Concept in Definition ABC

Socio-economic organization system based on the full intervention of the state and the disappearance of classes

Socialism is a system of social organization and economical that is based on ownership and administration collective or state of the means of production and it is proposed as a goal that social classes progressively disappear.

Also, it is designated by the same word to political movement that tries to establish the aforementioned system with the nuances that each one promulgates.

Developed by the German philosopher Karl Marx

Philosophical theory and politics promulgated by Socialism was developed by the German intellectual Karl Marx in the mid-19th century. Meanwhile, Marx has been his main theorist along with his colleague Friedrich Engels. Staunch detractors of capitalism, they approached this system exhaustively to find an alternative that could overcome their weaknesses and achieve a fairer and more balanced model.
The creation of Marx was so influential that to this day it is still valid in almost every nation on the planet.

State intervention must be in strategic areas

Among its most outstanding maxims, socialism, stands out for promote the regulation of all economic and social activities by the state and the distribution of goods. Socialism believes that the best scenario for a society to progress is that administrative control must be in the hands of the producers themselves or the workers. and democratic control of political and civil structures, in the hands of citizens.

For Socialism, the state must play a predominant role and that is why it maintains that all important sectors of the economy of a nation must be controlled by the state. This situation is also known as interventionism and it is precisely the antipodes of capitalist thought where the law supply and demand and the participation of the state in the economic aspect.

It promotes freedom and equality but has curtailed individual freedoms in many cases

Although the values ​​that he has advocated since his birth have been altruistic, such as the equality among citizens, universal public services, solidarity, and freedom, it is important that we emphasize that some political regimes that adopted the colors of socialism have been characterized for limiting the freedoms of individuals who did not follow the socialist proposal, even more, they have been persecuted and even imprisoned for dissent. The state structures, in most of these cases, were put at the service of hunting down those who opposed the socialist regime.
Without a doubt, this point is one of its weakest and most questionable points.

Its other side: liberalism

The other side of socialism is Liberalism, a trend that encourages state intervention to be minimal in order to achieve general progress. Freedom is above equality. At present, this ideological dispute is reflected in many two-party systems of democracies.

Critics. Socialism today

Socialism is one of the political systems that has received the most criticisms and detractors since its appearance in scene and this question has made the definitions that have been given about it very variable throughout these years. Although, for the most part, socialism has been related and associated with issues such as the search for the common good, social equality, state intervention, among others.

Basically, his birth was due to the need to propose a counterpart to the capitalist system. In any case, this situation has evolved in recent years and although there are still very intransigent positions, Also, it is a reality that some movements have emerged that express some nuances regarding the conception original.

In political matters, the idea that Socialism supports is build a society in which there are no social classes subordinate to each other and to achieve this either through social evolution, a revolution or institutional reforms.

This softening in ideas and forms began to become evident after the Second World War, with the Cold War and later with the fall of the Soviet Union, a faithful exponent of this type of system.
Currently nations such as Cuba, North Korea, China, Libya and Vietnam, support this type of organization system.

Topics in Socialism