To What Extent Is Socialism Defined by Its Rejection of Capitalism?
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To what extent is socialism defined by its rejection of capitalism?
Capitalism is an economic system characterised by private ownership of wealth and economic activity through the free market economics.
Socialism stance on Capitalism has altered throughout history; early socialists, who were influenced by the work of Marx and Engels, condemned capitalism and private property as a mechanism for oppressing the proletariat. because of the industrial working class having little room for legitimate political participation or influence, Marx believed the logical method of revolution to solve the problem and alternatively, advocated an economy of common ownership.
However, Marxism predictions failed to surface and consequently a growth in democratic state socialist granting democratic rights to the working-class to ease the problems of capitalism in the 19th century rose.
Thus, the extent to which socialism is defined by its rejection of capitalism, derives from those who advocate revolutionary means and those who propose revisionism.
To start with, socialism developed as a reaction to growing unrest over the period that capitalism was taking, fundamental socialist supported revolutionary means, with Karl Marx prominent influence out of socialists of the time. For Marxists, the state is ‘…but an executive committee for managing the affairs of the bourgeoisie…’ the exploitative nature of capitalism was insoluble and consequently, capitalism would have to be abolished, to be replaced by an exclusively socialist society. This key, revolutionary stance stemmed from Marxist core idea of the dialectic and theory of history based on economic determination.
Marx believed the coming crisis would result from contradictions within the capitalist system itself, and predicted that these contradictions i.e. destructive forces, would become more and more acute as the capitalist system evolved and therefore produce an exploited, revolutionary class. Marx believed the age that succeeded capitalism would signal the end of historical communism, an age which would not contain any of the destructive forces, or ‘contradictions’ that had characterised all others.
As other revolutionaries, globally, had used revolutionary means with success, early socialist did not argue about the means needed to achieve a communist society, hence, they were fundamental socialists were dedicated to revolution.
On the other hand, an alternative movement rose as the 19th century progressed, quelling the appetite for revolt and revolution called revisionism or democratic socialism. Socialists attention shifted away from revolution towards evolutionary, democratic or parliamentary paths to socialism, due to the working class seeing increased representation by trade unions and political party’s, expansion