Mentors Comments:

• The question makes an assertion that socialism has lost its meaning because of the various forms of socialism in practice. We have to examine the various schools of socialism, their similarities and differences and whether socialism still conveys some essential meaning or whether it is just a meta ideology.
• In the introduction highlight what the statement tries to convey before going into its evaluation
• In the main body of the answer, bring out the contrasts in the various forms of socialism in practice over the ages – revolutionary socialism as advocated by Mao, Marx, Lenin; Fabian socialism; Syndicate socialism etc
• Examine whether their end objectives and their methods had some semblance of similarity.
• Examine whether our understanding of socialism has reached some ground and what it means to us today
• In the end, highlight that till the time inequality exists in society, socialism will be relevant.

Answer:

Socialism is a range of economic and social systems characterised by social ownership and democratic control of the means of production as well as the political theories and movements associated with them. Broadly, it’s a political and economic system under which the means of production are owned by the community as a whole, with the government ensuring the equitable distribution of wealth. 

Socialism has morphed into Soviet-style communism and spawned Latin American dictatorships, while in Europe, many countries combine socialistic principles with capitalism and democracy. In the U.S., programs that opponents once condemned as socialism, such as Social Security and Medicare, are now deeply embedded in our society.

Socialism has been incorporated in many liberal democracies like India with the welfare state concept so the unique features of socialism have already been adopted. So socialists cannot actually define socialism in the present context.

Forms of socialism in the 19th and 20th century:

Utopian Socialism:

• One of the earliest forms of socialism founded by the Welsh Spiritualist philosopher Robert Owen. In contrast to later socialist schools of thought which would advocate violent revolution, the Utopians believed that capitalists could be convinced to become socialists purely through rational persuasion
• This was more a vision of equality than a concrete plan. It arose in the early 19th century, before industrialization. It would be achieved peacefully through a series of experimental societies

Democratic Socialism:

• The second type of Socialism that like Utopian Socialism was born in the United Kingdom in the 19th Century. In contrast to Utopian Socialism, Democratic Socialism does not advocate a return to agrarian communities.
• Instead, it advocates gradual reforms within the industrial market system and electoral, parliamentary democracy.
• Democratic Socialists are arguably the most pragmatic socialists in that instead of demanding immediate market abolition like Marxist-Leninists, Trotskyists and some Libertarian Socialists, they work within the market system from below in order to gently nudge employers to give workers fairer wages.
• The factors of production are managed by a democratically elected government. Central planning distributes common goods, such as mass transit, housing, and energy, while the free market is allowed to distribute consumer goods.  

Revolutionary Socialism:

• Founded in the Industrial Revolution era in Germany and put into practice in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, China, North Korea etc and many other third-world nations in various forms.
• Revolutionary Socialists saw both of the older schools of Socialist thought as insufficient for the task of fundamentally transforming society from a capitalist one into a socialist one. The reason being in their eyes the Utopians and Democratic Socialists did not have a proper consciousness of the extent of the injustices inherent to class society.
• As such, Revolutionary Socialists rejected the notion that capitalism could be reformed to be more fair to workers, believing capitalism was inherently exploitative and thus needed to be abolished by any means necessary
• Revolutionary socialism is the socialist doctrine that social revolution is necessary in order to bring about structural changes to society. More specifically, it is the view that revolution is a necessary precondition for a transition from capitalism to socialism
• Revolutionary socialism is opposed to social movements that seek to gradually ameliorate the economic and social problems of capitalism through political reform.
• Revolutionary Socialist theorists and activists include or have included Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Rosa Luxemburg and Malcolm X.

Libertarian Socialism:

• Libertarian Socialism seeks the dismantling of all unjust social and economic hierarchies. Whilst Libertarian Socialists may be either revolutionaries or reformists, they generally agree that early attempts at creating socialist societies failed due to their statist nature, viewing statism as a contradiction to the egalitarian values of socialism on the basis that states promote social stratification and class disparities.

Fabian Socialism:

• This type of socialism was extolled by a British organization in the late 1900s. It advocated a gradual change to socialism through laws, elections, and other peaceful means.
• The Fabians constructed a model of socialism which they claimed could be achieved through a programme of nationalisation and delivery of welfare services directed by the national government, with some tasks delegated to local municipalities elected by the people, but with effective control in the hands of those who knew best the professional classes.
• A long way indeed from the original socialist vision that working people could live and prosper in self-governing and co-operative communities, where they exercised ownership and control.

Marxism, Leninism, and Maoism:

• They are thus not separate ideologies but represent the constant growth and advancement of one and the same ideology.
• Maoism has a more rural bent than the ideologies espoused by Marx and Lenin.
• Marxism-Leninism, as the Soviet version of communism, is often called, held that urban workers should form the revolutionary vanguard. Mao Zedong, on the other hand, believed that Communist revolutions should gestate among the rural peasantry, who would later join with their proletariat comrades in the cities to form classless paradises.

Marxism:

• Marx argued that “proletarian” revolutions could only occur in fully industrialized and capitalist countries. He argued that, in such countries, workers would eventually release they are toiling for the benefit of the middle and upper classes, forcibly overthrow their employers and create a communist state.
• According to Marx, countries like Russia did not have the proper environment for a proletarian revolution because of its lack of industrialization and its reliance on agriculture.
• Lenin however, argued that an underdeveloped and autocratic nation such as the Russia Empire would be the first to turn communist.
• Lenin also modified the Marxist theory of a “dictatorship of the proletarian” into a dictatorship of the exclusive Communist Party. Lenin developed the idea of “vanguardism” which believes that a communist revolution can only be implemented by an elite core of revolutionaries called the vanguard.
• According to Marxism-Leninism, the vanguard (i.e the Communist Party) would instigate the revolution, ban all opposition parties and create a one-party socialist republic.

Maoism:

• Mao Zedong suffered the same conflict with Marxism as Lenin did. China at this time was far from an industrialized nation (the ideal revolutionary society according to Marx) but consisted of primarily a rural peasant population. Like Lenin, Mao disagreed with Marx’s assumption that communist revolution could only be achieved in developed industrialized countries.
• Mao’s variation of communism focused on the mobilizing rural farmers as opposed to urban industrial workers, as Mao himself was originally a peasant farmer. Mao describes his version of communism as “Marxism adapted for Chinese circumstances.”
  • Leninism and Maoism both utilizes the theories of Marxism, however, fit such in the reality of their society.