Socialism
From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.
Socialism is the name for a set of political ideas. Socialists believe that society as a whole should control the means of production, directly through the workers or indirectly through the government. Socialists often disagree with each other on what type of socialism to implement. Social democracy, libertarian socialism, and anarchism are different types of socialism.
People have different views about what socialism means. Many socialists think the government should own large industries. Others think that workers should own companies. Still others say that people should be much more equal, but under a reformed capitalism.
Most socialists believe that the state should own the companies that they work for, as well as control the cars, the computers, and the money, and that the money be equally split by everyone. Since the government owns the companies, they would get to decide how much each position should earn. Most people who call themselves "socialists" do not see capitalism as a democratic system. They advocate a form of "people's democracy", where workers choose what to produce and how to distribute it. Critics of socialism often point out that several supposed socialist countries have been brutal dictatorships that have killed many people, and that a socialist system is to be avoided because of this. Most socialists respond by saying that these dictatorships weren't socialist, or implemented socialist policies badly.
[edit] History
Some people say that an Englishman, Robert Owen, was the first socialist. He said that workers should own the companies, which they worked for. The workers would then share the profits among themselves.
Many socialist political parties were formed during the 19th century and early part of the 20th century.
The most famous socialist is Karl Marx, who wrote The Communist Manifesto.
Other prominent socialists include Vladimir Lenin, James Connolly, Slobodan Milošević, Fidel Castro, Muammar al-Gaddafi, Albert Einstein, Robert Mugabe, Susan B. Anthony, Julius Nyerere, Hồ Chí Minh and Helen Keller.
[edit] Socialism and communism
At first, the words "socialism" and "communism" meant much the same thing. Today, they usually mean different things. Most non-communist people say "communism" when they mean the Marxist and Leninist ideas of Russia's Bolshevik party. Most socialist people say that socialism is the period of working towards Communism. However, many non-Communists do not recognize the difference, and use the term "Communist country" to refer to a socialist state, though socialists would never use the term. Others call this 'State Socialism', to distinguish it from the communist goal that does not need a state or any form of government. To non-communists, the word 'socialism' is now mostly used for attempts to come close to this goal in a democratic state.
After World War I, the collapse of the Second International and the Russian Revolution, socialism was split into two ways. Some socialists followed Lenin and were called Communists. Others believed in Parliamentary socialism and were called social democrats. Social democrats disagreed very strongly with communists; they had supported their Bourgeois Governments at the outbreak of the War and became 'establishment' Parties of the ruling class.
Today, many social democrats have even abandoned their old idea of reforming capitalism, and are running capitalist governments across the world some other socialists still want state ownership.
