Question

how did socialism change over time?

Answer 1

Plato, in his work Republic in 360 BCE described the type of collective society that was termed as socialist. Since then, it has come a long way and have seen many ideological changes that evolved into different types of socialism. All these ideas share a commonality that is opposition to free market economy and the belief that public ownership of goods leads to better distribution of wealth in the society.

Socialism as a system of governance emerged in response to the effort to curb the ills and hardships that capitalism caused to the lower income groups of the society. After the industrial Revolution where capitalists became richer and poverty among the workers and masses increased, socialism emerged as an alternative.

UTOPIAN SOCIALISM

Early socialists like Henri de Saint-Simon, Robert Owen and Charles Fourier offered up their own models for social organization based on cooperation rather than competition. While Saint-Simon argued for a system where the state controls production and distribution for the benefit of all society’s members, both Fourier and Owen (in France and Britain, respectively) proposed systems based on small collective communities, not a centralized state. These ideas were based on self sufficiency, cooperation and public ownership of property. Though these could not have a much larger impact and even failed in some cases.

MARXISM

The most influential theory of socialism that reached out to the masses and till date followed by socialist nation was given by Karl Marx. He dismissed utopian visions as dreamy and unrealistic. In their 1848 work The Communist Manifesto, Marx and his collaborator, Friedrich Engels, argued that true “scientific socialism” could be established only after a revolutionary class struggle, with the workers emerging on top. Marx's influence on socialist thought only grew after his death. His ideas were taken up and expanded upon by various political parties (such as the German Social Democratic Party) and leaders like Vladimir Lenin and Mao Zedong.

Christian socialism, that developed around principles of Christianity and Anarchism which saw not only capitalism but also government as disruptive of collective society developed around the same period.

20th century Socialism

Social democracy and communism, the two faces of democracy we see today developed in the 20th century. It was due to the world witnessing the success of Soviet Union experiment of Lenin's ideas. It gave way to formation of the Communist Party.

It was after the fall of Soviet Union, that Socialism as a system of governance started losing its spark and world moving towards globalization. Only a few countries including China, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos and Cuba remain as communist states today.

Public sector in many countries opt for socialist ideologies of welfare but major economic structure of the countries remain capitalist and market driven.