Socialism:A Marxist viewpoint
From Wikinfo
Socialism as in the original Marxist definition; In Marxism, "socialism" refers to the stage of history and class structure immediately following the next revolution, in which power has passed to the rural peasantry and the urban proletariat.
Karl Marx specifically focused on control of the means of production, which he saw as passing from monarchs under feudalism, to bourgeois professionals and an upper-middle-class facilitating capitalists under capitalism, and then to the workers themselves, whose contributions he saw as under-valued.
According to Marx, socialism is the period of transition between the overthrow of bourgeois rule and the development of a classless, communist society. While somewhat vague about specifics, Marx described the function of socialism as completing the process of equalizing society, building and developing industry and farming, and militarily defending the revolution from external attack. As this process was completed, the socialist state would "wither away" in favor of the final stage of history, the classless "Communism of Abundance".
"Socialism" as used by Marxist-Leninist states
Governments such as those of Cuba, North Korea, and the former Soviet Union and its satellites officially regarded themselves as "socialist" in the true Marxist sense, though many other Marxists hotly contested this. In such states economics are co-ordinated centrally through a hierarchical structure. Decision making power rests almost exclusively with central planners in the capitol city, whose own objectives are set by elite committees or even individual rulers.
The theoretical justification offered for a totalitarian structure is that the central planners are not ruling in their own interests, but acting as servants of the workers as a whole. They have not clawed their way to the top of the power structure, but have been called upon by the people to perform a duty. However, critics both internal and external to such societies have described the Marxist-Leninist brand of "socialism" as a highly class-structured society in which Party planners and intellectuals rule.
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Socialism" http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism August 2, 2003
