in which the state has withered away and economic goods are distributed equitably d: communist systems collectively
The last part is laughable, no communist state gets to the part where the government withers away and everyone is working in communes distributing work evenly. There will always be party members with privileged jobs in such states.
“Socialism” is merely a more warm and fuzzy word to describe “communism.” Like how Russia used to be the USSR: The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Nazi = a combination of National and Socialist.
Don’t let anyone fool you, they are the same thing.
socialism is communism by the drink..
Are you kidding me — they teach the “virtues” of socialism and communism in the goobermint screwools, but they will never use those words, because use of those words, plus the word liberalism, and admitting they plan to take away your freedoms and money, are verbotten.
On the other hand, the goobermint screwools have no problem trashing the capitalistic system and our founding fathers, and the Pilgrims who first settled the country.
As far as the difference, to me, they are the same, except that communism is just a step deeper beyond socialism into that abyss of tyranny and despair (ask a North Korean how they like Communism).
Socialism is the stage following capitalism in the transition of a society to communism.
Socialism
noun
1. a political theory advocating state ownership of industry
2. an economic system based on state ownership of capital [ant: capitalism]
1. Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy.
2. The stage in Marxist-Leninist theory intermediate between capitalism and communism, in which collective ownership of the economy under the dictatorship of the proletariat has not yet been successfully achieved.
An economic system in which the production and distribution of goods are controlled substantially by the government rather than by private enterprise, and in which cooperation rather than competition guides economic activity. There are many varieties of socialism. Some socialists tolerate capitalism, as long as the government maintains the dominant influence over the economy; others insist on an abolition of private enterprise.
All communists are socialists, but not all socialists are communists.
-- The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
The general tendency is to regard as socialistic any interference undertaken by society on behalf of the poor, . . . radical social reform which disturbs the present system of private property . . . The tendency of the present socialism is more and more to ally itself with the most advanced democracy. --Encyc. Brit.
Communism
Noun
1. a theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state.
2. a system of social organization in which all economic and social activity is controlled by a totalitarian state dominated by a single and self-perpetuating political party.
-- Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006
A scheme of equalizing the social conditions of life; specifically, a scheme which contemplates the abolition of inequalities in the possession of property, as by distributing all wealth equally to all, or by holding all wealth in common for the equal use and advantage of all.
Note: At different times, and in different countries, various schemes pertaining to socialism in government and the conditions of domestic life, as well as in the distribution of wealth, have been called communism.
-- Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
An economic and social system envisioned by the nineteenth-century German scholar Karl Marx. In theory, under communism, all means of production are owned in common, rather than by individuals (see Marxism and Marxism-Leninism). In practice, a single authoritarian party controls both the political and economic systems. In the twentieth century, communism was associated with the economic and political systems of China and the Soviet Union and of the satellites of the Soviet Union. (Compare capitalism and socialism.)
-- The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
What do the Communists want you to believe is inevitable Communism or socialism?
If you study Marx' Communist Manifesto you will find that in essence Marx said the proletarian revolution would establish the SOCIALIST dictatorship of the proletariat. To achieve the SOCIALIST dictatorship of the proletariat, three things would have to be accomplished:
(I) The elimination of all right to private property;
(2) The dissolution of the family unit; and
(3) Destruction of what Marx referred to as the "opiate of the people," religion.
The drive to establish SOCIALISM is at the core of everything the Communists and the insiders do. Marx and all of his successors in the Communist movement have ordered their followers to work on building SOCIALISM. If you hear an official Communist speaker, he never mentions Communism. He will speak only of the struggle to complete the socialization of America. At a communist bookstore you will find all their literature pushes this theme. it does not call for the establishment of Communism but SOCIALISM.
None Dare Call It Conspiracy
http://www.whale.to/b/allen_b1.html
"Personally, I'm in favor of democracy, which means that the central institutions of society have to be under popular control.
Now, under capitalism, we can't have democracy by definition. Capitalism is a system in which the central institutions of society are in principle under autocratic control."
-Noam Chomsky
"Democracy is indispensable to socialism."
"The goal of socialism is communism."
-Vladimir Lenin
"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened."
-Norman Thomas, six-time Socialist Party presidential candidate and one of the founders of the ACLU.
"I seek social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class, and sole control of those who produced the wealth: communism is the goal."
- Roger Baldwin, founder of the ACLU