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What are the differences among Marxism, Socialism and Communism?
01-31-2013, 06:05 PM
Post: #1
What are the differences among Marxism, Socialism and Communism?

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01-31-2013, 06:13 PM
Post: #2
 
Marxism is the theoretical economic system developed by Karl Marx in the late 1800s as a response to the "utopian" socialists of the time who were more moderate and "soft" in their radical tendencies. Marx, on the other hand, demanded an application of the scientific method to economic history, demostrating that history is the story of class struggle (an approximate quote of his) and that the increasing greed of the capitalist ruling class would be the roots of its own demise and trigger a world proletarian revolution. The devaluation of labour coupled with the increase in mechanization and monopolization of capital would polarize the working class and trigger this revolution. Ironically many people today think that since the rise in neoliberal classical economics and the downfall of keynesian economics (since the regan era) marxian predictions are more relevant today than they were in his own time!

Socialism is therefore a reaction to both liberalism (which it viewed as not radical enough) and conservatism (which it viewed as too reacitonary). There are many variants of socialism and marxism is only one of them. There can be religious socialism as well. socialism is essentially the direction of the market economy to serve the people and not hte other way around as it is under capitalism, at least in theory. According to communists, furthermore, socialism is only a stepping stone to the final classless state of communism. Keynesianism is a variant of socialism and Lenin himself was opposed to it because by making concessions to worker's rights, it neutralized working-class opposition to the democratic capitalist "bourgeois" state instead of intensifying their struggle. He called this "democratic opportunism" and considered it a betrayal of the interests of the working class.

Communism therefore is an ideal, and no more, that represents the (distorted) aspirations of Lenin, Stalin, Mao and others who misinterpreted Marx's writings and because of human failings became a brutal dictatorial system of collective servitude instead of collective cooperation. (It is also ironic that Lenin's rivals, the Mensheviks, were closer to Marx than he himself was because while Lenin developed the idea of the vanguard party leading the proletarian dictatorship, which is central to communism, fascism and other totalitarian ideologies, while the Mensheviks wanted to cooperate with the "bourgeois" social democrats and liberals in establishing a democratic capitalist Russia which would then be the basis of a future and not present communist revolution.) Leninism is the basis of much of modern communism, its emphasis on militarism and heavy industry, as well as the system of collective agriculture which was developed by Stalin as a perversion of a perversion (i.e. Leninism). Whether Lenin inevitably lead to Stalin; that is an entirely different question.

"The only good thing about Marx is that he was not a Keynesian." - Austrian economist Murray Rothbard

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01-31-2013, 06:13 PM
Post: #3
 
Marxism and communism are both forms of socialism, and technically one could say communism is a form of Marxism/Marxism is a form of communism. Marxism is a method of analysis, a theory. Communism is the actual practice of the ideas of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

So technically they aren't "different", so much as socialism is the general category for all three, and then Marxism is the theoretical side to Marx's ideas and communism is Marxism in practice.

This is a rather simplified explanation to a very complex question. I assumed you have basic knowledge of what the three economic systems are. Hope this helps! Smile
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