Welcome to the Socialism page ring!

Socialism (generally) strives for the collective/public ownership and control of the means of production, its distribution and exchange among inhabitants. By doing this, socialism hopes to achieve a more distrubuted spread of wealth among people and an elimination of class division.

The main difference between socialism and communism is that communism seeks to overthrow the capitalist state and form a society without state, socialism in its mildest forms wants less economic inequality, not a total removal of democracy, depending on what kind of socialist you ask. Many socialists disagree on how to achieve socialism. But, generally, it is done through revolution and thus forced overthrowal of the previous government OR through democratic means, think how for example Sweden is a democracy but has socialist policies (welfare state).

In other forms, specifically Marxist theory, socialism is seen as the transitional phase where the state, a temporary dictatorship of the proletariat exists which destroys the remnants of capitalism after the revolution, standing between capitalism and the end goal for communism: a stateless society.

Democratic Socialism

Where revolutionary socialism (socialism calling for total change) and democratic socialism diverge is on their approach on achieving socialism. Democratic socialists adhere to the democratic system and seek change through elections and governmental policies. Democratic socialists belive that industries should be owned publicly or cooperatively to prevent the creation of monopolies and like the ideas of social safety nets for the well-being of everyone.

Think universal healthcare, affordable (higher) education, appropriate housing and guaranteed workers' rights. Beyond this, social democrats also want communities to have a say in how public funds are spent and that workers should have a say in wages, hours etc. (through for example workers' unions).

The end goal for democratic socialism is to over time achieve socialism with democratic methods whereas social democracy wants to create fairer capitalism instead of replacing it outright.

Market Socialism

Market socialism is an economic system, essentially socialism with a semi-free market. In market socialism, you have competition where unlike free-market capitalism which aims to maximize profits where ownership can be private market socialism has businesses owned by the state, workers (through a cooperative/co-op, basically where a business is owned and democratically controlled by the members) and regional communities. Similar to free-market, prices are dictated by supply and demand and profits are reinvested into greater society.

Social Democracy

Social democracy keeps capitalism and private business but has regulations in place to prevent exploitation, unlike total free-market laissez-faire capitalism. Reforms are done through the democratic system and social democracy's main goal to provide more fairness in capitalism. A good example of social democracy is the Nordic Model employed by the Nordic countries, which include high tax, strong labor unions and free universal education and healthcare.