What is Socialism?

Neal Meyer, What is Democratic Socialism?

Learning outcomes:

  • Understanding what democratic socialism is and what it isn’t.
    • The difference between democratic socialism and social democracy
  • Realizing the freedom of the working class as a whole will require a large-scale upset of capitalist institutions rather than a series of checks on capitalism as we currently know it. 
  • Recognize the necessity of transferring power into the hands of working people both for achieving systemic change and ensuring workers’ participation in governance moving forward

Key terms: 

  • Capital: Financial resources that are used for investment
  • Capitalism: a socio-economic system in which capital is concentrated in the hands of a minority of individuals, who exercise power through investment and ownership. 
  • Democratic socialism: a political/economic system in which the economy operates democratically in addition to the government. 
  • Social democracy: a democratic political system that employs extensive regulation and welfare in an attempt to manage a capitalist economic system.
  • Capital strike: the withholding of investment by capitalists as a class in order to pressure or sabotage governments that attempt to regulate capitalism.

Discussion questions:

  • How has the article changed your understanding of Democratic Socialism?
  • What is Democratic socialism? What is commonly mistaken for Democratic socialism?
  • What is the difference between Democratic Socialism and Social Democracy?
    • What is the difference between Socialism & Communism? 
  • What does the article say is the most viable path to Democratic socialism? 
    • Theory of Power
      • What is the role of the working class in this vision?
  • What does it mean to own the means of production? 
    • What would a model where workers have ownership look like? 
    • How would it look different from the structures we have today? 
  • Why are organizations like DSA and labor unions necessary in Meyer’s view?
  • What role can establishment parties play and what are their limits in a democratic socialist movement? 
  • How would you define the working class?

Ramsin Canon, “What It Means to Be a Marxist”

Learning outcomes:

  • Understand what Marxism is and isn’t
    • Marxism =/= a specific program or detailed plan to create socialism, or a moral philosophy
    • Does not necessitate violent insurrection
  • Understand that Marx did not invent socialism
    • Able to identify what socialism was like before Marx, and what Marx’s contribution to the movement and ideology were.
  • Understand the difference between Marx’s dialectical materialist approach to socialism vs a moralistic approach
    • Gain a basic understanding of key Marxist terminology
    • Understand that class struggle is inherent to capitalist society, and doesn’t necessarily mean violence.

Key terms:

  • Marxism: A theory of political economy/sociology that describes the progress of history through class struggle and transitions through various orders of production.
  • Alienation: Workers do not have access to the fruits of their labor, they are paid what they need to survive through a wage and the rest is appropriated by the capitalist class
  • Class Struggle: Social and political competition between classes. This competition is not necessarily violent, but is a fundamental component of capitalist society. Having a capitalist society means there will be class struggle.
  • Historical Materialism: The theory that human societies develop according to how the ‘forces of production’ are ordered. Features of society ultimately relate back to the ordering of the forces of production.
  • Dictatorship of the Proletariat: When political power is held in common for the benefit of the working class, only possible through extreme democracy.

Discussion questions:

  • How would you define Marxism? How does the article define it?
    • Is ‘Marxism’ a good word for it?
  • What was socialism like before Marx, and what were Marx’s major contributions to socialist thought?
    • How does this contrast with a more moralistic conception of socialism?
  • What is class struggle, and why does Marx argue that it is inherent to capitalism?
    • What forms can class struggle take? How is it resolved? How does it relate to violence?

DSA Platform

Discussion questions:

  • What is the vision for socialism laid out in this platform?
  • How are the different demands related to one another?
  • How do we build the power to win these demands?

Additional Reading: Socialism Will Be Free, or It Will Not Be At All!

ABCs of Socialism: “Isn’t America already kind of socialist?” (p. 12)

Learning outcomes:

  • Socialism isn’t just more government —it’s about democratic ownership and control
  • When observing any state activity, it is crucial to think about the ways in which it does or does not transfer power from capitalists to the working class

Discussion questions:

  • Chris Maisano explains that many people view socialism as a function of the size of government. Why is this definition of socialism problematic?
    • What are the political implications of describing any form of government spending as socialism?
  • What is “business confidence” and what is its significance?
  • Why is it so difficult to reform capitalism?

ABCs of Socialism: “But at least capitalism is free and democratic, right?” (p. 22)

Learning outcomes:

  • Capitalism is fundamentally opposed to democracy because access to wealth directly increases political power
  • Freedom to leave your job isn’t actual freedom, freedom to not work is

Key terms:

  • Positive and negative freedom
  • Freedom and Democracy

Discussion questions:

  • Erik Olin Wright provides five reasons as to how capitalism impedes upon the realization of freedom and democracy. Provide at least one real world example that illustrates one of these five reasons
  • What is the difference between freedom and democracy in the context of this reading?
  • In what ways does capitalism explicitly discourage individual freedom?
  • Explain why capitalism is fundamentally incompatible with true democracy.

ABCs of Socialism: “Socialism sounds good in theory, but doesn’t human nature make it impossible to realize?” (p. 30)

Learning outcomes:

  • Socialists share the belief that all people are inherently creative and curious, and that capitalism aims to stifle these qualities. 
  • Furthermore, they believe that reform hasn’t happened not because people don’t desire it, but because they lack the capacity to attain it. Collective action is risky for a number of reasons.
  • Therefore, it is one of our principal tasks as socialists to make collective action more accessible for more people.

Key terms:

  • Human nature
  • Collective action

Discussion questions:

  • Usmani and Sunkara argue that human nature often aligns with socialist ideals; explain their argument. Do you agree?
  • Please respond to the following question that the authors pose on page 33: “If humans everywhere are committed to defending their individual interests, why don’t we resist more?”
  • Explain the implications of describing socialism as “good in theory but never in practice”. Why do you think this is a common narrative?
  • How can we as socialists make collective action more viable for more people?

ABCs of Socialism, Ch. 1-3 (p. 12-36)

Additional discussion questions:

  • How was socialism talked about when you were growing up?
    • (Note: We recommend dividing the group into smaller groups to discuss this question and then sharing highlights with the rest of the group, numbers permitting. Make sure to encourage older members to pair up with new members.) 
  • Have you perceived a change in how people talk about socialism? 
  • Think about ideas, rhetoric, speeches, or quotes about: a) what’s wrong with the world, b) what a better world would be that particularly resonated with you. Sketch or write these out on a piece of paper (2-3 minutes). Now think about those that didn’t work. Sketch or write them out (1-2 minutes). Then, discuss with the person sitting next to you.
  • Does more government spending mean more socialism? What are some consequences of equating the two? How else can we assess policies and programs?
  • How is the government shaped to promote capitalist interests? Does it always act in the interest of capitalists?
  • Name some existing examples of policies, laws, or programs that do not serve capitalist interests (e.g. 8 hour working day).
    • What are some examples that are currently being proposed?
    • How do we win these? (i.e. can we win these by electing progressive or socialist politicians?)
  • Socialists often talk about nationalizing key industries like electric power, mining, and railways. What does this mean? How can these policies empower labor? How can these policies promote, or fall short in promoting, freedom and democracy?
  • Write the following sentence on the board and invite members to unpack, give examples – “Capitalism has promoted the emergence of certain limited forms of freedom and democracy, but it imposes a low ceiling on their further realization.” (Wright, pg. 23-4)
  • Get into groups of 2 to 3 people and draft one sentence in which you explain what socialism is. Pretend you are tabling and a curious student wants to know. Once everyone is ready, have one person from each group write the definition on the board. All together, discuss and debate each one and vote on the one you think more effectively communicates what socialism is.

ABCs of Socialism, “Don’t the rich deserve to keep most of their money?” (p. 36)

Learning outcomes:

  • The socialist view of redistribution within a capitalist society must reject an important premise in nearly all tax policy debates: that pre-tax income is something earned solely by individual effort and possessed privately before the state takes a part of it.
  • Pre-tax income is in part the result of governments collecting taxes and actively creating the conditions under which a person or corporation was able to make money in the first place.

Discussion questions:

  • Michael McCarthy explains that tax policy has two roles in a capitalist system: resource control and resource allocation. Explain this distinction, and why it’s important.
  • What are the three preconditions for capitalism firms to operate? 
  • McCarthy gives three basic premises upon which the socialist arguments for taxation and redistribution are built upon; what are they?
  • One major goal of socialism is the dismantling of private property; what would be the benefits of achieving this goal?

ABCs of Socialism

  • “Will socialists take my Kenny Loggins records?” (p. 46)
  • “Doesn’t socialism always end up in dictatorship?” (p. 52)
  • “Will socialism be boring?” (p. 128)

Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto: Introduction & “Marxism in a Nutshell” (p. 9-36)

Learning outcomes:

  • Understand the historical context of Marx and Engels writings, and what events and ideas inspired them.

Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto: Section I: “Bourgeois and Proletarians” (p. 39-57)

Study questions:

  • “[T]he modern bourgeoisie is… the product of a long course of development, of a series of revolutions in the modes of production and of exchange.’ What were the most important stages in this development?
  • ‘The bourgeoisie, historically, has played a most revolutionary part.’ Why do Marx and Engels say this?
  • How does the bourgeoisie create ‘a world after its own image’?
  • Marx and Engels claim that feudal society ended because ‘the feudal relations of property became no longer compatible with the already developed productive forces.’ What evidence do they offer for a similar incompatibility in bourgeois society?
  • What do Marx and Engels mean by ‘the proletariat’? What divides the proletariat from the bourgeoisie?
  • How does the proletariat become united as a class?
  • ‘The bourgeoisie itself, therefore, supplies the proletariat with its own elements of political and general education, in other words, it furnishes the proletariat with weapons for fighting the bourgeoisie.’ Why does the bourgeoisie do this?
  • ‘Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class,’ while all the other non-bourgeois classes are ‘not revolutionary, but conservative. Nay more, they are reactionary.’ Why do Marx and Engels think that only the proletariat has revolutionary potential. Why are other classes described not merely as conservative, but as reactionary?
  • ‘All the preceding classes that got the upper hand sought to sortify their already acquired status by subjecting society at large to their conditions of appropriation.’ Why won’t the proletariat do the same if it gets the upper hand?
  • Why do Marx and Engels say that the bourgeoisie has become unfit to rule?

Discussion questions:

  • If the history of all class societies is the history of class struggle, how should we understand pre-class societies? Was there conflict in such societies? What caused them to change?
  • What are examples of class struggle where you live? Would you say that class struggle is increasing, decreasing, or staying about the same? Is class struggle inevitable in capitalist society?
  • It is sometimes said that Marx and Engels attempt to explain everything in society in terms of class. Are Marx and Engels ‘class reductionists’? What does this mean? Is there anything in society that is (sometimes) more important than class, or equally important as class, or that cannot be explained in terms of class? What about divisions based on race, gender, nationality, or religion?
  • How would you categorize your own class position in Marxist terms? How should students be classified? What about teachers, professors, full-time union officials, people who work for ‘nonprofit’ organizations? Is class structure today more complicated or less complicated than in the nineteenth century?
  • Was the victory of the bourgeoisie against feudalism inevitable?
  • If the history of all class societies is the history of class struggle, how should we understand pre-class societies? Was there conflict in such societies? What caused them to change?
  • What are examples of class struggle where you live? Would you say that class struggle is increasing, decreasing, or staying about the same? Is class struggle inevitable in capitalist society?
  • It is sometimes said that Marx and Engels attempt to explain everything in society in terms of class. Are Marx and Engels ‘class reductionists’? What does this mean? Is there anything in society that is (sometimes) more important than class, or equally important as class, or that cannot be explained in terms of class? What about divisions based on race, gender, nationality, or religion?
  • How would you categorize your own class position in Marxist terms? How should students be classified? What about teachers, professors, full-time union officials, people who work for ‘non-profit’ organizations? Is class structure more complicated or less complicated than in the nineteenth century
  • Was the victory of the bourgeoisie against feudalism inevitable?
  • “The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.’ Do you agree or disagree? How can a minority control the state in a modern democracy such as the United States? Do governments ever act against the interests of the bourgeoisie? If so, why?
  • Is exploitation under capitalism more ‘naked, shameless, direct, [and’ brutal’ than in earlier forms of society?
  • Has the family become a ‘mere money relation’ in capitalist society?
  • Marx and Engels claim that in bourgeois society ‘all that is solid melts into air.’ What do they mean by this? Can you think of any examples? Can you think of any counterexamples?
  • The bourgeoisie ‘creates a world after its own image.’ What do Marx and Engels mean by this? Are they correct? Do they think this is a good thing, a bad thing, both, or neither?
  • According to Marx and Engels, ‘feudal relations of property became no longer compatible with the already developed productive forces.’ What do they mean by this? Can you think of specific examples?
  • “For many a decade past, the history of industry and commerce is but the history of the revolt of modern productive forces against modern conditions of production, against the property relations that are the conditions for the existence of the bourgeoisie and of its rule.” If this was true in the mid-nineteenth century, why is capitalism still here?
  • Are economic crises inevitable under capitalism?
  • “Owing to the extensive use of machinery and to the division of labor, the work of the proletarians has lost all individual character and, consequently, all charm for the workman.” Is this true? Don’t some people enjoy their work?
  • Marx and Engels argue that the “various interests and conditions of life within the ranks of the proletariat are more and more equalized, in proportion as machinery obliterates all distinctions of labor, and nearly everywhere reduces wages to the same low level.” Is this an accurate description of modern capitalism?
  • As capitalism develops, Marx and Engels believe that it will produce an “ever expanding union of the workers.” Does the fact unionization levels in the United States have been falling for several decades show that they were wrong?

Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto: Section II: “Proletarians and Communists” (p. 58-71)

Study questions:

  • What, according to Marx and Engels, is the relationship between Communists and the working class?
  • How does bourgeois private property differ from other forms of property?
  • “Capital is, therefore, not only a personal, it is a social power.” Why?
  • Why do Marx and Engels criticize “bourgeois freedom”?
  • How do Marx and Engels respond to the charge that communism will abolish the family?
  • Why do Marx and Engels argue that it is hypocritical for the bourgeoisie to accuse communists of intending to establish a “community of women”?
  • Why do Marx and Engels think, “National divisions and antagonisms between peoples are daily more and more vanishing”?
  • Why do Marx and Engels argue that “the social consciousness of past ages, despite all the multiplicity and variety it displays, moves within certain common forms, or general ideas”?
  • What do Marx and Engels think the proletariat will use its political supremacy to do?
  • Why do Marx and Engels believe that eventually “the public power will lose its political character”?

Discussion questions:

  • Communists “do not set up any special principles of their own, by which to shape and mold the proletarian movement.” In that case, why is there any need for communists to set up their own organization?
  • Sometimes groups with different political ideas call themselves “socialist” or “communist” and claim to understand “the line of march, the conditions, and the ultimate general results of the proletarian movement.” If the groups disagree, how is it possible to tell which, if any, knows what it is talking about?
  • Marx and Engels say that by “freedom,” the bourgeoisie means free trade. Is this a fair criticism? How would you define freedom? Do you think that Marx and Engels give a convincing response to the objection “that upon the abolition of private property all work will cease and universal laziness will overtake us”? If capitalism were abolished, what incentive would people have to work?
  • Do Marx and Engels believe that there are any “eternal laws of nature and of reason”? Do you?
  • According to Marx and Engels, capitalism destroys the family. Do you agree? Should we support the “traditional” family? Do we need new kinds of family? Should the family be abolished altogether?
  • Is women’s liberation possible in a capitalist society? Why or why not?
  • Marx and Engels argue that international solidarity is necessary for a successful workers’ revolution. Is there any evidence to think that national rivalries can be overcome? Is there any evidence to think otherwise?
  • What are the ruling ideas in our society? Do they reflect the interests of capitalists? If so, why do other people accept them? What might lead people to challenge such ideas?
  • If Marx and Engels were writing the Manifesto today, how might they have modified their list of immediate aims after a workers’ revolution?
  • Is it possible to abolish class divisions? If class conflict were abolished, would some other form of conflict replace it?
  • Is communism compatible with human nature? What is human nature? How do you think Marx and Engels would have answered this question?

Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto: Section III: “Socialist & Communist Literature” (p. 72-86)

Study questions:

  • What is “feudal socialism”?
  • Why do Marx and Engels criticize the positive goals of petty-bourgeois socialism?
  • What class interests did the German “true” socialists represent?
  • How does “bourgeois socialism” differ from “reactionary socialism”?
  • Why do the critical-utopian socialists “search after a new social science”?
  • Why do Marx and Engels describe the followers of the original utopian socialists as “reactionary”?

Discussion questions:

  • “Nothing is easier than to give Christian asceticism a socialist tinge.” Is it possible to be a religious communist? What do you think Marx and Engels’ view was? What is your view?
  • Should socialists represent the interests of the working class, all (or most) of humanity, both, or neither? Does the majority of humanity have the same interests? Do all workers have the same interests?
  • Marx and Engels argue that capitalism’s problems cannot be solved by reforms. Do you agree? If they are right, what attitude should socialists or communists have toward reforms?
  • Is there any value in constructing detailed models of how a socialist or communist society might function? Why do Marx and Engels call such models “castles in the air”? Is what they say about postcapitalist society equally utopian?
  • In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, there were many attempts to establish alternative, “utopian” communities on a small scale. Is this a good way to try to bring about change on a larger scale? Is the fact that all of these experiments failed evidence that socialism is impossible?

Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto: Section IV: “Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various Existing Opposition Parties” (p. 87-92)

Study questions:

  • What is the relation of communists to non–working-class opposition parties?
  • Why do Marx and Engels view developments in Germany as having special importance?

Discussion questions:

  • Where should socialists or communists look for allies today? Are there still progressive sections of the bourgeoisie with whom they should unite around specific issues?
  • Do you agree that if there is a socialist revolution, workers will have nothing to lose but their chains?
  • Do workers in economically advanced countries such as the United States have the same interests as workers in much poorer countries?
  • Marx and Engels envisage socialism as a genuinely democratic form of society. How does socialism differ from capitalism in this respect? Is the sort of democracy that Marx defends a workable system in the modern world? Is the claim that the state will eventually wither away believable?

Other Writings by Marx and Engels (p. 149-193)

  • “Marx on Alienation”
  • “Demands of the Communist Party in Germany, March 1848
  • “The Materialist Conception of History”
  • “History and Revolution”
  • “Colonialism, Racism, Slavery, and the Origins of Capitalism”
  • “On the Irish Question”
  • “The Paris Commune”
  • “The Transition to Communism”
  • “The Realm of Necessity and the Realm of Freedom”
  • “Women’s Oppression and Women’s Liberation”
  • “The Emergence of Classes and the State”
  • “Marx’s Legacy”