List of forms of government
132-548: List of forms of government A socialist state , socialist republic , or socialist country , sometimes referred to as a workers' state or workers' republic , is a sovereign state constitutionally dedicated to the establishment of socialism . The term communist state is often used synonymously in the West , specifically when referring to one-party socialist states governed by Marxist–Leninist communist parties , despite these countries being officially socialist states in
264-565: A bureaucratic dictatorship which rested on a largely nationalized industry run according to a production plan and claimed that the former Stalinist states of Central and Eastern Europe were deformed workers' states based on the same relations of production as the Soviet Union. Some Trotskyists such as the Committee for a Workers' International have at times included African, Asian, and Middle Eastern socialist states when they have had
396-575: A dictatorship or it may be a group, as in a one-party state . The word despotism means to "rule in the fashion of despots" and is often used to describe autocracy. Historical examples of autocracy include the Roman Empire , North Korea , the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan , Eritrea and Nazi Germany . Regardless of the form of government, the actual governance may be influenced by sectors with political power which are not part of
528-457: A human activity, the concept of productive forces includes the concept that technology mediates the human-nature relationship. Productive forces do not include the subject of labor (the raw materials or materials from nature being worked on). Productive forces are not the same thing as the means of production . Marx identified three components of production: human labor, subject of labor, and means of labor (1967, p 174). Productive forces are
660-631: A nationalized economy as deformed workers' states. Other socialists argued that the neo-Ba'athists promoted capitalists from within the party and outside their countries. List of forms of government This article lists forms of government and political systems , which are not mutually exclusive , and often have much overlap. According to Yale professor Juan José Linz there are three main types of political systems today: democracies , totalitarian regimes and, sitting between these two, authoritarian regimes with hybrid regimes . Another modern classification system includes monarchies as
792-480: A revision of Marxist thought. Bernstein stated: "The socialist movement is everything to me while what people commonly call the goal of Socialism is nothing". Following Marx, revolutionary socialists instead take the view that the working class grows stronger through its battle for reforms (such as in Marx's time, the ten-hours bill). In 1848, Marx and Engels wrote: Now and then the workers are victorious, but only for
924-877: A capitalist mode of production. The first socialist state was the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic , established in 1917. In 1922, it merged with the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic , the Transcaucasian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic , and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic into a single federal union called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The Soviet Union proclaimed itself
1056-406: A class is called forth, which has to bear all the burdens of society without enjoying its advantages, which, ousted from society, is forced into the most decided antagonism to all other classes; a class which forms the majority of all members of society, and from which emanates the consciousness of the necessity of a fundamental revolution, the communist consciousness, which may, of course, arise among
1188-415: A communist society)". The 2019 constitution retains the aim to work towards the construction of socialism. A number of countries make references to socialism in their constitutions that are not single-party states embracing Marxism–Leninism and planned economies. In most cases, these are constitutional references to the building of a socialist society and political principles that have little to no bearing on
1320-588: A form of Marxism–Leninism, combined with nationalism and idolization, deification, and mystification of the Kim family. Similarly, direct references to communism in the Lao People's Democratic Republic are not included in its founding documents , although it gives direct power to the governing ruling party, the Marxist–Leninist Lao People's Revolutionary Party . The preamble to the constitution of
1452-437: A form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. A common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of state is not a monarch. Montesquieu included both democracies , where all the people have a share in rule, and aristocracies or oligarchies , where only some of
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#17327659406631584-400: A highly organized stateless society . Libertarian communists, including anarchists , councillists , leftists , and Marxists , also reject the concept of a socialist state for being antithetical to socialism, but they believe that socialism can only be established through revolution and dissolving the existence of the state. Within the socialist movement, there is criticism towards the use of
1716-541: A historical state of human society, especially before the concentration of power afforded by agriculture. It has been presented as a viable long-term choice by individuals known as anarchists who oppose the state and other forms of coercive hierarchies. These systems are often highly organized, and include institutional or cultural systems to prevent the concentration of power. Anarchism typically advocates for social organization in non-hierarchical, voluntary associations where people voluntarily help each other . There are
1848-586: A minimum of land, wealth and status. Some critics of capitalism and/or representative democracy think of the United States and the United Kingdom as oligarchies . These categories are not exclusive. Autocracies are ruled by a single entity with absolute power, whose decisions are subject to neither external legal restraints nor regular mechanisms of popular control (except perhaps for implicit threat). That entity may be an individual, as in
1980-431: A minimum of wealth and status. Social democracy rejects the "either/or" phobiocratic/polarization interpretation of capitalism versus socialism. Social democracy argues that all citizens should be legally entitled to certain social rights. These are made up of universal access to public services such as: education, health care, workers' compensation, public transportation, and other services including child care and care for
2112-438: A more decentralized approach which puts the means of production directly into the hands of the workers rather than indirectly through state bureaucracies which they claim represent a new elite or class . This leads them to consider state socialism a form of state capitalism (an economy based on centralized management, capital accumulation and wage labor, but with the state owning the means of production) which Engels stated would be
2244-577: A number of small, wealthy, trade-based city-states embraced republican ideals, notably across Italy and the Baltic. In general, these mercantile republics arose in regions of Europe where feudal control by an absolutist monarchy was minimal or absent completely. In these mercantile republics, the leaders were elected by the citizenry with the primary duty of increasing the city-state's collective wealth. Many political systems can be described as socioeconomic ideologies. Experience with those movements in power and
2376-512: A point where a revolutionary movement arises. A revolutionary movement is required (in the view of Marxists) to sweep away the capitalist state and the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, which must be abolished and replaced with a dictatorship of the proletariat, to begin constructing a socialist society. In this view, only through revolution can a socialist state be established as written in The Communist Manifesto : In depicting
2508-540: A relatively very extensive commerce, is proved by the Phoenicians, whose inventions were for the most part lost for a long time to come through the ousting of this nation from commerce, its conquest by Alexander and its consequent decline. Likewise, for instance, glass-painting in the Middle Ages. Only when commerce has become world commerce, and has as its basis large-scale industry, when all nations are drawn into
2640-529: A revolutionary vanguard party acting as representatives of the proletariat and its interests. According to Lenin's April Theses , the goal of the revolution and vanguard party is not the introduction of socialism (it could only be established on a worldwide scale), but to bring production and the state under the control of the soviets of workers' deputies. Following the October Revolution in Russia,
2772-427: A science. So different views, hypotheses and approaches were widely discussed, tested and refined with time. Other interpretations, sometimes influenced by postmodernism and the concept of commodity fetishism have by contrast emphasized the reification of the powers of technology, said to occur by the separation of technique from the producers, and by falsely imputing human powers to technology as autonomous force,
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#17327659406632904-414: A scientific " administration of things" that would be concerned with directing processes of production in a socialist society, essentially ceasing to be a state. Although Marx never referred to a "socialist state", he argued that the working class would have to take control of the state apparatus and of the machinery of government in order to transition out of capitalism and to socialism. The dictatorship of
3036-429: A single, vastly powerful corporation deposes a weak government, over time or in a coup d'état . Some political scientists have also considered state socialist nations to be forms of corporate republics, with the state assuming full control of all economic and political life and establishing a monopoly on everything within national boundaries – effectively making the state itself amount to a giant corporation. Probably
3168-564: A socialist state and proclaimed its commitment to building a socialist economy in its 1936 constitution and a subsequent 1977 constitution . It was governed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as a single-party state, ostensibly with a democratic centralism organization, with Marxism–Leninism remaining its official guiding ideology until the dissolution of the Soviet Union on 26 December 1991. The political systems of these Marxist–Leninist socialist states revolved around
3300-419: A socialist state, or including the term people's republic or socialist republic in their country's full name, although this does not necessarily reflect the structure and development paths of these countries' political and economic systems. Currently, these countries include Algeria , Bangladesh , Guyana , India , Nepal , Nicaragua , Sri Lanka and Tanzania . The idea of a socialist state stems from
3432-683: A standalone entity or as a hybrid system of the main three. Scholars generally refer to a dictatorship as either a form of authoritarianism or totalitarianism. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato discusses in the Republic five types of regimes: aristocracy , timocracy , oligarchy , democracy, and tyranny . The question raised by Plato in the Republic : What kind of state is best? Generational changes informed by new political and cultural beliefs, technological progress, values and morality over millenniums have resulted in considerable shifts in
3564-416: A state under the control of a vanguard party that is organizing the economic, social, and political affairs of said state toward the construction of socialism. States run by communist parties that adhere to Marxism–Leninism, or some national variation thereof, refer to themselves as socialist states or workers' and peasants' states. They involve the direction of economic development toward the building up of
3696-557: A state would be a temporary affair and suggests that a new generation brought up in "new and free social conditions" will be able to "throw the entire lumber of the state on the scrap-heap". Socialists who embraced reformism , exemplified by the German politician Eduard Bernstein (1850-1932), took the view that both socialism and a socialist state will gradually evolve out of political reforms won by organized socialist political-parties and unions. More-orthodox Marxists regard these views as
3828-406: A system in which social values or workers' interests have economic priority. However, the concept of a socialist state is mainly advocated by Marxist–Leninists and most socialist states have been established by political parties adhering to Marxism–Leninism or some national variation thereof such as Maoism , Stalinism , Titoism or Ho Chi Minh Thought . A state, whether socialist or not, is opposed
3960-509: A time. The real fruit of their battles lies, not in the immediate result, but in the ever expanding union of the workers. [...] [I]t ever rises up again, stronger, firmer, mightier. It compels legislative recognition of particular interests of the workers, by taking advantage of the divisions among the bourgeoisie itself. Thus, the ten-hours' bill in England was carried. According to the orthodox Marxist conception, these battles eventually reach
4092-570: A variety of forms of anarchy that attempt to discourage the use of coercion, violence, force and authority, while still producing a productive and desirable society. More generally, random selection of decision makers from a larger group is known as sortition (from the Latin base for lottery). The Athenian democracy made much use of sortition, with nearly all government offices filled by lottery (of full citizens) rather than by election. Candidates were almost always male, Greek, educated citizens holding
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4224-616: Is a state representing the interests of the working class which presides over a state capitalist economy structured upon state-directed accumulation of capital with the goal of building up the country's productive forces and promoting worldwide socialist revolution , while the realization of a socialist economy is held as the long-term goal. In the Western world, particularly in mass media, journalism, and politics, these states and countries are often called communist states (although they do not use this term to refer to themselves), despite
4356-598: Is applied. The most important components of the means of labor are the instruments of labor (for example, tools, devices, and machines). (From Productive forces. — The Great Soviet Encyclopedia: in 30 volumes. — Moscow: «Soviet Encyclopedia», 1969–1978. ; English web-version of the article [2] ; original version in Russian [3] ) According to this, productive forces have such structure: Marxism in USSR served as core philosophical paradigm or platform, and had been developing as
4488-401: Is appointed by the president or elected by the parliament and handles daily administration. The term semi-presidential distinguishes this system from presidential and parliamentary systems. A directorial republic is a government system with power divided among a college of several people who jointly exercise the powers of a head of state and/or a head of government. In the early Renaissance,
4620-492: Is defined more broadly. For example, a 2010 International Alert publication defined anocracies as "countries that are neither autocratic nor democratic, most of which are making the risky transition between autocracy and democracy". Alert noted that the number of anocracies had increased substantially since the end of the Cold War. Anocracy is not surprisingly the least resilient political system to short-term shocks: it creates
4752-452: Is no need for a state in a socialist system because there would be no class to suppress and no need for an institution based on coercion and therefore, regard the state being a remnant of capitalism. They hold that statism is antithetical to true socialism, the goal of which is the eyes of libertarian socialists such as William Morris , who wrote as follows in a Commonweal article: "State Socialism? — I don't agree with it; in fact, I think
4884-541: Is portrayed primarily in science fiction settings. Examples from popular culture include Gaia in Appleseed Productive forces NML: Productive forces , productive powers , or forces of production ( German : Produktivkräfte ) is a central idea in Marxism and historical materialism . In Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels ' own critique of political economy , it refers to the combination of
5016-440: Is practical free trade; the protective duty is only a palliative, a measure of defence within free trade), established means of communication and the modern world market, subordinated trade to itself, transformed all capital into industrial capital, and thus produced the rapid circulation (development of the financial system) and the centralisation of capital. By universal competition it forced all individuals to strain their energy to
5148-401: Is said to be a spontaneous result of the operation of a universal market and the process of commercialization . Marx's concept of productive forces also has some relevance for discussions in economics about the meaning and measurement of productivity . Modern economics theorises productivity in terms of the marginal product of the factors of production . Marx theorises productivity within
5280-544: Is undemocratic; and Marxism–Leninism is neither Marxism nor Leninism , but rather, a composite ideology which socialist leaders like Joseph Stalin used to expediently determine what is communism and what is not communism among the Eastern Bloc countries. Although most Marxist–Leninists distinguish between communism and socialism , Bordiga, who did consider himself a Leninist and has been described as being "more Leninist than Lenin", did not distinguish between
5412-531: The Bolshevik -led revolution in Russia , many socialist groups—including reformists, orthodox Marxist currents such as council communism , and the Mensheviks , as well as anarchists and other libertarian socialists—criticized the idea of using the state to conduct planning and nationalization of the means of production as a way to establish socialism. Lenin himself acknowledged state capitalism as part of
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5544-458: The Bolsheviks consolidated their power and sought to control and direct the social and economic affairs of the state and broader Russian society to safeguard against counterrevolutionary insurrection, foreign invasion, and to promote socialist consciousness among the Russian population while simultaneously promoting economic development. These ideas were adopted by Lenin in 1917 just prior to
5676-501: The Communist International ; and that a political vanguard organized by organic centralism was more effective than a vanguard organized by democratic centralism . The American Marxist Raya Dunayevskaya also dismissed it as a type of state capitalism because state ownership of the means of production is a form of state capitalism; the dictatorship of the proletariat is a form of democracy and single-party rule
5808-578: The European Economic Community because it demanded a free-market capitalist economy among its members. Nevertheless, public ownership in France and the United Kingdom during the height of nationalization in the 1960s and 1970s never accounted for more than 15–20% of capital formation , further dropping to 8% in the 1980s and below 5% in the 1990s after the rise of neoliberalism . The socialist policies practiced by parties such as
5940-544: The Marxist tradition conceive of the state as representing the interests of its ruling class, partially out of material necessity for the smooth operation of the modes of production which the state presides over. Marxists trace the formation of the contemporary form of the sovereign state to the emergence of capitalism as a dominant mode of production, with its organizational precepts and functions designed by capitalists and by their supporters specifically to manage and regulate
6072-606: The October Revolution . Additional people's republics emerged following the Allied victory in World War II, mainly within the Eastern Bloc . In Asia, China became a people's republic following the Chinese Communist Revolution and North Korea also became a people's republic. During the 1960s, Romania and Yugoslavia ceased to use the term people's republic in their official name, replacing it with
6204-481: The Socialist Republic of Vietnam states that Vietnam only entered a transition stage between capitalism and socialism after the country was reunified under the Communist Party of Vietnam in 1976. The 1992 constitution of the Republic of Cuba states that the role of the Communist Party of Cuba is to "guide the common effort toward the goals and construction of socialism (and the progress toward
6336-550: The Soviet Union and static centralization of political power, Trotsky condemned the Soviet government's policies for lacking widespread democratic participation on the part of the population and for suppressing workers' self-management and democratic participation in the management of the economy. Because these authoritarian political measures were inconsistent with the organizational precepts of socialism, Trotsky characterized
6468-463: The Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), known as Juche . Originally regarded as a variant of Marxism–Leninism, Juche was declared to be fully distinct by his son and successor, Kim Jong Il , and was adopted as the official state ideology in the 1972 constitution of North Korea . Further developed throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Juche made significant ideological breaks with Marxism–Leninism, and in
6600-579: The capitalist mode of production in terms of the social and technical relations of production , with the concept of the organic composition of capital and the value product . He suggests there is no completely neutral view of productivity possible; how productivity is defined depends on the values and interests people have. Thus, different social classes have different notions of productivity reflecting their own station in life, and giving rise to different notions of productive and unproductive labour . In 1984 Deng Xiaoping declared "the fundamental task for
6732-576: The laws of capitalism still operated fully and private enterprise dominated the economy, some political commentators claimed that during the post-war period, when socialist parties were in power, countries such as Britain and France were democratic socialist states and the same is now applied to the Nordic countries and the Nordic model . In the 1980s, the government of President François Mitterrand aimed to expand dirigisme and attempted to nationalize all French banks, but this attempt faced opposition of
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#17327659406636864-517: The lower-phase communism . For Bordiga, both stages of socialist or communist society —with stages referring to historical materialism —were characterized by the gradual absence of money, the market, and so on, the difference between them being that earlier in the first stage, a system of rationing would be used to allocate goods to people, while in communism this could be abandoned in favour of full free access. This view distinguished Bordiga from Marxist–Leninists, who tended, and still tend, to telescope
6996-550: The means of labor (tools, machinery, land, infrastructure, and so on) with human labour power . Marx and Engels probably derived the concept from Adam Smith 's reference to the "productive powers of labour" (see e.g. chapter 8 of The Wealth of Nations (1776)), although the German political economist Friedrich List also mentions the concept of "productive powers" in The National System of Political Economy (1841). All those forces which are applied by people in
7128-438: The military , and the police force , would be privatised . The social welfare function carried out by the state is instead carried out by corporations in the form of benefits to employees. Although corporate republics do not exist officially in the modern world, they are often used in works of fiction or political commentary as a warning of the perceived dangers of unbridled capitalism . In such works, they usually arise when
7260-403: The productive forces to underpin the establishment of a socialist economy and usually include that at least the commanding heights of the economy are nationalized and under state ownership . This may or may not include the existence of a socialist economy, depending on the specific terminology adopted and level of development in specific countries. The Leninist definition of a socialist state
7392-558: The Commune was compelled to recognize that the working class, once come to power, could not manage with the old state machine". Engels states that in order to avoid overthrow once having conquered power, the working class "must, on the one hand, do away with all the old repressive machinery previously used against it itself, and, on the other, safeguard itself against its own deputies and officials, by declaring them all, without exception, subject to recall at any moment". Engels argues that such
7524-631: The October Revolution in Russia and published in The State and Revolution . With the failure of the worldwide revolution, or at least European revolution, envisaged by Lenin and Leon Trotsky , the Russian Civil War and finally, Lenin's death, war measures that were deemed to be temporary, such as forced requisition of food and the lack of democratic control, became permanent and a tool to boost Joseph Stalin 's power, leading to
7656-472: The Paris Commune as the prototype for a revolutionary government of the future, "the form at last discovered" for the emancipation of the proletariat. Engels noted that "all officials, high or low, were paid only the wages received by other workers. [...] In this way, an effective barrier to place-hunting and careerism was set up". Commenting on the nature of the state, Engels continued: "From the outset,
7788-559: The Singaporean People's Action Party (PAP) during its first few decades in power were of a pragmatic kind as characterized by its rejection of nationalization. Despite this, the PAP still claimed to be a socialist party , pointing out its regulation of the private sector, state intervention in the economy, and social policies as evidence of this. The Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew also stated that he has been influenced by
7920-529: The Soviet Union a socialist state, nor did he claim that it had achieved socialism. He adopted state capitalist policies, defending them from left-wing criticism, but arguing that they were necessary for the future development of socialism and not socialist in themselves. On seeing the Soviet Union's growing coercive power, Lenin was quoted as saying that Russia had reverted to "a bourgeois tsarist machine [...] barely varnished with socialism". A variety of non-state, libertarian communist and socialist positions reject
8052-452: The Soviet Union as a deformed workers' state that would not be able to effectively transition to socialism. Ostensibly socialist states where democracy is lacking, yet the economy is largely in the hands of the state, are termed by orthodox Trotskyist theories as degenerated or deformed workers' states and not socialist states. Many democratic and libertarian socialists, including anarchists, mutualists , and syndicalists , criticize
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#17327659406638184-465: The Welfare State have come to be used as interchangeable terms, and in the mouths of some people, as terms of reproach. Why this is so it is not difficult to understand, if you view everything from the angle of a strictly individualistic competitive society. A free health service is pure Socialism and as such, it is opposed to the hedonism of capitalist society. Although, as in the rest of Europe,
8316-505: The administration of things", thereby ceasing to be a state by the traditional definition. With the fall of the 1871 Paris Commune , Marx cautiously argued in The Civil War in France that "the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes. The centralized state power, with its ubiquitous organs of standing army, police, bureaucracy, clergy, and judicature—organs wrought after
8448-400: The affairs of a capitalist economy. Because this involves governance and laws passed in the interest of the bourgeoisie as a whole, and because government officials either come from the bourgeoisie or are dependent upon bourgeois interests, Marx characterized the capitalist state as a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie . Extrapolating from this, Marx described a post-revolutionary government on
8580-447: The behest of the sultan and generally only required a tax from the lower classes, instead of military service and/or manual labour like in the feudal system. Governments can also be categorized based on their size and scope of influence: Certain major characteristics are defining of certain types; others are historically associated with certain types of government. This list focuses on differing approaches that political systems take to
8712-453: The belief about the origination of political authority, who may participate in matters of state, how people might participate, the determination of what is just, and so forth. Index of Forms of Government. Systems resembling anarchism can be a natural, temporary result of civil war in a country, when an established state has been destroyed and the region is in a transitional period without definitive leadership. It has also been proposed as
8844-419: The broader notion of state socialism , the political perspective that the working class needs to use state power and government policy to establish a socialised economic system. The term can vary in its use from meaning a political system to adopting terms of a welfare state. This may either mean a system where the means of production, distribution, and exchange are nationalised or under state ownership, or simply
8976-467: The central role of the party which holds ultimate authority. Internally, the communist party practiced a form of democracy called democratic centralism . During the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1961, Nikita Khrushchev announced the completion of socialist construction and declared the optimistic goal of achieving communism in twenty years . The Eastern Bloc
9108-626: The chance to change things. An oligarchy does not have to be hereditary or monarchic. An oligarchy does not have one clear ruler but several rulers. ( Ancient Greek ὀλιγαρχία (oligarkhía) literally meant rule by few") Some historical examples of oligarchy include the Roman Republic , in which only males of the nobility could run for office and only wealthy males could vote, and the Athenian democracy , which used sortition to elect candidates, almost always male, Greek, educated citizens holding
9240-513: The character of the national power of capital over labour, of a public organized for social enslavement , of an engine of class despotism'". One of the most influential modern visions of a transitional state representing proletarian interests stemmed from the example of the Paris Commune, in which the workers and working poor took control of the city of Paris in 1871 in reaction to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. Marx described
9372-522: The class overthrowing it, can only in a revolution succeed in ridding itself of all the muck of ages, and become fitted to found society anew. (From The German Ideology ) The Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R., textbook (1957, p xiv) says that "[t]he productive forces reflect the relationship of people to the objects and forces of nature used for the production of material wealth." (italics added) While productive forces are
9504-466: The competitive struggle, is the permanence of the acquired productive forces assured. (...) Competition soon compelled every country that wished to retain its historical role to protect its manufactures [ sic ] by renewed customs regulations (the old duties were no longer any good against big industry) and soon after to introduce big industry under protective duties. Big industry universalised competition in spite of these protective measures (it
9636-401: The concept of a socialist state altogether, believing that the modern state is a byproduct of capitalism and cannot be used for the establishment of a socialist system. They reason that a socialist state is antithetical to socialism and that socialism will emerge spontaneously from the grassroots level in an evolutionary manner , developing its own unique political and economic institutions for
9768-400: The concept of establishing a socialist state instead of abolishing the bourgeois state apparatus outright. They use the term state socialism to contrast it with their own form of socialism, which involves either collective ownership (in the form of worker cooperatives ) or common ownership of the means of production without state centralized planning . Those socialists believe there
9900-569: The country's productive forces while simultaneously promoting world communism . Academics, political commentators, and other scholars tend to distinguish between authoritarian socialist and democratic socialist states, with the first representing the Soviet Bloc and the latter representing Western Bloc countries which have been democratically governed by socialist parties such as Britain , France , Italy , and Western social democracies in general, among others, all of which operate within
10032-495: The country's 1992 constitution, all references to Marxism–Leninism and communism were removed from state and party materials. Scholars are divided over the classification of the modern-day Juche , with some considering it to be a departure from Marxist–Leninist principles, given the primacy of family lineage and nationalism over class struggle , and where social distinction and hierarchy are promoted over classless society and egalitarianism , and others considering it to still be
10164-402: The democratic socialist British Labour Party. Because most existing socialist states operated along Marxist–Leninist principles of governance, the terms Marxist–Leninist regime and Marxist–Leninist state are used by scholars, particularly when focusing on the political systems of these countries. A people's republic is a type of socialist state with a republican constitution. Although
10296-469: The development of socialism. Socialist states in the Marxist–Leninist sense are sovereign states under the control of a vanguard party which is organizing the country's economic, political, and social development toward the realization of socialism. Economically, this involves the development of a state capitalist economy with state-directed capital accumulation with the long-term goal of building up
10428-407: The distribution of sovereignty , and the autonomy of regions within the state. These have no conclusive historical or current examples outside of speculation and scholarly debate. While retaining some semblance of republican government, a corporate republic would be run primarily like a business , involving a board of directors and executives . Utilities , including hospitals , schools ,
10560-434: The division of labour the last semblance of its natural character. It destroyed natural growth in general, as far as this is possible while labour exists, and resolved all natural relationships into money relationships. In the place of naturally grown towns it created the modern, large industrial cities which have sprung up overnight. Wherever it penetrated, it destroyed the crafts and all earlier stages of industry. It completed
10692-516: The effect being a perspective of inevitable and unstoppable technological progress operating beyond any human control, and impervious to human choices. In turn, this is said to have the effect of naturalising and legitimating social arrangements produced by people, by asserting that they are technically inevitable. The error here seems to be that social relations between people are confused and conflated with technical relations between people and things, and object relations between things; but this error
10824-428: The elderly. Social democracy is connected with the trade union labour movement and supports collective bargaining rights for workers. Contemporary social democracy advocates freedom from discrimination based on differences of: ability/disability, age, ethnicity, sex, language, religion, and social class. Oligarchies are societies controlled and organised by a small class of privileged people, with no intervention from
10956-399: The emergence of Marxism–Leninism and Stalinism , as well as the notion that socialism can be created and exist in a single state with theory of socialism in one country . Lenin argued that as socialism is replaced by communism, the state would " wither away " as strong centralized control progressively reduces as local communities gain more empowerment. As he put it succinctly, "[s]o long as
11088-458: The fact that these countries never claimed to have achieved communism in their countries—rather, they claim to be building and working toward the establishment of socialism and the development towards communism thereafter in their countries. Terms used by communist states include national-democratic , people's democratic , people's republican , socialist-oriented , and workers' and peasants' states. Karl Marx and subsequent thinkers in
11220-399: The final form of capitalism rather than socialism. Some Trotskyists following on from Tony Cliff deny that it is socialism, calling it state capitalism. Other Trotskyists agree that these states could not be described as socialist, but deny that they were state capitalist. They support Leon Trotsky 's analysis of pre-restoration Soviet Union as a workers' state that had degenerated into
11352-509: The first post-war Labour government and the architect of the National Health Service , disputed the claim that Britain was a socialist state. For Crosland and others who supported his views, Britain was a socialist state. According to Bevan, Britain had a socialist National Health Service which stood in opposition to the hedonism of Britain's capitalist society, making the following point: The National Health service and
11484-428: The first two stages and so have money and the other exchange categories surviving into socialism. But Bordiga would have none of this. For him, no society in which money, buying and selling, and the rest survived could be regarded as either socialist or communist—these exchange categories would die out before the socialist rather than the communist stage was reached. Stalin made the claim that the Soviet Union had reached
11616-407: The formal government. These are terms that highlight certain actions of the governors, such as corruption , demagoguery , or fear mongering that may disrupt the intended way of working of the government if they are widespread enough. The Polity IV dataset recognizes anocracy as a category. In that dataset, anocracies are exactly in the middle between autocracies and democracies. Often the word
11748-419: The human innovation and industry which motivates industrial development. Capital itself, being one of the factors of production , comes to be viewed in capitalist society as a productive force in its own right, independent from labour, a subject with "a life of its own". Indeed, Marx sees the essence of what he calls "the capital relation" as being summarised by the circumstance that "capital buys labour", i.e.
11880-512: The instrumentality of things"). Marx and Engels did not believe that human history featured a continuous growth of the productive forces. Rather, the development of the productive forces was characterised by social conflicts. Some productive forces destroyed other productive forces, sometimes productive techniques were lost or destroyed, and sometimes productive forces could be turned into destructive forces: "How little highly developed productive forces are safe from complete destruction, given even
12012-537: The law of value no longer directs economic activity, namely, that monetary relations in the form of exchange-value , profit , interest, and wage labour would not operate and apply to Marxist socialism. Unlike Stalin, who first claimed to have achieved socialism with the Soviet Constitution of 1936 and then confirmed it in the Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR , Lenin did not call
12144-533: The lower stage of communism and argued that the law of value still operated within a socialist economy. Marx did not use the term socialism to refer to this development and instead called it a communist society that has not yet reached its higher-stage. The term socialism to mean the lower-state of communism was popularized during the Russian Revolution by Lenin. This view is consistent with, and helped to inform early concepts of, socialism in which
12276-529: The majority destructive forces; moreover, a great multitude of such forces could find no application at all within this system. (...) from the conception of history we have sketched we obtain these further conclusions: (1) In the development of productive forces there comes a stage when productive forces and means of intercourse are brought into being, which, under the existing relationships, only cause mischief, and are no longer forces of production but forces of destruction (machinery and money); and connected with this
12408-419: The modern state as a byproduct of capitalism , which would have no function in a socialist system. A socialist state is to be distinguished from a multi-party liberal democracy governed by a self-described socialist party , where the state is not constitutionally bound to the construction of socialism. In such cases, the political system and machinery of government is not specifically structured to pursue
12540-503: The modern state would have no function and would gradually "wither away" or be transformed into a new form of governance. Influenced by the pre-Marxist utopian-socialist philosopher Henri de Saint-Simon (1760-1825), Friedrich Engels theorized that the nature of the state would change during the transition to socialism. Both Saint-Simon and Engels described a transformation of the state from an entity primarily concerned with political rule over people (via coercion and law-creation) to
12672-403: The monarch, who mostly rule kingdoms. The actual role of the monarch and other members of royalty varies from purely symbolical ( crowned republic ) to partial and restricted ( constitutional monarchy ) to completely despotic ( absolute monarchy ). Traditionally and in most cases, the post of the monarch is inherited , but there are also elective monarchies where the monarch is elected. Rule by
12804-458: The most by anarchists, who reject the idea that the state can be used to establish a socialist society due to its hierarchical and arguably coercive nature, considering a socialist state or state socialism as an oxymoron . The concept of a socialist state is also considered unnecessary or counterproductive and rejected by some classical , libertarian , and orthodox Marxists, libertarian socialists and other socialist political thinkers who view
12936-550: The most general phases of the development of the proletariat, we traced the more or less veiled civil war, raging within existing society, up to the point where that war breaks out into open revolution, and where the violent overthrow of the bourgeoisie lays the foundation for the sway of the proletariat. Other historic reformist or gradualist movements within socialism, as opposed to revolutionary approaches, include Fabian socialist and Menshevik groupings. Whereas Marx, Engels, and classical Marxist thinkers had little to say about
13068-694: The most infamous secret society is the Illuminati , who had in their general statutes, "The order of the day is to put an end to the machinations of the purveyors of injustice, to control them without dominating them." Secret societies are illegal in several countries, including Italy and Poland , who ban secret political parties and political organizations in their constitutions. Secret societies are often portrayed in fiction settings. Some examples from popular culture include: Magocracies are portrayed primarily in fiction and fantasy settings. Some examples from popular culture include: Synthetic technocracy
13200-437: The most part of society; this small elite is defined as sharing some common trait. De jure democratic governments with a de facto oligarchy are ruled by a small group of segregated, powerful or influential people who usually share similar interests or family relations. These people may spread power and elect candidates equally or not equally. An oligarchy is different from a true democracy because very few people are given
13332-423: The organization of the state in a socialist society, presuming the modern state to be specific to the capitalist mode of production, Vladimir Lenin pioneered the idea of a revolutionary state based on his theory of the revolutionary vanguard party and organizational principles of democratic centralism . Adapted to the conditions of semi-feudal Russia, Lenin's concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat involved
13464-437: The other as a social relationship. By social we understand the co-operation of several individuals, no matter under what conditions, in what manner and to what end. It follows from this that a certain mode of production, or industrial stage, is always combined with a certain mode of co-operation, or social stage, and this mode of co-operation is itself a “productive force.” The productive power of cooperation comes to be viewed as
13596-455: The other classes too through the contemplation of the situation of this class. (...) Both for the production on a mass scale of this communist consciousness, and for the success of the cause itself, the changing of men on a mass scale is, necessary, a change which can only take place in a practical movement, a revolution; this revolution is necessary, therefore, not only because the ruling class cannot be overthrown in any other way, but also because
13728-414: The part of the working class or proletariat as a dictatorship of the proletariat because the economic interests of the proletariat would have to guide state affairs and policy during a transitional state. Alluding further to the establishment of a socialist economy where social ownership displaces private ownership and thus, class distinctions on the basis of private-property ownership are eliminated,
13860-414: The people rule, as republican forms of government. These categories are not exclusive. A semi-presidential republic is a government system with power divided between a president as head of state and a prime minister as head of government, used in countries like France , Portugal , and Ukraine . The president, elected by the people, symbolizes national unity and foreign policy while the prime minister
13992-404: The plan of a systematic and hierarchic division of labor originates from the days of absolute monarchy, serving nascent middle class society as a mighty weapon in its struggle against feudalism". In other words, "the centralized state power inherited by the bourgeoisie from the absolute monarchy necessarily assumes, in the course of the intensifying struggles between capital and labor, 'more and more
14124-409: The power of property ownership to command human energy and labour-time, and thus of inanimate "things" to exert an autonomous power over people. What disappears from view is that the power of capital depends in the last instance on human cooperation. "The production of life, both of one's own in labour and of fresh life in procreation... appears as a double relationship: on the one hand as a natural, on
14256-417: The process of building socialism and progressing toward a communist society. These countries never describe themselves as communist nor as having implemented a communist society . Additionally, a number of countries that are multi-party capitalist states make references to socialism in their constitutions , in most cases alluding to the building of a socialist society, naming socialism, claiming to be
14388-423: The production process (body and brain, tools and techniques, materials, resources, quality of workers' cooperation, and equipment) are encompassed by this concept, including those management and engineering functions technically indispensable for production (as contrasted with social control functions). Human knowledge can also be a productive force. Together with the social and technical relations of production ,
14520-606: The productive forces constitute a historically specific mode of production . Karl Marx emphasized that with few exceptions means of labour are not a productive force unless they are actually operated, maintained and conserved by living human labour. Without applying living human labour, their physical condition and value would deteriorate, depreciate, or be destroyed (an example would be a ghost town or capital depreciation due to strike action ). Simultaneously, technological developments which serve as means of production would not exist without what Marx refers to as "general intellect,"
14652-429: The productive power of capital, because it is capital which forcibly organises people, rather than people organising capital. Marx regarded this as a supreme reification . Unlike British classical economics, Marxian economics classifies financial capital as being an element of the relations of production, rather than the factors or forces of production ("not a thing, but a social relation between persons, established by
14784-404: The proletariat would represent this transitional state and would involve working-class interests dominating government policy in the same manner that capitalist-class interests dominate government policy under capitalism (the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie). Engels argued that as socialism developed, the state would change in form and function. Under socialism, it is not a "government of people, but
14916-438: The promise but not yet the actuality of an inclusive and effective political economy, and threatens members of the established elite; and is therefore very vulnerable to disruption and armed violence. Countries with monarchy attributes are those where a family or group of families (rarely another type of group), called the royalty , represents national identity, with power traditionally assigned to one of its individuals, called
15048-415: The purposeful expenditure of labor power in labor activity, human beings “objectify” or embody themselves in the material world. The material elements of the productive forces (the means of production and the means of consumption) are the product of human reason and labor. The means of production include the means of labor, which transmit human influence to nature, and the objects of labor, to which human labor
15180-506: The state exists, there is no freedom. When there will be freedom, there will be no state". In this way, Lenin was thereby proposing a classically dynamic view of progressive social structure which, during his own short period of governance, emerged as a defensive and preliminary bureaucratic centralist stage. He regarded this structural paradox as the necessary preparation for and antithesis of the desired workers' state which he forecast would follow. Following Stalin's consolidation of power in
15312-464: The strong ties they may have to particular forms of government can cause them to be considered as forms of government in themselves. These categories are not exclusive. A similar system is the Iqta‘ , used by medieval Islamic societies of the middle east and north Africa. This functioned much like the feudal system but generally had titles that weren't granted to a family dynasty but to individuals at
15444-541: The structure and guidance of these country's machinery of government and economic system . The preamble to the 1976 Constitution of Portugal states that the Portuguese state has, as one of its goals, opening "the way to socialist society". Another broad example is that of Slovenia, which defines itself as a "state governed by the rule of law and a social state". Algeria, the Congo, India, and Sri Lanka have directly used
15576-743: The term socialism was often used in reference to an Arab socialist / nationalist philosophy adopted by specific regimes, such as that of Gamal Abdel Nasser and that of the various Ba'ath parties . Examples of countries directly using the term socialist in their names include the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, while a number of countries make references to socialism in their constitutions, but not in their names. These include India and Portugal. In addition, countries such as Belarus, Colombia, France, Russia, and Spain use
15708-417: The term socialist in their official constitution and name. Croatia, Hungary, and Poland directly denounce "Communism" in their founding documents in reference to their past regimes. In these cases, the intended meaning of socialism can vary widely and sometimes the constitutional references to socialism are left over from a previous period in the country's history. In the case of many Middle Eastern states,
15840-449: The term socialist republic as a mark of their ongoing political development. Czechoslovakia also added the term socialist republic into its name during this period. It had become a people's republic in 1948, but the country had not used that term in its official name. Albania used both terms in its official name from 1976 to 1991. The term socialist state is widely used by Marxist–Leninist parties, theorists, and governments to mean
15972-550: The term initially became associated with populist movements in the 19th century such as the German Völkisch movement and the Narodniks in Russia, it is now associated with Communist Party ruled states. A number of the short-lived communist states which formed during World War I and its aftermath called themselves people's republics . Many of these sprang up in the territory of the former Russian Empire following
16104-568: The term socialist states in relation to countries such as China and previously of Soviet Union and Eastern and Central European states before what some term the "collapse of Stalinism " in 1989. Anti-authoritarian communists and socialists such as anarchists, other democratic and libertarian socialists, as well as revolutionary syndicalists and left communists claim that the so-called socialist states actually presided over state capitalist economies and cannot be called socialist. Those socialists who oppose any system of state control whatsoever believe in
16236-478: The transition from capitalism to socialism. Critical of the economy and government of socialist states, left communists such as the Italian Amadeo Bordiga said that their socialism was a form of political opportunism which preserved rather than destroyed capitalism because of the claim that the exchange of commodities would occur under socialism ; the use of popular front organisations by
16368-428: The two in the same way Marxist–Leninists do. Both Lenin and Bordiga did not see socialism as a separate mode of production from communism, but rather, just as how communism looks as it emerges out of capitalism before it has "developed on its own foundations". This is coherent with Marx and Engels, who used the terms communism and socialism interchangeably. Like Lenin, Bordiga used socialism to mean what Marx called
16500-486: The two words contradict one another, and that it is the business of Socialism to destroy the State and put Free Society in its place". Classical and orthodox Marxists also view state socialism as an oxymoron, arguing that while an association for managing production and economic affairs would exist in socialism, it would no longer be a state in the Marxist definition , which is based on domination by one class . Preceding
16632-554: The union of human labor and the means of labor; means of production are the union of the subject of labor and the means of labor. (Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R., 1957, p xiii). On the other hand, The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1969–1978) states: Society's principal productive forces are people—the participants in social production, or the workers and the toiling masses in general (K. Marx and F. Engels, vol. 46, part 1, p. 403; V. I. Lenin, Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 38, p. 359). <…> Through
16764-461: The utmost. It destroyed as far as possible ideology, religion, morality, etc. and where it could not do this, made them into a palpable lie. It produced world history for the first time, insofar as it made all civilised nations and every individual member of them dependent for the satisfaction of their wants on the whole world, thus destroying the former natural exclusiveness of separate nations. It made natural science subservient to capital and took from
16896-407: The varied term social state , leaving a more ambiguous meaning. In the constitutions of Croatia, Hungary, and Poland, direct condemnation is made to the respective past socialist regimes. The autonomous region of Rojava , which operates under the principles of democratic confederalism , has been described as a socialist state. During the post-war consensus , nationalization of large industries
17028-425: The victory of the commercial town over the countryside. [Its first premise] was the automatic system. [Its development] produced a mass of productive forces, for which private [property] became just as much a fetter as the guild had been for manufacture and the small, rural workshop for the developing craft. These productive forces received under the system of private property a one-sided development only, and became for
17160-660: Was a political and economic bloc of Soviet-aligned socialist states in Eastern and Central Europe which adhered to Marxism–Leninism, Soviet-style governance , and economic planning in the form of the administrative-command system and command economy . China's socio-economic structure has been referred to as "nationalistic state capitalism" and the Eastern Bloc (Eastern Europe and the Third World ) as "bureaucratic-authoritarian systems." The People's Republic of China
17292-419: Was founded on 1 October 1949, and proclaims itself to be a socialist state in its 1982 constitution . The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) used to adhere to orthodox Marxism–Leninism since its founding until mid-1950s, by which point the supreme leader of North Korea, Kim Il Sung , sought to develop a distinct Korean re-interpretation of the ideology in order to solidify his position within
17424-510: Was relatively widespread and it was not uncommon for commentators to describe some European countries as democratic socialist states seeking to move their countries toward a socialist economy . In 1956, leading British Labour Party politician and author Anthony Crosland claimed that capitalism had been abolished in Britain, although others such as Welshman Aneurin Bevan , Minister of Health in
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