Socioloism-Quick Notes

🚩 Socialism – Quick Notes

Dive into the core ideas of Socialism, an ideology prioritizing equality and collective welfare. Perfect for Political Science and UGC NET revision!

🔹 Core Belief:

• Equality > Liberty
• Socialism is the critique of capitalism and proposes collective ownership, equality, and planned economy for justice.

🔹 Fundamental Principles

• Humans are inherently social beings.
• Private property → inequality.
• Advocates social/public ownership.
• Classless society = ultimate goal.
• Emphasis on cooperation, not competition.

🔹 Early Socialists (Utopians)

Rejected by Marx for being "unscientific."

Thinker	Contribution
Robert Owen	Villages of cooperation; workers' welfare
Charles Fourier	Phalanxes, opposed division of labor
Saint Simon	Technocratic elite society
Proudhon	“Property is theft”; cooperative model

🔹 Types of Socialism

• ✅ Revolutionary Socialism
  • Calls for violent overthrow of capitalism.
  • Based on class conflict (Marx, Lenin).
• ✅ Evolutionary Socialism
  • Advocates peaceful reform, democracy.
  • Bernstein: No inevitable revolution → Revisionism.

🔹 Subtypes of Evolutionary Socialism

Type	Features	Thinkers
Fabianism	Gradualism, parliamentary path	G.B. Shaw, Webbs
German Social Democracy	Socialist goals via constitutional means	SPD
Syndicalism	Workers’ direct action (strikes, unions)	Sorel, Bakunin
Revisionism	Tweaking Marxism with liberal democracy	Eduard Bernstein
Guild Socialism	Industries run by workers' guilds	G.D.H. Cole

🔹 Important Thinkers & Works

Thinker	Book / Idea
Bernstein	Evolutionary Socialism
Anthony Crosland	Future of Socialism
Ralph Miliband	Socialism for a Sceptical Age
Thomas More	Utopia (pre-modern socialist idea)

🔹 Criticisms

• Can restrict liberty if equality is forced.
• Bureaucratic central planning → inefficiency.
• Overlooks individual motivation and innovation.

Socialism continues to influence global political discourse, offering alternatives to capitalist models.