Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff
Speaker 1: Lauren Bolebaum here. The Soviet Union was the world's first
Speaker 1: communist country, So why was its official name the Union
Speaker 1: of Soviet Socialist Republics. Our Socialism and communism actually the
Speaker 1: same thing, Yes and no. Both share a single foundation
Speaker 1: at the Communist Manifesto published in eighteen forty eight by
Speaker 1: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. But there are clear differences
Speaker 1: between authoritarian communist regimes like the Soviet Union and China
Speaker 1: and far more democratic forms of socialism practicing countries like Sweden,
Speaker 1: Canada and Bolivia. To understand the differences between socialism and communism,
Speaker 1: we have to start with their common enemy, capitalism. Marx
Speaker 1: and Engels viewed the entirety of human history as a
Speaker 1: history of class struggles. In ancient Rome, there were patricians, plebeians,
Speaker 1: and the enslaved. In feudal societies, there were lords, apprentices
Speaker 1: and serfs. In the seventeen hundreds, political and economic revolutions
Speaker 1: in England, America and France did away with feudalism and
Speaker 1: replaced it with capitalism. For the article this Episodes based
Speaker 1: on How Stuff Works, spoke Norman Markwitz, a political history
Speaker 1: professor at Rutgers University. He said, by the eighteen twenties
Speaker 1: and eighteen thirties, capitalism had produced a world of progress
Speaker 1: and poverty. Even at that early point, the Industrial Revolution
Speaker 1: and the creation of free market economies had greatly benefited
Speaker 1: the wealthy classes, who owned the factories and the farms,
Speaker 1: that is, the means of production, while leaving the average
Speaker 1: worker even worse off than the Marx and Engels divided
Speaker 1: the modern world into two classes, the bourgeoisie, who owned
Speaker 1: the means of production, and the proletariat, or the working class.
Speaker 1: A capitalism, with its emphasis on cheap labor, had created
Speaker 1: an ever widening gulf between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat,
Speaker 1: a problem they said could only be fixed by completely
Speaker 1: dismantling the political and economic system that had created it.
Speaker 1: But Marx and Engels, writing in the eighteen forties, weren't
Speaker 1: the first to have these ideas. They were the latest
Speaker 1: in a long line of economic and political theorists who
Speaker 1: all identified as socialists. A Socialism as a movement began
Speaker 1: in the early eighteen hundreds with thinkers like Henri de Sinsman,
Speaker 1: Robert Owen, and Charles Fourier. Disgusted with the inequalities created
Speaker 1: by capitalism and competition, early socialists proposed the creation of
Speaker 1: workers collectives with shared ownership of property, farms, and factories.
Speaker 1: Markwitz said from the eighteen twenties through the eighteen forties
Speaker 1: there were various different socialist movements that attracted workers, farmers,
Speaker 1: and alienated intellectuals, and all kinds of plans and programs
Speaker 1: to establish socialist collectives. The aforementioned Robert Owen, a wealthy
Speaker 1: Scottish industrialist, even founded such a community called New Harmony
Speaker 1: in Indiana in eighteen twenty five, which eventually failed. Socialism,
Speaker 1: both then and now, advocates for cooperation rather than competition,
Speaker 1: by opposing an unrestricted market economy. Under a socialist system,
Speaker 1: citizens pay high income taxes in exchange for free access
Speaker 1: to government run programs and services. In some socialist models,
Speaker 1: all industry and means of production are state owned, while
Speaker 1: other models allow for private ownership of businesses, with public
Speaker 1: control of certain sectors like health care, energy, education, and transportation.
Speaker 1: The goal of socialism is to create a more egalitarian society.
Speaker 1: A Marx and Engels were fierce critics of the earlier
Speaker 1: utopian forms of socialism that were, in their words, doomed
Speaker 1: to failure because they said they were based on the
Speaker 1: naive belief that class struggle could be resolved through peaceful means.
Speaker 1: Markowitz explained, A Marx and Engels believed that eventually the
Speaker 1: struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat would create a
Speaker 1: crisis in which the capitalist system would need to be
Speaker 1: abolished and replaced with a socialist system. It wouldn't be
Speaker 1: a utopian system, but a system in which the working
Speaker 1: class have the political power. So you can think of
Speaker 1: the communist Manifesto as a socialist called arms in it. A.
Speaker 1: Marx and Engels argued that the only way to end
Speaker 1: the class struggles that had defined history was through a
Speaker 1: socialist revolution. After the revolution, society would be ruled by
Speaker 1: a dictator leadership of the proletariat. Under capitalism, the bourgeoisie
Speaker 1: called the shots, but a government ruled by the workers
Speaker 1: would put the worker's interests first and not those of
Speaker 1: a wealthy elite. For Marx and Engels, communism was the
Speaker 1: most advanced form of socialism. They saw the evolution of
Speaker 1: advanced societies as starting with capitalism, moving to socialism, and
Speaker 1: finally reaching the ultimate goal of communism. Under proletariat rule,
Speaker 1: the communists would abolish private ownership of land, farms, and
Speaker 1: factories and hand all control over to the state. Housing,
Speaker 1: medical care, and education would all be free, and every
Speaker 1: worker would have a job. In a way, Marx and
Speaker 1: Engel's vision of a truly communist society was also utopian.
Speaker 1: They believed that at some point the state itself would
Speaker 1: cease to exist and the workers would simply share everything,
Speaker 1: as Marx famously wrote, from each according to his ability,
Speaker 1: to eacharding to his needs. Markowitz said, in that higher
Speaker 1: stage of communism, there would be general equality and general abundance.
Speaker 1: People could do whatever they want without harming others. They
Speaker 1: would be genuinely free. But Marx Engels's version of revolutionary socialism,
Speaker 1: also known as Marxism, was never really put into practice. Instead,
Speaker 1: the world's first communist revolution happened in an unlikely placed,
Speaker 1: Czarist Russia, and its political mastermind was Vladimir Lenin. Lenin
Speaker 1: was a Marxist, but he put his own twist on
Speaker 1: communist theory. He was a champion of the workers, but
Speaker 1: he wasn't confident that a dictatorship of the proletariat would
Speaker 1: spontaneously form after the revolution. Instead of leaving governance up
Speaker 1: to an election or appointment by the workers, Lenin installed
Speaker 1: the Communist Party. All power was put in the hands
Speaker 1: of a political elite that controlled every asset aspect of
Speaker 1: Soviet economic, cultural, and intellectual life, with the ostensible goal
Speaker 1: of creating the more equitable socialist society. In reality, Leninisms
Speaker 1: slipped into authoritarian and tolitarian territory with violent crackdowns on
Speaker 1: dissent and opposition. The ideas put forth in the Communist
Speaker 1: Manifesto inspired generations of political thinkers and economic theorists. Some
Speaker 1: of those individuals formed socialist political parties to win power
Speaker 1: by democratic means, while others, like Lenin and Malo Zadong
Speaker 1: launched communist revolutions. The results today are countries and governments
Speaker 1: that identify as either socialist or communist or both. Scandinavia
Speaker 1: is home to a cluster of democratic socialist countries. Norway, Sweden, Finland,
Speaker 1: and Denmark have elected socialist democratic parties into power, and
Speaker 1: their legislatures have passed laws establishing expansive welfare states. In
Speaker 1: a socialist welfare state, citizens pay high taxes, but enjoy
Speaker 1: generous social services, including free education including college of free
Speaker 1: health care, retirement pensions, paid parntal leave, subsidized housing, and more.
Speaker 1: Socialism hasn't had much success in American politics since Eugene
Speaker 1: Debs ran for president in the early nineteen hundreds, but
Speaker 1: there are currently three members of the House of Representatives
Speaker 1: who belong to the Democratic Socialists of America, including Alexandria
Speaker 1: Ocasio Cortez of New York and Rashida Talib from Michigan.
Speaker 1: The organization has over ninety two thousand members in the US.
Speaker 1: Proponents of the democratic socialist model say that it allows
Speaker 1: for the democratic ideal of individual liberty while also providing
Speaker 1: the socialist ideal of egalitarian social programs. Critics say that
Speaker 1: providing those egalitarian social programs requires a level of redistribution
Speaker 1: of wealth and government regulation that necessarily hampers individual liberty.
Speaker 1: It's important to point out that in democratic socialist countries today,
Speaker 1: private ownership of business and free market capitalism are also
Speaker 1: allowed to exist, and while socialist parties may currently be
Speaker 1: in power, they're not one party governments. Other political parties
Speaker 1: are allowed to campaign and run for office. That's not
Speaker 1: the case in so called communist countries like China, Cuba,
Speaker 1: and Vietnam, and it wasn't true in the former Soviet
Speaker 1: Union either. Those nations are one party regimes where the
Speaker 1: authority of the communist Party is unquestionable and the party
Speaker 1: chooses government officials, not the people. While there is no
Speaker 1: real democracy in these countries, capitalism has made significant inroads,
Speaker 1: particularly in China and Vietnam. Meanwhile, just to keep things confusing,
Speaker 1: all of the countries that we call communist still think
Speaker 1: of themselves as socialist at just different flavors of socialism.
Speaker 1: Markwitz said, China is developing its own model of socialism
Speaker 1: that's very different from the Soviet Union. China's model retains
Speaker 1: power in the hands of a government controlled by the
Speaker 1: Communist Party, but it's also created a capitalist sector that's
Speaker 1: become the second biggest economy in the world over the
Speaker 1: last forty years. The truth, says Markowitz, is that there
Speaker 1: has never been an actual communist country in Marx's sense
Speaker 1: of the word justice. There has never been a true democracy.
Speaker 1: He said, these are ideals that one works toward and
Speaker 1: struggles to achieve. Today's episode is based on the article
Speaker 1: what's the difference between socialism and communism on how Stuffworks
Speaker 1: dot Com, written by Dave Ruse. The brain Stuff is
Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com and
Speaker 1: is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from my
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