Ideologies - Older alternatives to the liberal tradition: Socialism and Fascism - Socialism and its variants

3 important questions on Ideologies - Older alternatives to the liberal tradition: Socialism and Fascism - Socialism and its variants

The two core principles of socialism are:

- A critique of markets and capitalism: the notion that free-market economies cause unacceptable inequality. The capitalist's profit (the making of money through ownership or investment in a profit-making enterprise) must come from exploitation of workers (paying them less then their labor is worth).
- Economic class conflict: a person's fate is tied to his or her position on the side of the bourgeoisie (capitalist class) or the side of the proletariat (working class). Class conflict dominates society and politics.

Socialism's main divide emerged between communism and social democrats. Systems with Communism (the radical version of socialism that calls for revolutionary rejection of capitalism and private property) are better labeled as state socialism:

Political systems run by communist parties that abolishes capitalism but then focused far more on enforcing their own power than on improving their citizen's welfare.

The reformist version of socialism that aimed at winning democratic elections and implementation,etning policies to moderate capitalism's inequalities is called social democracy. It differs from modern liberalism is the sense that:

Social democrats still critique capitalism more than modern liberals do, usually using stronger language that cites class conflict and favors more support for workers than liberals like Democrats in the US.

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