Socialism is an economic term. Communism is a political term.
What's the difference between socialism and communism? Is there one? Or are the terms interchangeable?
Submitted 2 hours ago by sheridan@lemmy.world to [deleted]
Comments
RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 9 minutes ago
birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 minutes ago
Socialism, social democracy, and communism all focus on a more egalitarian distribution of wealth and income. To what extent and what their approaches are, differ, though.
Social democracy proposes a classless society, usually within the premise of an ‘electoral democracy’.
Socialism, if distinguished from social democracy, also wishes a classless society, but goes further: it wishes to advance social ownership of the economy, i.e. rather than just politics, the economy is also democratised. Instead of a CEO deciding for all, it’s the labourers that choose, that have a say.
Communism proposes that a just society must be not just classless, but also moneyless and stateless. Instead of money as transferrable and susceptible to wealth accumulation, other means for exchange are used; labour vouchers, community exchange systems, and so on. Instead of a centralised, repressive state, society would be decentralised and free, living in communes; if there is a military or a police, both should stand on equal footing with the people.
Steve@communick.news 18 minutes ago
They do have technical definitions that educated people debate over.
For everyone else, theyean the same thing. That thing being all that’s great or terrible in an economy, depending on the point of view.
madowlx@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Socialism - Everyone contributes money to social programs that benefit everyone. Taxes are higher, but the money is used for the benefit of all. The government exists to oversee the programs that support the people. This HAS worked in many countries around the world. It is not about equality, it’s about accessibility of care and benefit for everyone regardless of their starting point.
Communism - Everyone is to be on equal footing and wealth is to be evenly distributed among everyone. Everything is, in theory, shared and belongs to everyone. The government exists to oversee the transition of society, then is meant to step aside rather than remain above the rest of the people. This has NOT worked as no one has ever successfully established this and then stepped aside. It leaves the door wide open for abuse of power.madowlx@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
More simply, socialism is about indirect redistribution of wealth through taxes paying for social programs that benefit everyone. Communism seeks literal redistribution of wealth to maintain equal economic status for all.
masterspace@lemmy.ca 43 minutes ago
Socialism might also seek the direct redistribution of wealth via wealth taxes.
The difference is primarily in collecting taxes after the fact rather than having a central body try and actively redistribute everything before payment.
HoneyMustardGas@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Glad I learned something today. I didn’t know the difference until now. Thanks.
litchralee@sh.itjust.works 1 hour ago
There is definitely a difference, and they are not interchangeable. I’ll let other people chime in with a rigorous definition for communism, but at a minimum, it must have abolished the state and social classes entirely. So one could say that communism is at the very end of the road, and the various flavors of socialism are the routes to get there.
Various flavors of socialism? Yes, I’ve written an earlier comment about that, and another one here. In brief, there are many ways to move beyond capitalism.
AskewLord@piefed.social 1 hour ago
communism is an utopia idea far more than an actionable form of government.
socialism is very actionable, it’s more of a policy than a form of government. you can have a socialist monarchy or dictatorship.
DagwoodIII@piefed.social 40 minutes ago
Here’s the reality.
All political labels fall apart in the real world.
Think North Korea is a ‘democratic republic?’ Or that Hitler was a Marxist?
Look at the 1956 Republican Party platform.
Heck, billionaire GOP Mayor Mike Bloomberg pushed to lower the number of cars coming into New York, almost as if he were a Green.
My advice is to look at the actual candidates and leave the theory in the classroom
schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 12 minutes ago
Or that Hitler was a Marxist?
Hitler described himself as a socialist, but certainly not Marxist.
BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 2 hours ago
The simple answer is that you should have searched for an answer to this. It’s not a question for Lemmy, it’s been answered a billion times at this point.
guynamedzero@piefed.zeromedia.vip 1 hour ago
And that doesn’t mean it can’t be answered again. Do your part in spreading love, not hate.
BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 1 hour ago
I disagree, people should use the correct tools to achieve the outcome they are looking for. If you want a basic answer to a common question, you should search for material that has already answered that. Asking it in Lemmy or another social media site is wasting the time of people who could use that time to answer questions that aren’t already answered or have nuance to them that current discussion would help.
The question itself isn’t stupid, it’s a very good question, but asking other people instead of looking it up is stupid.
reluctant_squidd@lemmy.ca 1 hour ago
My thoughts/understanding, without Google searching/copy pasting, is that communism is supposed to focus more on the structure of a community and specific ways to allocate duties and rewards to generally better the lives of a subset group of people (Community). Personal wealth and standing coincide with your communal position, while ensuring that the least standing members still have a good minimal quality of life.
Socialism is similar, but focuses more on everyone as a whole. Everything is meant to be setup and geared towards the betterment and equality of all, but in a less structured way. All things are done for the betterment of self and society. Rewards and standing depend on merit and deeds equally. Tangible reward is shared as equally as possible.
I’m not sure if I am conveying my thoughts right here. Is way harder to write out than I expected when I started.
In my mind, communism would be more hierarchical in tangible reward, socialism would be hierarchical in subjective reward. (Think Star Trek).
I am probably way off, so if you want the text book definitions and differences, I’d suggest an online search for such.
guynamedzero@piefed.zeromedia.vip 1 hour ago
I’m not educated enough to give you a fulfilling answer, but from what I understand:
These are two similar economic ideologies. They’re not interchangeable per se, but they share a lot of characteristics that make them seem identical from some perspectives.
Now, unless someone else comments who’s more familiar with this than I am, I do recommend looking this up for more information!
AskewLord@piefed.social 1 hour ago
Idiots think they are the same thing.
They are about the same as monarchy and democracy. As in they are different systems of government with different arrangements and goals
and there is tons of varbility in each and across them. you can have elements of htem that overlap.
when people claim they are directly opposed to capitalism/democracy, they are also just stupidly wrong.
the problem is that ‘communism’ in the real world, has never existed, and socialism is quite limited in most countires.
what most countries that are communist/socialist actually were/are, is autocratic or oligarch states, with planned economies.
most capitalist democracies have tons of socialism, it’s just a matter of degree and kind. USA doesn’t have a sovereign wealth fund, but it sure as shit is socialist AF when it comes to defense spending.
schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 5 minutes ago
Both words can have more than one meaning.
Socialism may be among other things:
Communism, in Marxist theory, is a future stateless moneyless classless society which Marxists claim will inevitably happen after socialism. (Nonsense, but that’s the theory.) But a lot of times the word is used, it just means the second point from above, ie the way the Soviet Union and its allies were ruled. That’s mainly because a lot of ruling parties in those countries called and still call themselves the Communist Party of (country), though others didn’t, eg the East German ruling party was called the Socialist Unity Party of Germany.