Though socialism did not work in the long run – almost no country in the world is 100% socialist – people realized that this phase of capitalism might have something good inside. Well, we have seen North Korea, and the Western world seems not like it.

We will talk about what a socialist is, the differences between socialism and communism, and some socialist countries that you need to know. Well, we will give you a lot of examples that will allow you to see for yourself the amazing story of this economic phase and how it will affect you in the long run.

What is socialism?

Well, you can think about socialism as both an ideology – without any pejorative sense at all – and an economic system. In a socialist economy, the means of production are part of the community, so they don’t have to do anything with private ownership at all. These are other things to consider:

-Market forces don’t have anything to do with production because the state is the planner of all the economic activity.
-The satisfaction of needs is the main motive of the socialist system rather than profit accumulation.
-Socialists say that socialism is superior to capitalism in both moral and economic terms.

Socialism and Communism

According to philosopher Karl Marx, socialism is just the first part of a transformation into his own vision of communism. He believed that socialism was a necessary step in order for a society to fully transition from a capitalist system to a communist system. Said another way, socialism can be thought of as a system that is a mix of capitalism and communism, with the end goal being that the society becomes less capitalist and more communist.

The socialist society is run by a centralized economic plan, and a popular democracy will replace the rule of the capitalist class. The communist phase of society is a state of society where people can work freely on anything they want and are free from an unjust division of labor.

Socialist countries

You will not find any rich, socialist country out there. North Korea is a socialist country, but they are poor people. The government runs the economy and nobody is allowed to accumulate any kind of wealth at all. These are other things you have to think about:

  • Norway, France, Canada, Sweden, and Denmark are not socialist economies. They are mixed economies who have taken the best of capitalism and socialism.
  • You can accumulate wealth in a capitalist society not in a socialist country.
  • China is a mix of socialism and capitalism.

The theory of socialism has played an important role in the history of the world. Karl Marx developed a series of important theories in the realm of economic thought that the world has truly used to take the world to the next level.

In simple terms, socialism is the first phase of an ideal society where the capitalist forces have been surpassed and changed for the better. At least this is the thought that Marx had inside his mind, and he dreamed of a state of society where a socialist system could truly work in the reality down the road too.