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this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2023
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I think this is semantic(definitions) confusion. Please let me explain. For example communism by definition is a stateless society. Meaning a state cannot be communist. The countries you are thinking of have all called themselves socialist not communist. Socialism does not necessitate dictatorship or democracy. It's simply economical. Socialism is an economic system that abolishes private property which marx defined as different from personal property. Personal property includes your place of living your tv your clothes all your personal shit. Private property refers to owning the means of production. So under socialism you could own your house but not a factory or Google ect.
The countries that are exploited the worst have sometimes had socialist revolts in the past. These countries are typically not functioning democracies beforehand. The USSR had a tsar. China's last emperor ended up joining the socialists once he was overthrown. Cuba had a U.S. backed dictator before Castro's popular revolution. These countries were not made into dictator ships because of socialism. You have the idea in your head because of capitalist propaganda.
Democratic socialism is just capitalism with a nice welfare state built on it. Despite the name it doesn't necessitate having democracy or socialism. Infact it's incompatible with socialism. These states are nicer then usual capitalist states but often backslide. For example Britain moving closer and closer to privatizing their healthcare.
I hope that makes some sense.
Marx's definition of socialism is unhelpful, has been detrimental, should be ignored. He did advocate for socialism, but in a specific way. He saw socialism as a step towards communism. Marx believed that after a workers' revolution, society would first enter a socialist phase where the workers control the government and economy. Then, eventually, this would lead to communism, where there would be no need for a state and everyone would share everything equally.
The United States regulates businesses, provides welfare. Those are socialist ideas. China, controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, has rich and poor people. It isn't communist.
Marxs definition of socialism is the important definition because it's his word. Marx did think socialism would be the next step after capitalism and that communism would eventually follow. But he thought communism would follow in a far off future.
"The United States regulates businesses, provides welfare. Those are socialist ideas. China, controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, has rich and poor people. It isn't communist."
Socialism is not when the government does stuff. I know you have been conditioned to think that but that's not what it means.
Social systems aren't all or nothing. Government run health care: socialist/communist. Government regulating businesses: socialist. Enabling competition among businesses: capitalist.
Engels and Marx believed an all-in approach was best, but even they believed in the value of incremental improvement. We don't have to implement an entirely pure socialist government before we can say we've adopted any socialist ideas at all.
I doubt the CCP cares about such semantics. Almost all governments and systems today are essentially "no frills, just works"
Points for pleasant irony. You're doing good work 👍
Thanks stranger, I appreciate it. 👈😎
You are missing the contemporary academic basis for democratic socialism though. Orthodox socialists view capitalism akin to a malevolent force, whereas democratic socialists view it as something like an inevitable byproduct of scarcity, something contemporary history seems to have more support for. It's very much a modern vs postmodern take on the same issue.
At the same time, democratic socialists prioritize a degree of individual liberty and human rights as an ideological basis for government. The ideological basis for orthodox socialism is honestly a bit more flimsy and often in conflict with itself, which is a big part of the reason why the modern demsoc movement doesn't have the same outward hostility towards certain forms of regulated capitalism. The idea being that with the right regularly framework in place, you can effectively resolve scarcity and capitalism withers away. This is actually not incompatible with Marx, and is also very similar to Dengist technocratic state capitalism, but without the obligate autocracy.
Thanks for the info.
No problemo 👈😎
Nah communism is that your private property is the community's property, which would be great if you're a single mother until someone finds your baby locked in the car by accident but it's not your car.