term paper topics on socialism

90 Socialism Essay Topics

🏆 best essay topics on socialism, 🔎 easy socialism research paper topics, 🎓 most interesting socialism research titles, 💡 simple socialism essay ideas, ❓ research questions about socialism.

Marxism and Socialism in “Mending Walls” Poem by Robert Frost
Why Capitalism is Better Than Socialism
Politics: Liberalism, Conservatism and Socialism
Socialism and European Workers in the 19th Century
Capitalism vs. Socialism: Comparing and Contrasting
European Socialism: Francois Guizot, Karl Marx and Jean Jaures
Anarchism vs. Socialism
“Harrison Bergeron”: The Fear of Socialism As “Harrison Bergeron” is based on a society that strives for perfection but fails, it can be assumed that Kurt Vonnegut aimed at presenting the fear of socialism.
Socialist Feminist Theories, Solutions and Changes Regarding the important issues in feminism, it is necessary to examine the issues of dualistic typification, beauty ideals, and the beauty industry in the context of feminism.
Capitalism vs. Socialism: Principles and Arguments The rhetorical argument is effective because another claim is the statement about fair distribution based on the market mechanism.
Weimar Republic and Rise of National Socialist Party This paper discusses the reasons why the democratic institutions of the Weimar Republic led to the disastrous consequences of the Nazy party monopolizing political power.
Why Capitalism Is Superior to Socialism The comparison of the two economic systems is rather complex and involves many aspects, but various facts and numbers are showing the superiority of capitalism over socialism.
The Superiority of Socialism Over Capitalism In the capitalist environment, which leaves large corporations to dominate the economic discourse, the planning process becomes disrupted and starts lacking homogeneity.
Rhetorical Analysis: Capitalism and Socialism Both systems have their flaws, but capitalism is more practical and efficient in bringing prosperity and reducing scarcity, which means that it is better.
Capitalism and Socialism, Democracy This kind of system is illustrated by having recognized equality rights and freedom both in a social setting and political locale.
Socialism History: Socialism in the United States Socialism is a political ideology that mainly encompasses theories emphasizing how government should interact with the economic organization.
Role of Socialism in Contemporary Society Socialism can therefore be best defined as “the ownership by the state of means of production and capital which can be exploited rather than be owned by private firms or individual people”.
Modern Day Application of Socialism The paper focuses on the modern-day use of socialism in western economies. It concludes by cautioning against the trend due to a possibility of reversal of gains made in the past.
Revolution and the Union of Socialist Soviet Republic The Russian revolution was caused by many factors. The autocratic czarist leadership that prevailed at that time subjected the population to adverse social and economic conditions.
Democratic Republic vs. Socialist State This paper aims to examine and compare the Democratic Republic and the Socialist State and present a personal opinion regarding the two systems.
Socialism as an Alternative to Capitalism in the United States This report seeks to evaluate socialism as an alternative to capitalism as the primary economic system of the United States and present viable solutions to the issue.
Socialism Ideology Benefiting the Public Good Under the ideology of socialism, a ruling class of social planners, intellectuals, and bureaucrats decides what is right for people and what they want.
Revolutionary Communism vs. Democratic Socialism Revolutionary communism and democratic socialism are examples of political ideologies that were byproducts of Marxism.
Marxist Means for Achieving Socialism It is important to note that debates pertaining to the transition to socialism as well as those that address communism have been witnessed over centuries.
America’s Choice: A Move Towards Socialism Social programs carried out by the government are growing at one of the greatest rates in the history of America, and producing negative effects on our country’s economy.
Pervasive Shortages Under Socialism
Socialism, Sex, and the Culture of Aestheticism in Britain, 1880–1914
Socialism and the Labour Party in the Late 19th and 20th Centuries
Gypsies, the Work Ethic, and Hungarian Socialism
The Concept and Impact of Socialism in the Late 18Th and Early 19Th Century
Health Care Reform: The New Definition of Socialism
The Opposing Political Ideologies of Socialism and Fascism
Dictatorship, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy According to Plato
State Monopoly Capitalism and the Struggle for Socialism
Capitalism, Socialism, and Mixed Economies
Indian Higher Education Reform: From Half-Baked Socialism To Half-baked Capitalism
Labor, Socialism, and Politics to World War I
Heavy Investment and High Pollution as Rational Choices Under Socialism
Market, Socialism, and Democracy in an Interdisciplinary Perspective
Transfers and the Transition From Socialism: Key Tradeoffs
Bismarck and State Socialism; an Exposition of the Social and Economic Legislation of Germany Since 1870
The Cult Mentality Under Socialism: Causes, Danger, and Means of Overcoming
The Differences, Advantages, and Disadvantages of Capitalism and Socialism
Austrian Economics, Socialism, and Impure Forms of Economic Organisation
Maoist Theory and Agrarian Socialism
Socialism Struggle, Women, and the Theories of Karl Marx
Corruption, Productivity, and Socialism
Market Socialism and Community Rating in Health Insurance
Nazi Socialism vs. Spartan Ethos: Politics, History and Culture
Consumption and Gender Under Late Socialism
Income Inequality Under Soviet Socialism
Attilio Cabiati and the Debate on Market Socialism
Regional Development Under Socialism: Evidence From Yugoslavia
Socialism After Hayek and Human Sociality
Do Marxism And Christianity Have Anything In Common?
Pure Capitalism, Market Socialism, and Command Economy Systems
Differential Rent Under Socialism
Socialism and the Rise of Radical Islam
Karl Marx and Socialism Negatively Impacted Society
Socialism and Indian Economic Policy
Romanticism, Socialism, Liberalism Between 1789 and 1850
Max Weber on Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy
Market Socialism and the Managerial Labour Market
The French Revolution and Modern French Socialism
Real Existing Socialism and State Socialism in Romania
Are the Similarities Between Italian Fascism and German National Socialism More Significant Than the Differences?
Why Has Socialism Failed?
Has Socialism Been Defeated by Capitalism?
Does Socialism Really Differ That Much From Liberalism?
Why Was Bulgaria the Closest Ally of the USSR in the Time of Socialism?
Is Socialism a Classless Society?
How Does National-Socialism Fit Within the Model of Italian Fascism?
What Role Does Equality Play in Socialism?
Why Did China Choose Socialism Instead of Capitalism as the Country’s Political System When PRC Was Established?
How Does Socialism Solve Economic Problems?
What Was the Role of the First World War in Mussolini’s Transition From Socialism to Fascism?
What Were the Important Differences Between Socialism in the Soviet Bloc and Socialism in the Third World?
Has Third Way Abandoned Socialism?
Which Provides the Best Conception of Freedom, Liberalism or Socialism?
Why Does Marx Believe That Capitalism Will Inevitably Give Way to Socialism?
Does Socialism Improve Quality of Life?
Why Did Socialism Not Thrive in America?
What Is the Biggest Advantage of Socialism?
How Was the Status Quo Challenged by Marxism and Socialism in Russia at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century?
Is Socialism Better Than Capitalism?
How Does Socialism Benefit the Poor?
Do People Own Property in Socialism?
What Does Socialism Mean for the Rich?
What Did Karl Marx Say About Socialism?
Does Socialism Have Unemployment?

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These essay examples and topics on Socialism were carefully selected by the StudyCorgi editorial team. They meet our highest standards in terms of grammar, punctuation, style, and fact accuracy. Please ensure you properly reference the materials if you’re using them to write your assignment.

This essay topic collection was updated on December 28, 2023 .

Socialism: Foundations and Key Concepts

What is the political, philosophic, and economic system known as socialism? Some starting points for further study.

Depending on whom you ask, socialism might be described as historically inevitable, evil incarnate, a utopian fantasy, or a scientific method. Most fundamentally, socialism is a political, philosophic, and economic system in which the means of production—that is, everything that goes into making goods for use—are collectively controlled, rather than owned by private corporations as they are under capitalism, or by aristocrats under feudalism.

In seeking to make the case for socialism—and to understand impediments to a world governed by people’s needs rather than corporate profits—thinkers in the socialist tradition have grappled with topics as varied as colonialism, gender, race, art, sex, psychology, economics, medicine, ecology, and countless other issues. As such, this Reading List makes no claim of being exhaustive; rather, it seeks to achieve two modest goals: to acquaint readers with a handful of key socialist preoccupations, and to demonstrate how the core concepts of socialist thought have been articulated at different historical moments and taken up by women and people of color.

Eugene W. Schulkind, “ The Activity of Popular Organizations during the Paris Commune of 1871. ” French Historical Studies , (1960)

What kind of society do socialists want? Many unfamiliar with the socialist tradition assume the Soviet Union or other putatively communist states represent socialist ideals come to fruition. But for many socialists throughout history, the most generative and compelling model is the seventy-two-day social experiment known as the Paris Commune. During their brief time ruling Paris, the communards eliminated the army, secularized education, equalized pay, and implemented numerous feminist initiatives, including establishing child care centers and abolishing the distinction between “legitimate” and “illegitimate” children.

Rosa Luxemburg, “Reform or Revolution” (1900) Socialists uniformly believe that different social arrangements are needed to address social problems, but how might those transformations most effectively come to fruition? One of the major questions that has animated socialist debates throughout the centuries is whether it is possible to achieve socialism through progressive reforms, or whether reforms would only serve to strengthen capitalism. Here the revolutionary presents her thoughts.

Clara Zetkin, 1914 Preface to Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward (1887) in Utopian Studies , 2016 Karl Marx was famously opposed to rigidly outlining what future socialist societies should look like, claiming that this would be like writing “recipes for the kitchens of the future.” Despite his reticence, many artists, frustrated by the constraints of capitalism and captivated by the promises of socialist futures, have contributed to imagining alternative worlds. Edward Bellamy’s early science fiction novel Looking Backward presents one attempt at envisioning a socialist society of the future—free from war, poverty, advertisements, and other unpleasantries. Here, Clara Zetkin, a prominent socialist and feminist activist of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (best known for her efforts to establish International Women’s Day ), introduces the novel.

Eric Foner, “Why Is There No Socialism in the United States?” History Workshop , 1984 One of the country’s best living historians examines questions that have preoccupied generations: How does the political and economic exceptionalism of the United States shape its historical relationship to socialism? Why does the U.S. working class appear less inclined toward socialist class consciousness than in other “advanced” capitalist countries?

Cedric Robinson, “C.L.R. James and the Black Radical Tradition.” Review (Fernand Braudel Center ), 1983 Telling the story of C.L.R. James, one of the most important socialist intellectuals of the twentieth century, Cedric Robinson (an intellectual giant in his own right) traces the history of socialism as it crosses continents and oceans. Centering Black radicals, not as a homogenous group but as members of a multifaceted tradition who write as seamlessly about cricket, anticolonial struggles, and class formation, Robinson takes the reader through issues at the heart of socialism.

Combahee River Collective, “A Black Feminist Statement” (1978) in Women’s Studies Quarterly , 2014 “Identity politics” has become a controversial and often derided topic in recent years. In this groundbreaking text, the Combahee River Collective—a group of Black feminist socialists named for the location from which Harriet Tubman launched one of her major military missions—underscores the necessity of rooting anti-capitalist projects in people’s lived experiences: “We believe that the most profound and potentially most radical politics come directly out of our own identity.”

Sarah Leonard, “What is Socialist Feminism?” Teen Vogue , 2020 Teen Vogue may have once evoked adolescent frivolity, but in recent years the magazine has repositioned itself as a serious contributor to the rising popularity of leftist politics among bright young people, thanks to its rigorous and accessible political analysis. Here, socialist feminist writer Sarah Leonard draws from bell hooks , Congressperson Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the 1970s feminist collective Wages for Housework to outline a few key socialist feminist insights . For those interested in pursuing the topic further, Leonard encourages readers to connect with the extensive resources generated by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)’s Socialist Feminist working group.

Brett Clark and John Bellamy Foster, “Marx’s Ecology in the 21st Century.” World Review of Political Economy , 2010 Marx may have written in the nineteenth century, but his insights are still used by contemporary thinkers to understand many of today’s most pressing issues. Here Clark and Foster draw from central concepts in Marx’s oeuvre to understand how capitalism has led to climate catastrophe and, eventually, might inspire ecosocialism. In their words, “The power of Marx’s ecology is that it provides a rigorous approach for studying the interchange between society and nature, while taking into consideration the specific ecological conditions of an ecosystem (and the larger web of nature), as well as the particular social interactions as shaped by the capitalist mode of production.”

Michael Lowy and Penelope Duggan, “Marxism and Romanticism in the Work of Jose Carlos Mariategui.” Latin American Perspectives , 1998 A compelling introduction to Mariategui, the Peruvian socialist philosopher who merged precolonial history, romanticism, and a trenchant analysis of capitalism. In contrast to the austere world many antisocialists imagine, “[s]ocialism according to Mariategui lay at the heart of an attempt at the reenchantment of the world through revolutionary action.”

Red Nation, “Communism Is the Horizon” (2020) In their recent pamphlet, the Indigenous collective Red Nation expounds upon the centrality of queer, Indigenous feminism to their understanding of socialism and their struggle toward a communist horizon.

Editor’s Note: This list has been updated to include journal titles.

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101 Socialism Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best socialism topic ideas & essay examples, 👍 good essay topics on socialism, ⭐ simple & easy socialism essay titles, ❓ research questions about socialism.

Socialism and Liberalism Comparison From aristocracy to socialism, equality and equitable distribution of wealth has been the reason for conflict between the masses and their leaders.
Similarities Between Capitalism and Socialism. Compare & Contrast In this system, the government manages the overall means of production but the members have the duty of choosing the best setting for the production, the amount to produce and which product should be produced. We will write a custom essay specifically for you by our professional experts 808 writers online Learn More
Similarities and Differences Between Communism and Democratic Socialism This is because, according to the proponents of both ideologies, in Capitalist countries, the majority of ordinary citizens are denied the right to have a fair share in the national wealth.
Islamic Economic System and Socialism Comparison As to the philosophy division, Karl Marx based his exploration on the dialectical theory of Hegel, and with the abandonment of the idealistic views, introduced the theory of materialism.
American Dream and Socialism in the Book “The Jungle” by Sinclair The main idea of the book lies in upholding the Marxist belief of the inevitable collapse of capitalism and the accession of the proletariat, or industrial working class.
Charles Fourier and Count Saint-Simon’ Socialism Although today the majority of political thinkers are more skeptical about the idea of utopian socialism in general and versions of this ideology represented in the works of Charles Fourier and Count Saint-Simon, in particular, […]
Differences Between Capitalism and Socialism In capitalist economic models, the rate of employment is determined by the pressures of demand and supply in the labor markets.
Socialism & Democracy: Fundamental Believes and Concepts The most distinct difference between the socialism and democracy is that in socialism we are mostly focusing our energies on the governance of the economic activities and the economic systems of a given country while […]
Corporate Social Responsibility: Socialist and Capitalist Perspective The state should ensure that tranquility and calmness is in the society. The role of the state is to provide guidelines that would bring sanity in business.
Rhetorical Analysis of Socialism vs. Capitalism by Thompson In order to convey this message, the author uses several rhetorical devices, the discussion of which is part of this analysis.
Infrastructure in Capitalism and Socialism Systems The Garden City concept, based on building around the decentralized plant, does not reduce the pressure on the central part of the city and the growing population of the modern world.
Socialism: Quantitative Aspects of the Group Socialism is an example of a group that works best when members are alike such that they can individually see the contributions of others despite the division of labor.
Liberalism, Socialism, and Anarchism For instance, the existence of anarchic views that deny the superiority of the law and the power of the government is acceptable from the liberal point of view when the person does not infringe the […]
Economic Crisis: Debate on Socialism Therefore, blaming socialism alone is not sufficient to explain the crisis in Venezuela and the risks to the United States. Thomas Sowell states that promising wealth tax is a politician’s means of capitalizing on the […]
The Washington Consensus and 21st-Century Socialism The relation between market trade and the involvement of the state from one of the primary aspects upon which such models are compared. Both policies demonstrate particular differences in the context of the balance between […]
“Twenty-First Century Socialism” Ellner believes that Chavez is still supported by his people, at least the majority of them, in support of this claim Steve points to the fact that Chavez’ party won a majority of the gubernatorial […]
Research of Utopian Socialist Ideas The early socialists fail to make changes because the system that they proposed did not deliver its promises of security, prosperity, and equality. However, scientific socialists held that revolution and socialism were the major components […]
The Dramatic Events of Socialist Ukraine The chaos continued until the end of the Soviet-Polish war and the signing of the Peace of Riga in 1921. One of the most dramatic events in the history of Ukraine and the USSR as […]
The Relations Between Capitalism and Socialism On the other hand, Marx defined socialism as a principle that ensures the most of these production factors are owned and controlled by the society or the state for the benefit of the whole community […]
Phenomenon of the Capitalism and Socialism The system values private ownership with the price system as the system of determining the rate of exchange of goods and services.
Economic Way Between Communism or Socialism and Capitalism in China A positive example of this mix is Israel, where socialism is dominant in the rural areas and capitalism, is dominant in the urban areas, this has led to an increase in the welfare of the […]
Socialism: Conservative Critique by Dagger, Santoni and Somerville It is a set of economic and social theories that advocate for public ownership and decentralized administration of the forms of production and the distribution of the goods produced.
Place of Art in the Period of Soviet Socialism The art place in the period of Soviet socialism was formed on the basis of proletarian ideology and cultural movements; constructivism was considered to be the background movement influencing the formation and promotion of art […]
Utopian Society: National Socialism and Libertarian Democracy In its turn, this will effectively eliminate the need for the policies of social appeasement to be practiced in our society.
Overview and History of Communism: New Socialist System After 1917 It contributed to the decline of the empires of the European powers while giving a tremendous boost to the influence of the united state of America; it led to the overthrow of Russian tsarism and […]
Different Aspects of Socialism and Communism After the collapse of the largest country in the world, the USSR, covering almost half of the continent, with the regime performing within this country, people tend to analyze the mistakes, which were made by […]
Climate Change During Socialism and Capitalistic Epochs The exclusion of utopian component of the first epoch socialism leading to capitalistic epoch is responsible for the current state of affairs in climate change hence creating the need for second epoch socialism Climate change […]
Socialism in Chile, Cuba, and Venezuela It has been observed that at present the socio-economic systems of Cuba and Venezuela is very much inclined with the ideologies and philosophies of socialism; Chile, on the other hand seems lagging behind in attaining […]
The Original Tenets of Socialism The notion of moderate socialism is one that incorporates the basic tenets of socialism wherein there are economic and political arrangements within the government which focus on the public or community ownership of the materials […]
Economics: Socialism vs. Liberal Capitalism Karl Marx, a great proponent of socialism, refers to the ethical, economic, and political contribution of socialism to the welfare of the society in asserting his position on the debate of the best economic model.
Astrology in Socialist, Capitalist, Psychological Views The fact that many people overlook what astrologers do or say has resulted in the unavailability of information in the area of study.
Economy of Capitalism, Communism, Fascism and Socialism Government structure: the structure of the government in the two countries, involves federal governments that are led by the political elites in the countries. The government has the duty of formulating policies that regulate the […]
Conservatism, Nationalism, Socialism as Ideologies From the time of its establishment, the term has been used in the description of a broad range of views about political science.
Urbanization Processes in Post-Socialist China To explain this phenomenon, this paper answers three questions what is the cost of forming this middle class what led to the emergence of this middle class how has the formation of the middle class […]
Socialist vs. Capitalist Approach to Social Issues Capitalism also refers to a system where the economy is independent of the state. In a Socialist economy, the intellectual property belongs to the government.
Socialism Practice in Successful Countries To some people, a successful political system is the one that offers a high level of satisfaction and the quality of living to its citizenry.
Liberalism and Socialism as Political Philosophies People are not entrusted with the regulation of the country’s resources, and they willingly submit their freedom to the government to ensure that a sufficient amount of resources is provided for every person.
Human Nature in Socialist View Since 1800 The work by Robert Owen, “Lectures on the Rational System of Society”, is written in the middle of the 19th century.”Socialism and Human Nature” is created by Arnold Peterson in the middle of the 20th […]
Canadian Technological Socialist Party’s Ideology The main focus of the party is on the provision of industrial automation reform, social programs, and the creation of non-market socialism based on the manufacturing of products through the most efficient automated means, their […]
Socialist Realism Limitations in Soviet Music As far back as 1917, communist leaders realized the importance of the persuasive power of culture and employed it in the machinery of a new government.
The Cultural Revolution at the Margins Chinese Socialism The significant influence on the beginning of the Cultural Revolution was provoked by the head of the Chinese Communist Party, Mao Zedong, who attempted to consolidate the communist concepts and views as the official ideology […]
Socialism as an Economic Model The primary objective of Socialism is to give the means of production to the hands of the whole society instead of private hands.
Socialism: H. White’s and J. Keynes’ Ideas The validity of this statement can be well illustrated, in regards to White’s strive to work out a strategy for making the U.S.economy less sensitive to the externally induced stimuli.
Socialism with Chinese Characteristics The impacts of modernization in china is largely attributed to the emergence of socialism before the reform and as well as opening-up policy in the year spanning from 1949 to 1979.
Unregulated Spending on Government Socialist Programs The socialist programs debate present Americans with a cruel dilemma; while some of the people acknowledge that they are likely to confront hazards such as illness or aging in the course of their lives which […]
Venezuela and Struggle for Socialism Power struggles and inequality perpetuate into modern society because of the affluent, and powerful people enjoy more privileges than the poor and the powerless individuals.
Chinese Path of Socialism One of the most common definitions of democracy is that it is ‘a government of the people, by the people, and for the people’.
Socialist Market Economy of China Shift Toward Capitalism In fact, the United States is currently the largest world economy though it could be surpassed by the second biggest global economy of China by the financial year 2015 in terms of the PPP.
Socialist Market Economy and Communism in China A socialist economy is defined as an economy whose main objective is to create equality and ensure that the means of production in the market is owned by the working class of the state. The […]
Ritzer and Zelizer Exploration of Weber’s Socialist Theory Upon critical review of the texts, it is notable that the authors use different perspectives to examine Weber’s arguments on the division of labor and modes of production.
Market Structure during Post-Mao China: Capitalism or Socialism? One of the major changes is the increase in the gap between the rich and the poor in the Chinese community.
Transition from communism to socialism The change in the country’s governance would imply that the ideas and behaviors that people hold to must also change. The importance of religion and civil freedom in relation to our behaviors becomes manifest.
Women Liberation during the Socialist Era A federation was started, Women’s Federation, to better the status of women in the society. With this sort of confidence and the backup of the law, women were empowered to bargain even at the household […]
Could Socialism ever Work? Socialism advocates for the abolition of the private-enterprise economy favoured by capitalism and the establishment of a system where public ownership maintains a dominant position in the economy.
Liberal and Socialist Feminist Theories The development and growth of feminist movements and gender roles were accompanied with the emergence of various theoretical models that explained the roles of women and their positions in the society.
Socialist Market Economic System of China To efficiently deal with the historical question on socialism when in the process of practicing of the transformation of China, the Chinese society emphasized on improvement of the road and distinguished market system.
Macroeconomics: Socialism, Totalitarism and US Economics Compare and contrast the approach to economics of the U.S.system of government to Socialism Capitalism, which is the economic system in the U.
20th Century Socialism According to Debs, the Socialist Party was to be the party of the working class irrespective of the race and color.
Socialism and Communism after Marx However; Karl Marx failed in his Marxism theory as a result of the establishment of the middle class. Following Karl Marx’s demise in 1844, Friedrich Engels who was became the narrator of the Marxism theory […]
Liberalist and Socialist Responses to Khomeini The main point of his work is based on the idea that government should be guided by divine laws and there should be executive and administering organs that would implement laws and ordinances of Islam.
How Does Revolutionary Communism Compare With Democratic Socialism? Revolutionary communism holds it that the capitalism would never let go of their hold on community and political power and as such, only a violent revolution can result in the changes that communism calls for.
Nikolai Ostravasky’s “How the Steel Was Tampered” and Chinese Literature One front is the gun while the other front is the use of the pen meaning that the forum was emphasizing the use of literature to perpetuate the socialist agenda as well as to control […]
Running Economies: Capitalism and Socialism In this regard, the control of the means of production is with the people as a whole and not any individual. To begin with, capitalism insists on the maximization of individual profits by the owners […]
Political Ideologies: Capitalism vs. Socialism Capitalism dominates the western countries with its headquarters being the United States, while socialism dominates most of the former Soviet States and the majority of states in the Far East. This initial accumulation of wealth […]
Fascism and Socialism: Conceptual Study The movement aimed at intertwining the Church, the State and the Party into a single entity, which, supposedly, could make the state stronger and eventually turn it invincible to the attacks of the enemies was […]
Compare of Capitalism and Socialism In light of this definition and description, one would argue that this is the most convenient system of economic governance because individuals have the freedom to conduct business in a manner that best meets their […]
Thinking Government: Conservatism, Liberalism and Socialism in Post World War II Canada This leads to the second implication which was summarized by political scientists in the following statement: “nothing can be guaranteed in life and that all individuals are also free to fail, to stumble to the […]
How Capitalism Beat Communism/Socialism This is exactly the reason why USSR was doomed to collapse in just about every society, the functioning of which is being concerned with the observance of Socialist principles, the prolonged continuation of social, cultural […]
To what extent did the text promote socialism? The negative effects of the capitalist form of government are identified to be one of the themes that the writer of the book dwelt on.
The Cold War Between the Union Soviet Socialist Republic and the United States of America The Americans believed in the principles of democracy and free enterprise while the Russians believed that the whole world must convert to a system of governance according to the teachings of Karl Marx and Lenin.
Socialist Health Care System Advantages Arguably, the socialist health system is the best of the three health system. This will be well taken care of in scenario of a socialist health system because it is a government policy to have […]
What Were the Important Differences Between Socialism in the Soviet Block and Socialism in the Third World?
How Does National-Socialism Fit Within the Model of Italian Fascism?
Has Third Way Abandoned Socialism?
Why Does Marx Believe That Capitalism Will Inevitably Give Way to Socialism?
How Far Has “Socialism” Simply Meant State Control in Britain?
Are the Similarities Between Italian Fascism and German National Socialism More Significant Than the Differences?
Why Has Socialism Failed?
How Does Socialism Solve Economic Problems?
Does Socialism Differ That Much From Liberalism?
How Was the Status Quo Challenged by Marxism and Socialism in Russia at the Beginning of the 20th Century?
Are Women Better off Under Socialism?
What Were the Ideas Associated With the Ideology of Liberalism, Nationalism, and Early Utopian Socialism During the 19th Century?
Why Do Fascists Reject Both Liberalism and Socialism?
Has Socialism Been Defeated by Capitalism?
Why Did China Choose the Socialism Instead of Capitalism as the Country’s Political System?
How Does Capitalism Differ From Socialism and Communism?
Why Didn’t Socialism Thrive in America?
What Was the Role of the First World War on Mussolini’s Transition From Socialism to Fascism?
Why Bulgaria Was the Closest Ally of the USSR in the Time of Socialism?
Won’t Libertarian Socialism Destroy Individuality?
Why Is Socialism Feared in the United States?
Was Socialism a Result of the Need for a Safer, More Ideal Living Environment for People?
Socialistic Ideas: Can They Be Viewed as a Progressive Form of Human Existence?
How Did Socialism Impact the Growth in More Human-Oriented, Liberal Attitudes From Government to Citizens?
What Additional Factors Facilitated the Promotion of Socialism at the Beginning of the 20th Century?
Why Was the Socialist Movement Constantly Interrupted and Blocked in the 20THE Century by More Democratic Countries?
Is the Depiction of Socialism in Dystopian Literature a Prospective Future of This Social and Political Regime?
How Can Socialism Serve as a Veil for Implementing Harsh Totalitarian Regimes?
Why Does Capitalism Win Over Socialism in Terms of the Favored Political Development of a Country?
How Has Socialism Influenced the Economic Development of the Modern World?
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Socialism: A short primer

Subscribe to governance weekly, e.j. dionne, jr. and e.j. dionne, jr. w. averell harriman chair and senior fellow - governance studies @ejdionne william a. galston william a. galston ezra k. zilkha chair and senior fellow - governance studies.

May 13, 2019

21 min read

In this essay, E.J. Dionne, Jr. and Bill Galston give a primer on socialism in three parts: its definition, the age gap in perceptions of socialism among Americans, and how socialism evolved to social-democratic systems in the U.K. and Germany.

Something new is happening in American politics. Although most Americans continue to oppose socialism, it has reentered electoral politics and is enjoying an upsurge in public support unseen since the days of Eugene V. Debs . The three questions we will be focusing on are: Why has this happened? What does today’s “democratic socialism” mean in contrast with past versions? And what are the political implications?

It’s worth recalling how important socialism once was at the ballot box to understand that this tradition has deeper roots in our history than many imagine. In the 1912 presidential election, Debs secured six percent of the popular vote, and Socialists held 1,200 offices in 340 cities, their ranks including 79 mayors. Socialism declined after this peak and faced repression during World War I because of the party’s opposition to the war. (Debs secured almost a million votes in the 1920 presidential election, running from a jail cell). After the war ended, the Communist seizure of power in what became the Soviet Union contributed to a “red scare” that further weakened America’s indigenous socialist tradition.

Socialism never lost its intellectual influence, however. The New Deal drew on proposals pioneered by socialists, and it was a young socialist named Michael Harrington whose book The Other America helped launch the war on poverty. But when it came to electoral politics, socialism was largely shunned or irrelevant.

Until now. The crash of 2008, rising inequality, and an intensifying critique of how contemporary capitalism works has brought socialism back into the mainstream—in some ways even more powerfully than in Debs’ time, since those who use the label have become an influential force in the Democratic Party. Running as a democratic socialist, Sen. Bernie Sanders received 45 percent of the Democratic primary vote in 2016, and in the 2018 mid-term elections, members of Democratic Socialists of America were among the prominent Democratic victors. Their ranks included Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who quickly became one of the country’s best-known politicians. One measure of her influence: As of early May, Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer had 1.7 million Twitter followers; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had 2.5 million; Ocasio-Cortez had 4 million.

The generational divide

Although President Donald Trump declared war on socialism in his 2019 State of the Union address, its champions felt no pressure to back down. It is not hard to see why.

During the heyday of the industrial era, growth was rapid, its fruits were broadly shared across income and wage classes, and upward mobility was widespread. Capitalism was popular. Socialism was not. In recent decades, however, growth has been episodic and slow, wages have stagnated for working-class and many middle-class families, mobility has slowed, and inequality has soared. The economic and financial collapse of 2008-2009 undermined the claim that the economy had entered a new era of stability and moderation. Experts who had preached the virtues of self-regulation were forced to recant. The slow recovery from the Great Recession left many Americans wondering whether they would ever regain the income and wealth they had lost.

The Great Recession especially shaped the outlook of young adults. The younger working class entered a job market that provided far fewer stable opportunities than their parents had enjoyed. And as revenues fell, many state governments slashed public support for higher education, forcing public colleges and universities to raise tuition sharply. Students had to abandon college hopes or take out larger loans that that consumed a substantial portion of their incomes. And particularly in the years immediately after the crash, many of them had trouble finding the jobs their degrees once promised. As the profits and share prices of large corporations recovered from their recessionary lows, enriching executives and investors, many young adults began wondering whether they would ever share the fruits of 21 st century capitalism. They became increasingly open to the idea that the system was rigged against them and that incremental reform was not enough. Only transformational systemic change could get the job done, many concluded, and socialism was the available alternative to the failed “neo-liberal” model of contemporary capitalism.

The generational effect is dramatic. A 2018 YouGov survey found that 35 percent of young adults under 30 were very or somewhat favorably inclined toward socialism, while just 26 percent registered unfavorable sentiments. (40 percent were not sure.) By contrast, only 25 percent of voters 65 and older had favorable views of socialism, while 56 percent were unfavorable.

Table 1: The impact of age on attitudes toward socialism

(Source: YouGov, August 2018)

Competing definitions of socialism

The growing popularity of socialism reflects a change in its image. Viewed in the past under the dark shadow of the Soviet system, it is now seen in light of the achievements of social democratic governments in Scandinavia and elsewhere in Europe.

In 2018, the Public Religion Research Institute offered respondents two definitions of socialism. One described it as “a system of government that provides citizens with health insurance, retirement support, and access to free higher education.” The other characterized it as “a system where the government controls key parts of the economy, such as utilities, transportation and communications industries.” The first definition effectively refers to the Scandinavian model—and the ideas popularized by Sanders. Most proponents of social democracy see it as a way of smoothing capitalism’s rough edges, making it more humane, egalitarian, and protective, rather than replacing the market outright. The second definition corresponds to the classic understanding of socialism that dominated public consciousness after World War II, when the challenge from the Soviet Union was at its peak.

As one might expect, young adults, for whom Cold War memories are dim to non-existent, were strongly inclined to define socialism as social democracy rather than public ownership of key industries. Fifty-eight percent of them picked the social-democratic option, and just 38 percent the dominant post-war understanding. By contrast, Americans 65 and older, whose views of socialism reflected the post-war conflict with communism, were somewhat more inclined to focus on government control of the economy, although even the oldest Americans now tilt toward the social-democratic definition, too.

Other survey research confirms this shift. In 1949, the Gallup Organization probed Americans’ understanding of the term “socialism.” More Americans picked government ownership or control as socialism’s defining feature than all the other options combined. Almost seven decades later in 2018, Gallup posed the same question, with very different results. The share of respondents who focused on government control fell by half, to just 17 percent. By contrast, the share who emphasized egalitarianism and generous public services rose from 14 percent in 1949 to 33 percent in 2018.

Table 2: Changes over time in Americans’ understanding of socialism

(Source: Gallup organization, 1949, 2018. Because of rounding, the items total to more than 100%.)

In the post-war period, Americans viewed socialism through the prism of Soviet communism. Today, they view it through the prism of the welfare state.

In the post-war period, Americans viewed socialism through the prism of Soviet communism. Today, they view it through the prism of the welfare state, the system that Western democracies developed to make market economies more broadly acceptable and to blunt the appeal of communism, which had powerful support throughout Europe in the post-war decades. The Soviet Union threatened liberty. Norway, Sweden and Denmark do not.

There was an important distinction, however, between Soviet-style communism and the system that socialist parties advocated after World War II. The Soviet system was undemocratic and totalitarian. The state (that is, the Communist party) controlled not only the entire economy but also civil society. As a “vanguard” party, the CPSU claimed to represent, infallibly, the “real interests” of the working class, even though average citizens of the Soviet Union might well disagree with the party’s “line” at any given moment.

By contrast, the program of Western socialist parties was both democratic and non-totalitarian. Western socialists acknowledged the importance of the individual liberties that Communists dismissed as “bourgeois.” These parties distinguished between the parts of the economy that needed to be brought under public control and those that did not. In the main, they did not seek government control of civil society, and they were willing to submit to the electorate’s democratic verdict on an ongoing basis.

From socialism to social democracy

The post-war British Labour Party offers a vivid example of democratic socialism in action—and also of the transition from state ownership to greater equality as socialism’s core goal. As World War II neared its end in the summer of 1945, the United Kingdom held its first general election in nearly a decade. The Labour Party campaigned on a bold program of economic and social change. “The Labour Party is a Socialist Party, and proud of it,” declared its election manifesto. “Its ultimate purpose . . . is the establishment of the Socialist Commonwealth of Great Britain.”

The manifesto was serious, even literal, in its choice of the noun “commonwealth.” The key assumption was that everything in the U.K.—not just land and natural resources, but also productive facilities and wealth—should be seen as jointly owned by the people as a whole and could be directed to purposes determined by the people through democratic processes.

Not content with ringing generalities, the manifesto spelled out its socialist program in considerable detail. It called for public ownership of the fuel and power industries, the iron and steel industries, and all modes of domestic transportation (rail, road, air, and canal). Other key provisions included the nationalization of the Bank of England, eventual nationalization of land holdings, a National Investment Board to plan and shape public and private investment, and a government-funded and operated National Health Service.

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One other theme suffuses the manifesto—the proposition that building socialism is akin to the wartime mobilization that directed all the nation’s energies toward a single overriding goal. “The nation and its post-war Governments will be called upon to put the nation above any sectional interest, above any free enterprise,” the manifesto asserts. “The problems and pressures of the post-war world threaten our security and progress as sure as—though less dramatically than—the Germans threatened them in 1940. We need the spirit of Dunkirk and of the Blitz sustained over a period of years.”

This said, the Labour Party’s version of socialism was entirely consistent with the British system of individual liberty and parliamentary democracy. The manifesto goes out of its way to underscore Labour’s commitment to freedom of worship, speech, and the press. It rejected the proposition that wartime restrictions on individual liberties should carry over into peacetime. The Labour Party won power peacefully and democratically in the 1945 parliamentary election and when Labour lost the subsequent election, it yielded power to the victorious conservatives.

In many respects, the Labour Party’s postwar program represented a high-water mark for democratic socialism.

In many respects, the Labour Party’s postwar program represented a high-water mark for democratic socialism. Beginning in the 1950s, after they lost power, Labour leaders deemphasized, without formally repudiating, the aspects of their program that focused on nationalization of key industries. The 13 years of Conservative government between 1951 and 1964 saw the rise of Labor’s “revisionists,” who moved the party away from the nationalization of industry as a central goal. In his seminal book, “The Future of Socialism,” Anthony Crosland, a major figure in the party, argued that a focus on nationalization confused means and ends and that the purpose of socialism was greater equality, not government ownership of industry. The party’s leader in the period, Hugh Gaitskell, was a revisionist who regularly battled with the party’s left. And when Harold Wilson led Labor back to power in 1964, he stressed the power of technological change to transform society and the promise of the “white heat” of the “scientific revolution.” It was a long way from taking over the coal mines.

In Germany, the transformation of democratic socialism was formal and explicit. As late as the mid-1950s, Germany’s Socialist Party (the SPD) continued to espouse classic socialist ideology. A key SPD leader declared that the crucial point of the party’s agenda was “the abolition of capitalist exploitation and the transfer of the means of production from the control of the big proprietors to social ownership.” But after a series of electoral defeats at the hands of a center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) that itself supported a significant welfare state, the SPD came to understand that its post-war program had been outrun by events. Rapid economic growth based on private property and regulated markets during the 1950s had sparked the emergence of a new middle class and rendered obsolete an economic program centered on nationalization of key industries. The Soviet Union was a threat to social and political freedom, not an economic model to be emulated.

The SPD’s famous Bad Godesberg Program, adopted in November 1959, represented a fundamental change of course. It castigated Soviet Communism and repudiated Marxism. The proletariat was no longer the sole engine of progress; the SPD had changed from being a “party of the working class” to a “party of the people.” Henceforth, democracy, freedom, equality, and the fullest possible development of each individual would be the guiding principles.

The Program defined the social function of the state as “provid[ing] social security for its citizens to enable everyone to be responsible for shaping his own life freely and to further the development of a free society.” While achieving this aim would require substantial government regulation, it would not necessitate government ownership except in the rare cases in which “sound economic power relationships” could not be guaranteed by any other means.

The new economic vision rested on freedom—“free choice of consumer goods, free choice of working place, freedom for employers to exercise their initiative as well as free competition.” Where excessive concentration restricted competition, government must intervene to restore competition. The task of a freedom-based economic policy was to contain the power of big business, not to replace the private sector. In some instances, they suggested that what we would now call a “public option” could be used to broaden choices for consumers and diminish corporate power. But in a remarkable break with socialist orthodoxy, the Program stressed that “every concentration of economic power, even in the hands of the state, harbors dangers.” Widespread government ownership of the means of production is not always the solution; it may be part of the problem.

The Program focused, not on government taking control of the economy, but on using government to improve the lives of all citizens.

The Program focused, not on government taking control of the economy, but on using government to improve the lives of all citizens. Key planks included full employment, generous wages and shorter working days, a redistributive system of taxation, secure retirement with a state-guaranteed minimum pension, universal access to health care, and decent and affordable housing. These are among the building blocks of the system of “social democracy” that developed and spread throughout the West as the alternative to both socialism and unregulated capitalism. As scholar Sheri Berman puts it, “Capitalism remained, but it was a capitalism of a very different type—one tempered and limited by political power and often made subservient to the needs of society rather than the other way around.”

From social democracy to the Third Way

Although social democracy came to represent the dominant political program in most democracies, its triumph was short-lived. Starting in the late 1970s, conservative leaders who challenged key tenets of social democracy scored electoral victories in the U.K., U.S., Germany, and elsewhere. They argued that excessive government intervention and spending had slowed economic growth, impeded innovation, and promoted inflation. Moreover, excessive deference to organized labor had reduced private sector profits and investments, while the pursuit of equal outcomes had deprived the “job creators” of needed incentives to take risks. Government was not the solution for the problems of capitalism, the new conservative wisdom held, but rather the principal obstacle to the success of a market economy. Industries had to be deregulated; spending on programs of social protections had to be curtailed; taxes had to be slashed; and unions needed to be brought to heel.

The political success of conservative policies persuaded many center-left leaders that their social democratic programs needed to adjust to new circumstances. As this movement gathered strength, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union transformed the political situation. It seemed that every alternative to capitalism had faded. The future lay in a dynamic and increasingly global market economy with the fewest possible fetters on the free flow of capital, goods, services, workers, and information. Appropriate fiscal, trade, investment, immigration, and education policies would enable Western democracies to seize the commanding heights of the new economy. The future for workers lay in lifetime education and training, not in organized labor’s efforts to thwart needed change. Regulations that impeded efficiency in key sectors such as banking needed to be swept away. Competition would promote “self-regulation” as an alternative to the heavy hand of the state. Programs to promote economic and retirement security were acceptable—as long as they did not break the bank, raise interest rates, and squeeze out private investment.

Led by key figures such as Bill Clinton in the United States, Tony Blair in the U.K., and Gerhardt Schroeder in Germany, this new economic vision—dubbed the Third Way by its friends and neo-liberalism by its foes—guided changes in center-left parties. As long as the new economy delivered ample jobs and broad-based income gains, center-left parties enjoyed political success. But the financial crisis of 2008 and the ensuing severe global recession undermined public confidence in the institutions and policies that permitted the disaster. On the Right, populist forces began to stir. (In retrospect, the Tea Party was a harbinger of things to come.) On the Left, the failure of post-Cold War globalized capitalism opened the door to critics of the status quo. Occupy Wall Street targeted the “1 percent”—the wealthy elites whose greed and myopia, they said, triggered the crisis and left those of lesser means to suffer the losses and pay the costs.

By 2016, right-wing populism had taken over the previously center-right Republican Party in the U.S., while Sanders gave Hillary Clinton, the establishment center-left candidate, a surprisingly tough race. Throughout Europe, traditional center-left and center-right parties suffered heavy losses while both right-wing populists and far-left parties gained support. In the U.S., U.K., and elsewhere, insurgents have rejected what they see as the Third Way’s objectionable and ineffective compromises with conservative principles and programs. It is against this historical backdrop that young adults in America embraced programs that promised more than incremental change—and that they were not afraid to call themselves socialists.

What’s in a word?

Medicare and Social Security are, in a sense, socialist, and so are our public schools and universities, our community colleges, our water supplies and sewers, and our mass transit systems.

There has always been a gap between rhetoric and reality in discussions of (and, especially, attacks on) socialism. Not one economically advanced society can be described as purely capitalist; every one of them is a mixed economy that includes some elements of socialism. Medicare and Social Security are, in a sense, socialist, and so are our public schools and universities, our community colleges, our water supplies and sewers, and our mass transit systems. Municipally owned and built sports stadiums are forms of socialism. North Dakota still has a publicly-owned bank, created during the years when agrarian populism and socialism overlapped. The Tennessee Valley Authority is a form of socialism, as conservatives never tire of pointing out.

Ideas rooted in socialism have often been deployed to save capitalism from its excesses—usually in the face of opposition from capitalists themselves. The political scientist Mason Williams points to a comment from New Deal lawyer Jerome Frank as capturing this history nicely. “We socialists are trying to save capitalism,” Frank said, “and the damned capitalists won’t let us.”

And from Franklin Roosevelt to Barack Obama, conservatives have made it a point to charge their Democratic foes with being socialists, no matter how many speeches they made in praise of the market. In attacking the program of his erstwhile friend FDR, Al Smith declared: “There can be only one national anthem, the Star Spangled Banner or the Internationale.” In the 1950 mid-term elections, Republicans briefly used the slogan “Liberty versus socialism.” (It turned out not to test very well.) Ronald Reagan’s 1964 speech on behalf of Barry Goldwater that made The Gipper a hero to conservatives argued that Goldwater’s victory over Lyndon Johnson was necessary to stop the advance of socialism. And, of course, Barack Obama’s health care plan, which was a very long way from a single payer system, was regularly denounced as socialist.

For the most part, Democratic politicians have regularly denied they were socialists—and even in this campaign cycle, marked by socialism’s resurgence, most Democrats earnestly pronounce themselves capitalists. The ranks of proud capitalists include Elizabeth Warren, who is by most measures as progressive as Sanders and has issued even more comprehensive proposals than he has to restructure contemporary capitalism. The fact that Sanders calls himself a socialist and Warren does not suggests that socialist/capitalist divide tells us less about policy than we might think and more about the valence assigned to the labels by different parts of the electorate.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the term socialism has lost its once-automatic linkage to the United States’ mortal enemy. The embrace of socialism no longer incurs the taint of treason, and proposals advanced by avowed socialists have expanded the perimeter of acceptable debate. As recent comments on the imperiled future of capitalism by Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co, and Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates suggest, the sharper critiques of capitalism are gaining attention from capitalists themselves. In the past—from the New Deal years through the 1960s—fears for the system’s future have led important voices within the business world to embrace social reform as necessary to saving the system. Socialists might once again be the forerunners of capitalist reform.

There are three bottom lines here. The first is that attitudes toward socialism now divide the two parties. In a 2018 YouGov survey, 46 percent of Democrats had a somewhat or very favorable view of socialism, while only 25 percent held an unfavorable view. Among Republicans, only 11 percent viewed socialism favorably, while 71 percent viewed it unfavorably—including 61 percent who had a “very” unfavorable view. Tellingly, the breakdown among Independents was 19 percent favorable, 40 percent unfavorable. Among Americans who voted for Hillary Clinton, 53 percent of had a favorable opinion of socialism, a view held by just 7 percent of Trump voters.

Second, sympathy for socialism is still a minority view. In the YouGov survey, overall, socialism was viewed favorably by only 26 percent of American adults and unfavorably by 46 percent. Among registered voters, the breakdown was 30 percent favorable, 50 percent unfavorable. As Warren’s self-labeling shows, most politicians trying to win national elections will continue to resist the S-word. If socialism is more popular than ever, it is still, on net, a troublesome word for a large share of the electorate. But whatever it is called, the impulse to use public power to smooth the market economy’s rough edges and to enhance opportunity and security for all Americans is a powerful current in today’s post-Great Recession politics.

Table 3: Partisanship and attitudes toward socialism

Third, decades of rising inequality and the shock of the 2008 crash have led large numbers of Americans —whether they call themselves socialists or not— to call the fundamentals of our economic system into question. The resurgence of socialism is a warning sign for those who want to preserve this system and an opportunity for those who would reform it. And, as has happened before, their two causes may come to overlap.

The authors want to thank Amber Herrle for her contributions to this piece.

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Socialism is a rich tradition of political thought and practice, the history of which contains a vast number of views and theories, often differing in many of their conceptual, empirical, and normative commitments. In his 1924 Dictionary of Socialism , Angelo Rappoport canvassed no fewer than forty definitions of socialism, telling his readers in the book’s preface that “there are many mansions in the House of Socialism” (Rappoport 1924: v, 34–41). To take even a relatively restricted subset of socialist thought, Leszek Kołakowski could fill over 1,300 pages in his magisterial survey of Main Currents of Marxism (Kołakowski 1978 [2008]). Our aim is of necessity more modest. In what follows, we are concerned to present the main features of socialism, both as a critique of capitalism, and as a proposal for its replacement. Our focus is predominantly on literature written within a philosophical idiom, focusing in particular on philosophical writing on socialism produced during the past forty-or-so years. Furthermore, our discussion concentrates on the normative contrast between socialism and capitalism as economic systems. Both socialism and capitalism grant workers legal control of their labor power, but socialism, unlike capitalism, requires that the bulk of the means of production workers use to yield goods and services be under the effective control of workers themselves, rather than in the hands of the members of a different, capitalist class under whose direction they must toil. As we will explain below, this contrast has been articulated further in different ways, and socialists have not only made distinctive claims regarding economic organization but also regarding the processes of transformation fulfilling them and the principles and ideals orienting their justification (including, as we will see, certain understandings of freedom, equality, solidarity, and democracy). [ 1 ]

1. Socialism and Capitalism

2. three dimensions of socialist views, 3.1 socialist principles, 3.2.1 exploitation, 3.2.2 interference and domination, 3.2.3 alienation, 3.2.4 inefficiency, 3.2.5 liberal egalitarianism and inequality in capitalism, 4.1 central and participatory planning, 4.2 market socialism, 4.3 less comprehensive, piecemeal reforms, 5. socialist transformation (dimension diii), other internet resources, related entries.

Socialism is best defined in contrast with capitalism, as socialism has arisen both as a critical challenge to capitalism, and as a proposal for overcoming and replacing it. In the classical, Marxist definition (G.A. Cohen 2000a: ch.3; Fraser 2014: 57–9), capitalism involves certain relations of production . These comprise certain forms of control over the productive forces —the labor power that workers deploy in production and the means of production such as natural resources, tools, and spaces they employ to yield goods and services—and certain social patterns of economic interaction that typically correlate with that control. Capitalism displays the following constitutive features:

(i) The bulk of the means of production is privately owned and controlled . (ii) People legally own their labor power. (Here capitalism differs from slavery and feudalism, under which systems some individuals are entitled to control, whether completely or partially, the labor power of others). (iii) Markets are the main mechanism allocating inputs and outputs of production and determining how societies’ productive surplus is used, including whether and how it is consumed or invested.

An additional feature that is typically present wherever (i)–(iii) hold, is that:

(iv) There is a class division between capitalists and workers, involving specific relations (e.g., whether of bargaining, conflict, or subordination) between those classes, and shaping the labor market, the firm, and the broader political process.

The existence of wage labor is often seen by socialists as a necessary condition for a society to be counted as capitalist (Schweickart 2002 [2011: 23]). Typically, workers (unlike capitalists) must sell their labor power to make a living. They sell it to capitalists, who (unlike the workers) control the means of production. Capitalists typically subordinate workers in the production process, as capitalists have asymmetric decision-making power over what gets produced and how it gets produced. Capitalists also own the output of production and sell it in the market, and they control the predominant bulk of the flow of investment within the economy. The relation between capitalists and workers can involve cooperation, but also relations of conflict (e.g., regarding wages and working conditions). This more-or-less antagonistic power relationship between capitalists and workers plays out in a number of areas, within production itself, and in the broader political process, as in both the economic and political domains decisions are made about who does what, and who gets what.

There are possible economic systems that would present exceptions, in which (iv) does not hold even if (i), (ii) and (iii) all obtain. Examples here are a society of independent commodity producers or a property-owning democracy (in which individuals or groups of workers own firms). There is debate, however, as to how feasible—accessible and stable—these are in a modern economic environment (O’Neill 2012).

Another feature that is also typically seen as arising where (i)–(iii) hold is this:

(v) Production is primarily oriented to capital accumulation (i.e., economic production is primarily oriented to profit rather than to the satisfaction of human needs). (G.A. Cohen 2000a; Roemer 2017).

In contrast to capitalism, socialism can be defined as a type of society in which, at a minimum, (i) is turned into (i*):

(i*) The bulk of the means of production is under social, democratic control.

Changes with regard to features (ii), (iii), and (v) are hotly debated amongst socialists. Regarding (ii), socialists retain the view that workers should control their labor power, but many do not affirm the kind of absolute, libertarian property rights in labor power that would, e.g., prevent taxation or other forms of mandatory contribution to cater for the basic needs of others (G.A. Cohen 1995). Regarding (iii), there is a recent burgeoning literature on “market socialism”, which we discuss below, where proposals are advanced to create an economy that is socialist but nevertheless features extensive markets. Finally, regarding (v), although most socialists agree that, due to competitive pressures, capitalists are bound to seek profit maximization, some puzzle over whether when they do this, it is “greed and fear” and not the generation of resources to make others besides themselves better-off that is the dominant, more basic drive and hence the degree to which profit-maximization should be seen as a normatively troubling phenomenon. (See Steiner 2014, in contrast with G.A. Cohen 2009, discussing the case of capitalists amassing capital to give it away through charity.) Furthermore, some socialists argue that the search for profits in a market socialist economy is not inherently suspicious (Schweickart 2002 [2011]). Most socialists, however, tend to find the profit motive problematic.

An important point about this definition of socialism is that socialism is not equivalent to, and is arguably in conflict with, statism. (i*) involves expansion of social power—power based on the capacity to mobilize voluntary cooperation and collective action—as distinct from state power—power based on the control of rule-making and rule enforcing over a territory—as well of economic power—power based on the control of material resources (Wright 2010). If a state controls the economy but is not in turn democratically controlled by the individuals engaged in economic life, what we have is some form of statism, not socialism (see also Arnold n.d. in Other Internet Resources (OIR) ; Dardot & Laval 2014).

When characterizing socialist views, it is useful to distinguish between three dimensions of a conception of a social justice (Gilabert 2017a). We identify these three dimensions as:

(DI) the core ideals and principles animating that conception of justice; (DII) the social institutions and practices implementing the ideals specified at DI; (DIII) the processes of transformation leading agents and their society from where they are currently, to the social outcome specified in DII.

The characterization of capitalism and socialism in the previous section focuses on the social institutions and practices constituting each form of society (i.e., on DII). We step back from this institutional dimension in section 3, below, to consider the central normative commitments of socialism (DI) and to survey their deployment in the socialist critique of capitalism. We then, in section 4 , engage in a more detailed discussion of accounts of the institutional shape of socialism (DII), exploring the various proposed implementations of socialist ideals and principles outlined under DI. We turn to accounts of the transition to socialism (DIII) in section 5 .

3. Socialist Critiques of Capitalism and their Grounds (Dimension DI)

Socialists have condemned capitalism by alleging that it typically features exploitation, domination, alienation, and inefficiency. Before surveying these criticisms, it is important to note that they rely on various ideals and principles at DI. We first mention these grounds briefly, and then elaborate on them as we discuss their engagement in socialists’ critical arguments. We set aside the debate, conducted mostly during the 1980s and largely centered on the interpretation of Marx’s writings, as to whether the condemnation of capitalism and the advocacy for socialism relies (or should rely), on moral grounds (Geras 1985; Lukes 1985; Peffer 1990). Whereas some Marxist socialists take the view that criticism of capitalism can be conducted without making use—either explicitly or implicitly—of arguments with a moral foundation, our focus is on arguments that do rely on such grounds.

Socialists have deployed ideals and principles of equality, democracy, individual freedom, self-realization, and community or solidarity. Regarding equality , they have proposed strong versions of the principle of equality of opportunity according to which everyone should have “broadly equal access to the necessary material and social means to live flourishing lives” (Wright 2010: 12; Roemer 1994a: 11–4; Nielsen 1985). Some, but by no means all, socialists construe equality of opportunity in a luck-egalitarian way, as requiring the neutralization of inequalities of access to advantage that result from people’s circumstances rather than their choices (G.A. Cohen 2009: 17–9). Socialists also embrace the ideal of democracy , requiring that people have “broadly equal access to the necessary means to participate meaningfully in decisions” affecting their lives (Wright 2010: 12; Arnold n.d. [OIR] : sect. 4). Many socialists say that democratic participation should be available not only at the level of governmental institutions, but also in various economic arenas (such as within the firm). Third, socialists are committed to the importance of individual freedom . This commitment includes versions of the standard ideas of negative liberty and non-domination (requiring security from inappropriate interference by others). But it also typically includes a more demanding, positive form of self-determination, as the “real freedom” of being able to develop one’s own projects and bring them to fruition (Elster 1985: 205; Gould 1988: ch. 1; Van Parijs 1995: ch. 1; Castoriadis 1979). An ideal of self-realization through autonomously chosen activities featuring people’s development and exercise of their creative and productive capacities in cooperation with others sometimes informs socialists’ positive views of freedom and equality—as in the view that there should be a requirement of access to the conditions of self-realization at work (Elster 1986: ch. 3). Finally, and relatedly, socialists often affirm an idea of community or solidarity , according to which people should organize their economic life so that they treat the freedom and well-being of others as intrinsically significant. People should recognize positive duties to support other people, or, as Einstein (1949) put it, a “sense of responsibility for [their] fellow men”. Or, as Cohen put it, people should “care about, and, where necessary and possible, care for, one another, and, too, care that they care about one another” (G.A. Cohen 2009: 34–5). Community is sometimes presented as a moral ideal which is not itself a demand of justice but can be used to temper problematic results permitted by some demands of justice (such as the inequalities of outcome permitted by a luck-egalitarian principle of equality of opportunity (G.A. Cohen 2009)). However, community is sometimes presented within socialist views as a demand of justice itself (Gilabert 2012). Some socialists also take solidarity as partly shaping a desirable form of “social freedom” in which people are able not only to advance their own good but also to act with and for others (Honneth 2015 [2017: ch. I]).

Given the diversity of fundamental principles to which socialists commonly appeal, it is perhaps unsurprising that few attempts have been made to link these principles under a unified framework. A suggested strategy has been to articulate some aspects of them as requirements flowing from what we might call the Abilities / Needs Principle, following Marx’s famous dictum, in The Critique of the Gotha Program , that a communist society should be organized so as to realize the goals of producing and distributing “From each according to [their] abilities, to each according to [their] needs”. This principle, presented with brevity and in the absence of much elaboration by Marx (Marx 1875 [1978b: 531]) has been interpreted in different ways. One, descriptive interpretation simply takes it to be a prediction of how people will feel motivated to act in a socialist society. Another, straightforwardly normative interpretation construes the Marxian dictum as stating duties to contribute to, and claims to benefit from, the social product—addressing the allocation of both the burdens and benefits of social cooperation. Its fulfillment would, in an egalitarian and solidaristic fashion, empower people to live flourishing lives (Carens 2003, Gilabert 2015). The normative principle itself has also been interpreted as an articulation of the broader, and more basic, idea of human dignity. Aiming at solidaristic empowerment , this idea could be understood as requiring that we support people in the pursuit of a flourishing life by not blocking, and by enabling, the development and exercise of their valuable capacities, which are at the basis of their moral status as agents with dignity (Gilabert 2017b).

3.2 Socialist Charges against Capitalism

The first typical charge leveled by socialists is that capitalism features the exploitation of wage workers by their capitalist employers. Exploitation has been characterized in two ways. First, in the so-called “technical” Marxist characterization, workers are exploited by capitalists when the value embodied in the goods they can purchase with their wages is inferior to the value embodied in the goods they produce—with the capitalists appropriating the difference. To maximize the profit resulting from the sale of what the workers produce, capitalists have an incentive to keep wages low. This descriptive characterization, which focuses on the flow of surplus labor from workers to capitalists, differs from another common, normative characterization of exploitation, according to which exploitation involves taking unfair, wrongful, or unjust advantage of the productive efforts of others. An obvious question is when, if ever, incidents of exploitation in the technical sense involve exploitation in the normative sense. When is the transfer of surplus labor from workers to capitalists such that it involves wrongful advantage taking of the former by the latter? Socialists have provided at least four answers to this question. (For critical surveys see Arnsperger and Van Parijs 2003: ch. III; Vrousalis 2018; Wolff 1999).

The first answer is offered by the unequal exchange account , according to which A exploits B if and only if in their exchange A gets more than B does. This account effectively collapses the normative sense of exploitation into the technical one. But critics have argued that this account fails to provide sufficient conditions for exploitation in the normative sense. Not every unequal exchange is wrongful: it would not be wrong to transfer resources from workers to people who (perhaps through no choice or fault of their own) are unable to work.

A second proposal is to say that A exploits B if and only if A gets surplus labor from B in a way that is coerced or forced. This labor entitlement account (Holmstrom 1977; Reiman 1987) relies on the view that workers are entitled to the product of their labor, and that capitalists wrongly deprive them of it. In a capitalist economy, workers are compelled to transfer surplus labor to capitalists on pain of severe poverty. This is a result of the coercively enforced system of private property rights in the means of production. Since they do not control means of production to secure their own subsistence, workers have no reasonable alternative to selling their labor power to capitalists and to toil on the terms favored by the latter. Critics of this approach have argued that it, like the previous account, fails to provide sufficient conditions for wrongful exploitation because it would (counterintuitively) have to condemn transfers from workers to destitute people unable to work. Furthermore, it has been argued that the account fails to provide necessary conditions for the occurrence of exploitation. Problematic transfers of surplus labor can occur without coercion. For example, A may have sophisticated means of production, not obtained from others through coercion, and hire B to work on them at a perhaps unfairly low wage, which B voluntarily accepts despite having acceptable, although less advantageous, alternatives (Roemer 1994b: ch. 4).

The third, unfair distribution of productive endowments account suggests that the core problem with capitalist exploitation (and with other forms of exploitation in class-divided social systems) is that it proceeds against a background distribution of initial access to productive assets that is inegalitarian. A is an exploiter, and B is exploited, if and only if A gains from B ’s labor and A would be worse off, and B better off, in an alternative hypothetical economic environment in which the initial distribution of assets was equal (with everything else remaining constant) (Roemer 1994b: 110). This account relies on a luck-egalitarian principle of equality of opportunity. (According to luck-egalitarianism, no one should be made worse-off than others due to circumstances beyond their control.) Critics have argued that, because of that, it fails to provide necessary conditions for wrongful exploitation. If A finds B stuck in a pit, it would be wrong for A to offer B rescue only if B signs a sweatshop contract with A —even if B happened to have fallen into the pit after voluntarily taking the risk to go hiking in an area well known to be dotted with such perilous obstacles (Vrousalis 2013, 2018). Other critics worry that this account neglects the centrality of relations of power or dominance between exploiters and exploited (Veneziani 2013).

A fourth approach directly focuses on the fact that exploitation typically arises when there is a significant power asymmetry between the parties involved. The more powerful instrumentalize and take advantage of the vulnerability of the less powerful to benefit from this asymmetry in positions (Goodin 1987). A specific version of this view, the domination for self-enrichment account (Vrousalis 2013, 2018), says that A exploits B if A benefits from a transaction in which A dominates B . (On this account, domination involves a disrespectful use of A ’s power over B .) Capitalist property rights, with the resulting unequal access to the means of production, put propertyless workers at the mercy of capitalists, who use their superior power over them to extract surplus labor. A worry about this approach is that it does not explain when the more powerful party is taking too much from the less powerful party. For example, take a situation where A and B start with equal assets, but A chooses to work hard while B chooses to spend more time at leisure, so that at a later time A controls the means of production, while B has only their own labor power. We imagine that A offers B employment, and then ask, in light of their ex ante equal position, at what level of wage for B and profit for A would the transaction involve wrongful exploitation? To come to a settled view on this question, it might be necessary to combine reliance on a principle of freedom as non-domination with appeal to additional socialist principles addressing just distribution—such as some version of the principles of equality and solidarity mentioned above in section 4.1 .

Capitalism is often defended by saying that it maximally extends people’s freedom, understood as the absence of interference. Socialism would allegedly depress that freedom by prohibiting or limiting capitalist activities such as setting up a private firm, hiring wage workers, and keeping, investing, or spending profits. Socialists generally acknowledge that a socialist economy would severely constrain some such freedoms. But they point out that capitalist property rights also involve interference. They remind us that “private property by one person presupposes non-ownership on the part of other persons” (Marx 1991: 812) and warn that often, although

liberals and libertarians see the freedom which is intrinsic to capitalism, they overlook the unfreedom which necessarily accompanies capitalist freedom. (G.A. Cohen 2011: 150)

Workers could and would be coercively interfered with if they tried to use means of production possessed by capitalists, to walk away with the products of their labor in capitalist firms, or to access consumption goods they do not have enough money to buy. In fact, every economic system opens some zones of non-interference while closing others. Hence the appropriate question is not whether capitalism or socialism involve interference—they both do—but whether either of them involves more net interference, or more troubling forms of interference, than the other. And the answer to that question is far from obvious. It could very well be that most agents in a socialist society face less (troublesome) interference as they pursue their projects of production and consumption than agents in a capitalist society (G.A. Cohen 2011: chs. 7–8).

Capitalist economic relations are often defended by saying that they are the result of free choices by consenting adults. Wage workers are not slaves or serfs—they have the legal right to refuse to work for capitalists. But socialists reply that the relationship between capitalists and workers actually involves domination. Workers are inappropriately subject to the will of capitalists in the shaping of the terms on which they work (both in the spheres of exchange and production, and within the broader political process). Workers’ consent to their exploitation is given in circumstances of deep vulnerability and asymmetry of power. According to Marx, two conditions help explain workers’ apparently free choice to enter into a nevertheless exploitative contract: (1) in capitalism (unlike in feudalism or slave societies) workers own their labor power, but (2) they do not own means of production. Because of their deprivation (2), workers have no reasonable alternative to using their entitlement (1) to sell their labor power to the capitalists—who do own the means of production (Marx 1867 [1990: 272–3]). Through labor-saving technical innovations spurred by competition, capitalism also constantly produces unemployment, which weakens the bargaining power of individual workers further. Thus, Marx says that although workers voluntarily enter into exploitative contracts, they are “compelled [to do so] by social conditions”.

The silent compulsion of economic relations sets the seal on the domination of the capitalist over the worker…. [The worker’s] dependence on capital … springs from the conditions of production themselves, and is guaranteed in perpetuity by them. (Marx 1867 [1990: 382, 899])

Because of the deep background inequality of power resulting from their structural position within a capitalist economy, workers accept a pattern of economic transaction in which they submit to the direction of capitalists during the activities of production, and surrender to those same capitalists a disproportional share of the fruits of their labor. Although some individual workers might be able to escape their vulnerable condition by saving and starting a firm of their own, most would find this extremely difficult, and they could not all do it simultaneously within capitalism (Elster 1985: 208–16; G.A. Cohen 1988: ch. 13).

Socialists sometimes say that capitalism flouts an ideal of non-domination as freedom from being subject to rules one has systematically less power to shape than others (Gourevitch 2013; Arnold 2017; Gilabert 2017b: 566–7—on which this and the previous paragraph draw). Capitalist relations of production involve domination and the dependence of workers on the discretion of capitalists’ choices at three critical junctures. The first, mentioned above, concerns the labor contract. Due to their lack of control of the means of production, workers must largely submit, on pain of starvation or severe poverty, to the terms capitalists offer them. The second concerns interactions in the workplace. Capitalists and their managers rule the activities of workers by unilaterally deciding what and how the latter produce. Although in the sphere of circulation workers and capitalists might look (misleadingly, given the first point) like equally free contractors striking fair deals, once we enter the “hidden abode” of production it is clear to all sides that what exists is relationships of intense subjection of some to the will of others (Marx 1867 [1990: 279–80]). Workers effectively spend many of their waking hours doing what others dictate them to do. Third, and finally, capitalists have a disproportionate impact on the legal and political process shaping the institutional structure of the society in which they exploit workers, with capitalist interests dominating the political processes which in turn set the contours of property and labor law. Even if workers manage to obtain the legal right to vote and create their own trade unions and parties (which labor movements achieved in some countries after much struggle), capitalists exert disproportionate influence via greater access to mass media, the funding of political parties, the threat of disinvestment and capital flight if governments reduce their profit margin, and the past and prospective recruitment of state officials in lucrative jobs in their firms and lobbying agencies (Wright 2010: 81–4). At the spheres of exchange, production, and in the broader political process, workers and capitalist have asymmetric structural power. Consequently, the former are significantly subject to the will of the latter in the shaping of the terms on which they work (see further Wright 2000 [2015]). This inequality of structural power, some socialists claim, is an affront to workers’ dignity as self-determining, self-mastering agents.

The third point about domination mentioned above is also deployed by socialists to say that capitalism conflicts with democracy (Wright 2010: 81–4; Arnold n.d. [OIR] : sect. 4; Bowles and Gintis 1986; Meiksins Wood 1995). Democracy requires that people have roughly equal power to affect the political process that structures their social life—or at least that inequalities do not reflect morally irrelevant features such as race, gender, and class. Socialists have made three points regarding the conflict between capitalism and democracy. The first concerns political democracy of the kind that is familiar today. Even in the presence of multi-party electoral systems, members of the capitalist class—despite being a minority of the population—have significantly more influence than members of the working class. Governments have a tendency to adapt their agendas to the wishes of capitalists because they depend on their investment decisions to raise the taxes to fund public policies, as well as for the variety of other reasons outlined above. Even if socialist parties win elections, as long as they do not change the fundamentals of the economic system, they must be congenial to the wishes of capitalists. Thus, socialists have argued that deep changes in the economic structure of society are needed to make electoral democracy fulfill its promise. Political power cannot be insulated from economic power. They also, secondly, think that such changes may be directly significant. Indeed, as radical democrats, socialists have argued that reducing inequality of decision-making power within the economic sphere itself is not only instrumentally significant (to reduce inequality within the governmental sphere), but also intrinsically significant to increase people’s self-determination in their daily lives as economic agents. Therefore, most democratic socialists call for a solution to the problem of the conflict between democracy and capitalism by extending democratic principles into the economy (Fleurbaey 2006). Exploring the parallel between the political and economic systems, socialists have argued that democratic principles should apply in the economic arena as they do in the political domain, as economic decisions, like political decisions, have dramatic consequences for the freedom and well-being of people. Returning to the issue of the relations between the two arenas, socialists have also argued that fostering workers’ self-determination in the economy (notably in the workplace) enhances democratic participation at the political level (Coutrot 2018: ch. 9; Arnold 2012; see survey on workplace democracy in Frega et al. 2019). A third strand of argument, finally, has explored the importance of socialist reforms for fulfilling the ideal of a deliberative democracy in which people participate as free and equal reasoners seeking to make decisions that actually cater for the common good of all (J. Cohen 1989).

As mentioned above, socialists have included, in their affirmation of individual freedom, a specific concern with real or effective freedom to lead flourishing lives. This freedom is often linked with a positive ideal of self-realization , which in turn motivates a critique of capitalism as generating alienation. This perspective informs Marx’s views on the strong contrast between productive activity under socialism and under capitalism. In socialism, the “realm of necessity” and the correspondingly necessary, but typically unsavory, labor required to secure basic subsistence would be reduced so that people also access a “realm of freedom” in which a desirable form of work involving creativity, cultivation of talents, and meaningful cooperation with others is available. This realm of freedom would unleash “the development of human energy which is an end in itself” (Marx 1991: 957–9). This work, allowing for and facilitating individuals’ self-realization, would enable the “all-round development of the individual”, and would in fact become a “prime want” (Marx 1875 [1978b: 531]). The socialist society would feature “the development of the rich individuality which is all-sided in its production as in its consumption” (Marx 1857–8 [1973: 325]); it would constitute a “higher form of society in which the full and free development of every individual forms the ruling principle” (Marx 1867 [1990: 739]). By contrast, capitalism denies the majority of the population access to self-realization at work. Workers typically toil in tasks which are uninteresting and even stunting. They do not control how production unfolds or what is done with the outputs of production. And their relations with others is not one of fellowship, but rather of domination (under their bosses) and of competition (against their fellow workers). When alienated,

labor is external to the worker, i.e., it does not belong to his essential being; … in his work, therefore, he does not affirm himself but denies himself, does not feel content but unhappy, does not develop freely his physical and mental energy but mortifies his body and ruins his mind. … It is therefore not the satisfaction of a need; it is merely a means to satisfy needs external to it. (Marx 1844 [1978a: 74])

Recent scholarship has developed these ideas further. Elster has provided the most detailed discussion and development of the Marxian ideal of self-realization. The idea is defined as “the full and free actualization and externalization of the powers and the abilities of the individual” (Elster 1986: 43; 1989: 131). Self-actualization involves a two-step process in which individuals develop their powers (e.g., learn the principles and techniques of civil engineering) and then actualize those powers (e.g., design and participate in the construction of a bridge). Self-externalization, in turn, features a process in which individuals’ powers become visible to others with the potential beneficial outcome of social recognition and the accompanying boost in self-respect and self-esteem. However, Elster says that this Marxian ideal must be reformulated to make it more realistic. No one can develop all their powers fully, and no feasible economy would enable everyone always to get exactly their first-choice jobs and conduct them only in the ways they would most like. Furthermore, self-realization for and with others (and thus also the combination of self-realization with community) may not always work smoothly, as producers entangled in large and complex societies may not feel strongly moved by the needs of distant others, and significant forms of division of labor will likely persist. Still, Elster thinks the socialist ideal of self-realization remains worth pursuing, for example through the generation of opportunities to produce in worker cooperatives. Others have construed the demand for real options to produce in ways that involve self-realization and solidarity as significant for the implementation of the Abilities / Needs Principle (Gilabert 2015: 207–12), and defended a right to opportunities for meaningful work against the charge that it violates a liberal constraint of neutrality about conceptions of the good (Gilabert 2018b: sect. 3.3). (For more discussion on alienation and self-realization, see Jaeggi 2014: ch. 10.)

Further scholarship explores recent changes in the organization of production. Boltanski and Chiapello argue that since the 1980s capitalism has partly absorbed (what they dub) the “artistic critique” against de-skilled and heteronomous work by generating schemes of economic activity in which workers operate in teams and have significant decision-making powers. However, these new forms of work, although common especially in certain knowledge-intensive sectors, are not available to all workers, and they still operate under the ultimate control of capital owners and their profit maximizing strategies. They also operate in tandem with the elimination of the social security policies typical of the (increasingly eroded) welfare state. Thus, the “artistic” strand in the socialist critique of capitalism as hampering people’s authenticity, creativity, and autonomy has not been fully absorbed and should be renewed. It should also be combined with the other, “social critique” strand which challenges inequality, insecurity, and selfishness (Boltanski and Chiapello 2018: Introduction, sect. 2). Other authors find in these new forms of work the seeds of future forms of economic organization—arguing that they provide evidence that workers can plan and control sophisticated processes of production on their own and that capitalists and their managers are largely redundant (Negri 2008).

The critique of alienation has also been recently developed further by Forst (2017) by exploring the relation between alienation and domination. On this account, the central problem with alienation is that it involves the denial of people’s autonomy—their ability and right to shape their social life on terms they could justify to themselves and to each other as free and equal co-legislators. (See also the general analysis of the concept of alienation in Leopold 2018.)

A traditional criticism of capitalism (especially amongst Marxists) is that it is inefficient. Capitalism is prone to cyclic crises in which wealth and human potential is destroyed and squandered. For example, to cut costs and maximize profits, firms choose work-saving technologies and lay off workers. But at the aggregate level, this erodes the demand for their products, which forces firms to cut costs further (by laying off even more workers or halting production). Socialism would, it has been argued, not be so prone to crises, as the rationale for production would not be profit maximization but need satisfaction. Although important, this line of criticism is less widespread amongst contemporary socialists. Historically, capitalism has proved quite resilient, resurrecting itself after crises and expanding its productivity dramatically over time. In might very well be that capitalism is the best feasible regime if the only standard of assessment were productivity.

Still, socialists point out that capitalism involves some significant inefficiencies. Examples are the underproduction of public goods (such as public transportation and education), the underpricing and overconsumption of natural resources (such as fossil fuels and fishing stocks), negative externalities (such as pollution), the costs of monitoring and enforcing market contracts and private property (given that the exploited may not be so keen to work as hard as their profit-maximizing bosses require, and that the marginalized may be moved by desperation to steal), and certain defects of intellectual property rights (such as blocking the diffusion of innovation, and alienating those who engage in creative activities because of their intrinsic appeal and because of the will to serve the public rather than maximize monetary reward) (Wright 2010: 55–65). Really existing capitalist societies have introduced regulations to counter some of these problems, at least to some extent. Examples are taxes and constraints to limit economic activities with negative externalities, and public funding and subsidies to sustain activities with positive externalities which are not sufficiently supported by the market. But, socialists insist, such mechanisms are external to capitalism, as they limit property rights and the scope for profit maximization as the primary orientation in the organization of the economy. The regulations involve the hybridization of the economic system by introducing some non-capitalist, and even socialist elements.

There is also an important issue of whether efficiency should only be understood in terms of maximizing production of material consumption goods. If the metric, or the utility space, that is taken into account when engaging in maximization assessments includes more than these goods, then capitalism can also be criticized as inefficient on account of its tendency to depress the availability of leisure time (as well as to distribute it quite unequally). This carries limitation of people’s access to the various goods that leisure enables—such as the cultivation of friendships, family, and community or political participation. Technological innovations create the opportunity to choose between retaining the previous level of production while using fewer inputs (such as labor time) or maintaining the level of inputs while producing more. John Maynard Keynes famously held that it would be reasonable to tend towards the prior option, and expected societies to take this path as the technological frontier advanced (Keynes 1930/31 [2010]; Pecchi and Piga 2010). Nevertheless, in large part because of the profit maximization motive, capitalism displays an inherent bias in favor of the second, arguably inferior, option. Capitalism thereby narrows the realistic options of its constituent economic agents—both firms and individuals. Firms would lose their competitive edge and risk bankruptcy if they did not pursue profits ahead of the broader interests of their workers (as their products would likely be more expensive). And it is typically hard for workers to find jobs that pay reasonable salaries for fewer hours of work. Socialists concerned with expanding leisure time—and also with environmental risks—find this bias quite alarming (see, e.g., G.A. Cohen 2000a: ch. XI). If a conflict between further increase in the production of material objects for consumption and the expansion of leisure time (and environmental protection) is unavoidable, then it is not clear, all things considered, that the former should be prioritized, especially when an economy has already reached a high level of material productivity.

Capitalism has also been challenged on liberal egalitarian grounds, and in ways that lend themselves to support for socialism. (Rawls 2001; Barry 2005; Piketty 2014; O’Neill 2008a, 2012, 2017; Ronzoni 2018). While many of John Rawls’s readers long took him to be a proponent of an egalitarian form of a capitalist welfare state, or as one might put it “a slightly imaginary Sweden”, in fact Rawls rejected such institutional arrangements as inadequate to the task of realizing principles of political liberty or equality of opportunity, or of keeping material inequalities within sufficiently tight bounds. His own avowed view of the institutions that would be needed to realize liberal egalitarian principles of justice was officially neutral as between a form of “property-owning democracy”, which would combine private property in the means of production with its egalitarian distribution, and hence the abolition of the separate classes of capitalists and workers; and a form of liberal democratic socialism that would see public ownership of the preponderance of the means of production, with devolved control of particular firms (Rawls 2001: 135–40; O’Neill and Williamson 2012). While Rawls’s version of liberal democratic socialism was insufficiently developed in his own writings, he stands as an interesting case of a theorist whose defense of a form of democratic socialism is based on normative foundations that are not themselves distinctively socialist, but concerned with the core liberal democratic values of justice and equality (see also Edmundson 2017; Ypi 2018).

In a similar vein to Rawls, another instance of a theorist who defends at least partially socialist institutional arrangements on liberal egalitarian grounds was the Nobel Prize winning economist James Meade. Giving a central place to decidedly liberal values of freedom, security and independence, Meade argued that the likely levels of socioeconomic inequality under capitalism were such that a capitalist economy would need to be extensively tempered by socialist elements, such as the development of a citizens’ sovereign wealth fund, if the economic system were to be justifiable to those living under it (Meade 1964; O’Neill 2015 [OIR] , 2017; O’Neill and White 2019). Looking back before Meade, J. S. Mill can also be seen as a theorist who traveled along what we might describe as “the liberal road to socialism”, with Mill in his Autobiography describing his own view as the acceptance of a “qualified socialism” (Mill 1873 [2018]), and arguing for a range of measures to create a more egalitarian economy, including making the case for a steady-state rather than a growth-oriented economy, arguing for workers’ collective ownership and self-management of firms in preference to the hierarchical structures characteristic of most firms under capitalism, and endorsing steep taxation of inheritance and unearned income (Mill 2008; see also Ten 1998; O’Neill 2008b, Pateman 1970). More recently, the argument has been advanced that as capitalist economies tend towards higher levels of inequality, and in particular with the rapid velocity at which the incomes and wealth of the very rich in society is increasing, many of those who had seen their normative commitments as requiring only the mild reform of capitalist economies might need to come to see the need to endorse more radical socialist institutional proposals (Ronzoni 2018).

4. Socialist Institutional Designs (Dimension DII)

The foregoing discussion focused on socialist critiques of capitalism. These critiques make the case that capitalism fails to fulfill principles, or to realize values, to which socialists are committed. But what would an alternative economic system look like which would fulfill those principles, or realize those values—or at least honor them to a larger extent? This brings us to dimension DII of socialism. We will consider several proposed models. We will address here critical concerns about both the feasibility and the desirability of these models. Arguments comparing ideal socialist designs with actual capitalist societies are unsatisfactory; we must compare like with like (Nove 1991; Brennan 2014; Corneo 2017). Thus, we should compare ideal forms of socialism with ideal forms of capitalism, and actual versions of capitalism with actual versions of socialism. Most importantly, we should entertain comparisons between the best feasible incarnations of these systems. This requires formulating feasible forms of socialism. Feasibility assessments can play out in two ways: they may regard the (degree of) workability and stability of a proposed socialist system once introduced, or they may regard its (degree of) accessibility from current conditions when it is not yet in place. We address the former concerns in this section, leaving the latter for section 5 when we turn to dimension DIII of socialism and the questions of socialist transition or transformation.

Would socialism do better than capitalism regarding the ideals of equality, democracy, individual freedom, self-realization, and solidarity? This depends on the availability of workable versions of socialism that fulfill these ideals (or do so at least to a greater extent than workable forms of capitalism). A first set of proposals envision an economic system that does away with both private property in the means of production and with markets. The first version of this model is central planning . This can be understood within a top-down, hierarchical model. A central authority gathers information about the technical potential in the economy and about consumers’ needs and formulates a set of production objectives which seek an optimal match between the former and the latter. These objectives are articulated into a plan that is passed down to intermediate agencies and eventually to local firms, which must produce according to the plan handed down. If it works, this proposal would secure the highest feasible levels of equal access to consumption goods for everyone. However, critics have argued that the model faces serious feasibility hurdles (Corneo 2017: ch. 5: Roemer 1994a: ch. 5). It is very hard for a central authority to gather the relevant information from producers and consumers. Second, even if it could gather enough information, the computation of an optimal plan would require enormously complex calculations which may be beyond the capacity of planners (even with access to the most sophisticated technological assistance). Finally, there may be significant incentive deficits. For example, firms might tend to exaggerate the resources they need to produce and mislead about how much they can produce. Without facing strong sticks and carrots (such as the prospects for either bankruptcy and profit offered by a competitive market), firms might well display low levels of innovation. As a result, a planned economy would likely lag behind surrounding capitalist economies, and their members would tend to lose faith in it. High levels of cooperation (and willingness to innovate) could still exist if sufficiently many individuals in this society possessed a strong sense of duty. But critics find this unlikely to materialize, warning that “a system that only works with exceptional individuals only works in exceptional cases” (Corneo 2017: 127).

Actual experiments in centrally planned economies have only partially approximated the best version of it. Thus, in addition to the problems mentioned above (which affect even that best version), they have displayed additional defects. For example, the system introduced in the Soviet Union featured intense concentration of political and economic power in the hands of an elite controlling a single party which, in turn, controlled a non-democratic state apparatus. Despite its successes in industrializing the country (making it capable of mobilizing in a war effort to defeat Nazi Germany), the model failed to generate sufficient technical innovation and intensive growth to deliver differentiated consumer goods of the kind available within advanced capitalist economies. Furthermore, it trampled upon civil and political liberties that many socialists would themselves hold dear.

Responding to such widespread disempowerment, a second model for socialist planning has recommended that planning be done in a different, more democratic way. Thus, the participatory planning (or participatory economy, “Parecon”) model proposes the following institutional features (Albert 2003, 2016 [OIR] ). First, the means of production would be socially owned. Second, production would take place in firms controlled by workers (thus fostering democracy within the workplace). Third, balanced “job complexes” are put in place in which workers can both engage in intellectual and manual labor (thus fostering and generalizing self-realization). Fourth, in a solidaristic fashion, remuneration of workers would track their effort, sacrifice, and special needs (and not their relative power or output—which would likely reflect differences in native abilities for which they are not morally responsible). Finally, and crucially, economic coordination would be based on comprehensive participatory planning. This would involve a complex system of nested worker councils, consumer councils, and an Iteration Facilitation Board. Various rounds of deliberation within, and between, worker and consumer councils, facilitated by this board, would be undertaken until matches between supply and demands schedules are found—with recourse to voting procedures only when no full agreement exists but several promising arrangements arise. This would turn the economy into an arena of deliberative democracy.

This proposal seems to cater for the full palette of socialist values stated in section 4.1 . Importantly, it overcomes the deficits regarding freedom displayed by central planning. Critics have warned, however, that Parecon faces serious feasibility obstacles. In particular, the iterative planning constituting the fifth institutional dimension of the Parecon proposal would require immense information complexity (Wright 2010: 260–5). It is unlikely that participants in the operations of this board, even with the help of sophisticated computers, would manage it sufficiently well to generate a production plan that satisfactorily caters to the diversity of individuals’ needs. A defense of Parecon would retort that beyond initial stages, the process of economic decision-making would not be too cumbersome. Furthermore, it might turn out to involve no more paperwork and time devoted to planning and to assessment behind computer terminals than is found in existing capitalist societies (with their myriad individual and corporate budgeting exercises, and their various accounting and legal epicycles). And, in any case, even if it is more cumbersome and less efficient in terms of productivity, Parecon might still be preferable overall as an economic system, given its superior performance regarding the values of freedom, equality, self-realization, solidarity, and democracy (Arnold n.d. [OIR] : sect. 8.b).

Some of the above-mentioned problems of central planning, regarding inefficiency and concentration of power, have motivated some socialists to explore alternative economic systems in which markets are given a central role. Markets generate problems of their own (especially when they involve monopolies, negative externalities, and asymmetric information). But if regulations are introduced to counter these “market failures”, markets can be the best feasible mechanism for generating matches between demand and supply in large, complex societies (as higher prices signal high demand, with supply rushing to cover it, while lower prices signal low demand, leading supply to concentrate on other products). Market socialism affirms the traditional socialist desideratum of preventing a division of society between a class of capitalists who do not need to work to make a living and a class of laborers having to work for them, but it retains from capitalism the utilization of markets to guide production. There has been a lively debate on this approach, with several specific systems being proposed.

One version is the economic democracy model (Schweickart 2002 [2011], 2015 [OIR] ). It has three basic features. First, production is undertaken in firms managed by workers. Worker self-managed enterprises would gain temporary control of some means of production (which would be leased out by the state). Workers determine what gets produced and how it is produced, and determine compensation schemes. Second, there is a market for goods and services. The profit motive persists and some inequalities within and between firms are possible, but likely much smaller than in capitalism (as there would be no separate capitalist class, and workers will not democratically select income schemes that involve significant inequality within their firms). Finally, investment flows are socially controlled through democratically accountable public investment banks, which determine funding for enterprises on the basis of socially relevant criteria. The revenues for these banks come from a capital assets tax. This system would (through its second feature) mobilize the efficiency of markets while also (through its other features) attending to socialist ideals of self-determination, self-realization, and equal opportunity. To address some potential difficulties, the model has been extended to include further features, such as a commitment of the government as an employer of last resort, the creation of socialist savings and loans associations, the accommodation of an entrepreneurial-capitalist sector for particularly innovative small firms, and some forms of protectionism regarding foreign trade.

Self-management market socialism has been defended as feasible by pointing at the experience of cooperatives (such as the Mondragón Corporation in the Basque Country in Spain, which has (as of 2015) over 70,000 worker-owners participating in a network of cooperative businesses). But it has also been criticized on five counts (Corneo 2017: ch. 6). First, it would generate unfair distributions, as workers doing the same work in different enterprises would end up with unequal income if the enterprises are not equally successful in the market. Second, workers would face high levels of financial risk, as their resources would be concentrated in their firm rather than spread more widely. Third, it could generate inefficient responses to market prices, as self-managed enterprises reduce hiring if prices for their products are high—so that members keep more of the profit—and hire more if the prices are low—to cover for fixed costs of production. Given the previous point, the system could also generate high unemployment. Having the government require firms to hire more would lead to lower productivity. However, the further features in the model discussed above might address this problem by allowing for small private enterprises to be formed, and by having in the background the government play a role as an employer of last resort (although this might also limit overall productivity). Finally, although some of the problems of efficiency could be handled through the banks controlling investment, it is not clear that the enormous power of such banks could be made sufficiently accountable to a democratic process so as to avoid the potential problem of cooptation by elites. (See, however, Malleson 2014 on democratic control of investment.)

Another market socialist model, proposed by Carens (1981, 2003), does not impose worker self-management. The Carensian model mirrors the current capitalist system in most respects while introducing two key innovative features. First, there would be direct governmental provision regarding certain individually differentiated needs (via a public health care system, for example). Second, to access other consumption goods, everyone working full time would get the same post tax income. Pre-tax salaries would vary, signaling levels of demand in the market. People would choose jobs not only on the basis of their self-regarding preferences, but also out of a sense of social duty to use their capacities to support others in society. Thus, honoring the Abilities / Needs Principle , they would apply for jobs (within their competencies) in which the pre-tax income is relatively high. If it worked, this model would recruit the efficiency of markets, but it would not involve the selfish motives and inegalitarian outcomes typically linked to them in capitalism.

One worry about the Carensian model is that it might be unrealistic to expect an economic system to work well when it relies so heavily on a sense of duty to motivate people to make cooperative contributions. This worry could be assuaged by presenting this model as the long-term target of a socialist transformation which would progressively develop a social ethos supporting it (Gilabert 2011, 2017a), by noting empirical findings about the significant traction of non-egoistic motives in economic behavior (Bowles and Gintis 2011) and the feasibility of “moral incentives” (Guevara 1977, Lizárraga 2011), and by exploring strategies to mobilize simultaneously various motivational mechanisms to sustain the proposed scheme. Two other worries are the following (Gilabert 2015). First, the model makes no explicit provision regarding real opportunities for work in self-managed firms. To cater more fully for ideals of self-determination and self-realization, a requirement could be added that the government promote such opportunities for those willing to take them. Second, the model is not sufficiently sensitive to different individual preferences regarding leisure and consumption (requiring simply that everyone work full time and wind up with the same consumption and leisure bundles). More flexible schedules could be introduced so that people who want to consume more could work longer hours and have higher salaries, while people who want to enjoy more free time could work fewer hours and have lower salaries. Considerations of reciprocity and equality could still be honored by equalizing the incomes of those working the same number of hours.

Many forms of market socialism allow for some hierarchy at the point of production. These managerial forms are usually defended on grounds of greater efficiency. But they face the question of how to incentivize managers to behave in ways that foster innovation and productivity. One way to do this is to set up a stock market that would help to measure the performance of the firms they manage and to push them to make optimal decisions. An example of this approach (there are others—Corneo 2017: ch. 8) is coupon market socialism . In Roemer’s (1994a) version, this economic system operates with two kinds of money: dollars (euros, pesos, etc.) and coupons. Dollars are used to purchase commodities for consumption and production, and coupons are used in a stock market to purchase shares in corporations. The two kinds of money are not convertible (with an exception to be outlined below). Each person, when reaching adulthood, is provided with an equal set of coupons. They can use them in a state-regulated stock market (directly or through mutual investment funds) to purchase shares in corporations at market price. They receive the dividends from their investments in dollars, but they cannot cash the coupons themselves. When they die, people’s coupons and shares go back to the state for distribution to new generations—no inherited wealth is allowed—and coupons cannot be transferred as gifts. Thus, there is no separate class of capital owners in this economy. But there will be income inequality resulting from people’s different fortunes with their investments (dividends) as well as from the income they gain in the jobs they take through the labor market (in managerial and non-managerial positions). Coupons can however be converted into dollars by corporations; they can cash their shares to pay for capital investments. The exchange is regulated by a public central bank. Further, public banks or public investment funds, operating with relative independence from the government, would steer enterprises receiving coupons so that they maximize profit in the competitive markets for the goods and services they produce (so that they maximize the returns on the coupons invested). Part of that profit is also taxed for direct welfare provisions by the state.

This model caters for ideals of equality of opportunity (given equal distribution of coupons) and democracy (given the elimination of capitalist dynasties that have the ability to transform massive economic power into political influence). It also gives people freedom to choose how to use their resources and includes solidaristic schemes of public provision to meet needs regarding education and health care. Via the competitive markets in consumption goods and shares, it also promises high levels of innovation and productivity. (In some versions of the model this is enhanced by allowing limited forms of private ownership of firms to facilitate the input of highly innovative entrepreneurial individuals—Corneo 2017: 192–7). The model departs from traditional forms of socialism by not exactly instituting social property in means of production (but rather the equal dispersal of coupons across individuals in each generation). But defenders of this model say that socialists should not fetishize any property scheme; they should instead see such schemes instrumentally in terms of how well they fare in the implementation of core normative principles (such as equality of opportunity) (Roemer 1994a: 23–4, 124–5). Critics have worries, however, that the model does not go far enough in honoring socialist principles. For example, they have argued that a managerial (by contrast to a self-management) form of market socialism is deficient in terms of self-determination and self-realization at the workplace (Satz 1996), and that the levels of inequalities in income, and the competitive attitudes in the market that it would generate, violate ideals of community (G.A. Cohen 2009). In response, a defender of coupon market socialism can emphasize that the model is meant to be applied in the short-term, and that further institutional and cultural arrangements more fully in line with socialist principles can be introduced later on, as they become more feasible (Roemer 1994a: 25–7, 118). A worry, however, is that the model may entrench institutional and cultural configurations which may diminish rather than enhance the prospects for deeper changes in the future (Brighouse 1996; Gilabert 2011).

The models discussed above envision comprehensive “system change” in which the class division between capitalists and wage laborers disappears. Socialists have also explored piecemeal reforms that stop short of that structural change. An important historical example is the combination of a market economy and the welfare state . In this model, although property in the means of production remains private, and markets allocate most inputs and outputs of production, a robust governmental framework is put in place to limit the power of capitalists over workers and to improve the life-prospects of the latter. Thus, social insurance addresses the risks associated with illness, unemployment, disability, and old age. Tax-funded, state provision of many of those goods that markets typically fail to deliver for all is introduced (such as high-quality education, public transportation, and health care). And collective bargaining gives unions and other instruments of workers’ power some sway on the determination of their working conditions, as well as providing an important foundation for the political agency of the working class (O’Neill and White 2018).

This welfare state model was developed with great success during the three decades after World War II, especially in Northern Europe, but also, in weaker but significant forms, in other countries (including some in the Global South). However, since the 1980s, this model has been in significant retreat, or even in crisis. Wealth and income inequality have been increasing dramatically during this time (Piketty 2014; O’Neill 2017). The financial sector has become extremely powerful and able largely to escape governmental regulation as globalization allows capital to flow across borders. A “race to the bottom” features states competing with each other to attract investment by lowering tax rates and other regulations, thus undermining states’ ability to implement welfare policies (see, e.g., Dietsch 2015, 2018). Some socialists have seen this crisis as a reason to abandon the welfare state and pursue more comprehensive changes of the kind discussed above. Others, however, have argued that the model should be defended given that it has been proven to work quite well while the alternatives have uncertain prospects.

One example of the approach of extending or retrenching the mixed economy and welfare state proposes a combination of two moves (Corneo 2017: ch. 10, Epilogue, Appendix). The first move is to revamp the welfare state by introducing mechanisms of greater accountability of politicians to citizens (such as regulation of the dealings of politicians with private companies, and more instances of direct democracy in order to empower citizens), an improvement of the quality of public services delivered by the welfare state (introducing exacting audits and evaluations and fostering the training and recruitment of excellent civil servants), and international coordination of tax policies to prevent tax competition and tax evasion. The second move in this proposal is to run controlled experiments of market socialism to present it as a credible threat to the powerful actors seeking to undermine the welfare state. This threat would help stabilize the welfare state as the menace of communist revolution did after 1945. Specifically, welfare states could create new institutions that would be relatively independent from governments and be run by highly competent and democratically accountable civil servants. “Sovereign Wealth Funds” would invest public money in well-functioning enterprises, to yield an equal “social dividend” for citizens (on Sovereign Wealth Funds, see also Cummine 2016, O’Neill and White 2019). The second institution, a “Federal Shareholder”, would go further by using some of these funds to buy 51% of the shares of selected enterprises and take the lead within their boards of directors or supervisory boards. The objective would be to show that these enterprises (which would include significant participation of workers in their management, and ethical guidelines regarding environmental impacts and other concerns) maximize profits and thus offer a desirable and feasible alternative to the standard capitalist enterprise. Effectively, this strategy would run controlled experiments of shareholder market socialism. The working population would learn about the feasibility of market socialism, and capitalist opponents of welfare entitlements would be disciplined by fear of the generalization of such experiments to settle again for the welfare state.

Another strategy is to introduce various experiments seeking to expand the impact of social power (as different from state and economic power) within society (as defined in sect. 1). (See survey in Wright 2010: chs. 6–7). A set of mechanisms would target the deepening of democracy. Forms of direct democracy could foster citizens’ deliberative engagement in decision-making, as exemplified by the introduction of municipal participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil (which features citizens’ assemblies identifying priorities for public policy). The quality of representative democracy can be enhanced (and its subservience to the power of capitalists decreased) by introducing egalitarian funding of electoral campaigns (e.g., by giving citizens a sum of money to allocate to the parties they favor, while forcing parties to choose between getting funding from that source and any other source—such as corporations), and by creating random citizen assemblies to generate policy options which can then be subject to society-wide referenda (as in the attempt to change the electoral system in British Columbia in Canada). Finally, forms of associational democracy can be introduced that feature deliberation or bargaining between government, labor, business, and civil society groups when devising national economic policies or when introducing regional or local (e.g., environmental) regulations. A second set of mechanisms would foster social empowerment more directly in the economy. Examples are the promotion of the social economy sector featuring economic activity involving self-management and production oriented to use value (as displayed, e.g., by Wikipedia and child care units in Quebec), an unconditional basic income strengthening people’s ability to engage in economic activities they find intrinsically valuable, and the expansion of the cooperative sector. None of these mechanisms on its own would make a society socialist rather than capitalist. But if we see societies as complex “ecologies” rather than as homogeneous “organisms”, we can notice that they are hybrids including diverse institutional logics. An increase in the incidence of social empowerment may significantly extend the socialist aspects of a society, and even eventually make them dominant (a point to which we return in the next section).

A final point worth mentioning as we close our discussion of dimension DII of socialism concerns the growing interest in addressing not only the economic arena, but also the political and personal-private ones. Some scholars argue that classical socialists neglected the increasing “functional differentiation” of modern society into these three “spheres”, concentrating in an unduly narrow way on the economic one (Honneth 2015 [2017]). Thus, recent socialist work has increasingly explored how to extend socialist principles to the organization of relatively autonomous governmental institutions and practices and to the shaping of intimate relationships among family members, friends, and lovers, as well as to the relations between these diverse social arenas (see also Fraser 2009, 2014; Albert 2017). There is, of course, also a long-standing tradition of feminist socialism that has pushed for a wide scope in the application of socialist ideals and a broader understanding of labor that covers productive and reproductive activities beyond the formal workplace (see, e.g., Arruzza 2013, 2016; Dalla Costa and James 1972; Federici 2012; Ehrenreich 1976 [2018]; Gould 1973–4; Rowbotham et al 1979; Rowbotham 1998).

We turn now to the last dimension of socialism (DIII), which concerns the transformation of capitalist societies into socialist ones. The discussion on this dimension is difficult in at least two respects which call for philosophical exploration (Gilabert 2017a: 113–23, 2015: 216–20). The first issue concerns feasibility. The question is whether socialist systems are accessible from where we are now—whether there is a path from here to there. But what does feasibility mean here? It cannot just mean logical or physical possibility, as these would rule out very few social systems. The relevant feasibility parameters seem instead to involve matters of technical development, economic organization, political mobilization, and moral culture. (For some discussion on these parameters see Wright 2010: ch. 8; Chibber 2017.) But such parameters are comparatively “soft”, in that they indicate probability prospects rather than pose strict limits of possibility, and can be significantly changed over time. When something is not feasible to do right now, we could have dynamic duties to make it feasible to do later by developing our relevant capacities in the meantime. The feasibility judgments must then be scalar rather than binary and allow for diachronic variation. These features make them somewhat murky, and not straightforwardly amenable to the hard-edged use of impossibility claims to debunk normative requirements (via contraposition on the principle that ought implies can).

A second difficulty concerns the articulation of all things considered appropriate strategies that combine feasibility considerations with the normative desiderata provided by socialist principles. The question here is: what is the most reasonable path of transformation to pursue for socialists given their understanding of the principles animating their political project, viewed against the background of what seems more or less feasible to achieve at different moments, and within different historical contexts? Complex judgments have to be formed about the precise social systems at which it would be right to aim at different stages of the sequence of transformation, and about the specific modes of political action to deploy in such processes. These judgments would combine feasibility and desirability to assess short-term and long-term goals, their intrinsic costs and benefits, and the promise of the former to enhance the achievement of the latter. The difficulty of forming such judgments is compounded by the uncertainty about the prospects of large societal changes (but also about the long-term consequences of settling for the status quo).

Marx (1875 [1978b]) himself seemed to address some of these issues in his short text “The Critique of the Gotha Program” of 1875. Marx here envisioned the process of socialist transformation as including two phases. The final phase would fully implement the Abilities / Needs Principle . But he did not take that scenario to be immediately accessible. An intermediate step should be pursued, in which the economy would be ruled by a Contribution Principle requiring that (after some provisions are put aside to fulfill basic needs regarding health care, education, and support for those unable to work) people gain access to consumption goods in proportion to how much they contribute. This lower phase of socialist transformation would be reasonable because it would enhance the prospects of transitioning away from capitalism and of generating the conditions for the full realization of socialism. The implementation of the Contribution Principle would fulfill the promise systematically broken by capitalism that people would benefit according to their labor input (as in capitalism capitalists get much more, and workers much less, than they give). It would also incentivize people to increase production to the level necessary for the introduction of socialism proper. Once such level of development is in place, the social ethos could move away from the mantra of the “exchange of equivalents” and instead adopt a different outlook in which people produce according to their diverse abilities, and consume according to their diverse needs. This sequential picture of transformation features diachronic judgments about changes in feasibility parameters (such as the expansion of technical capacity and a change in patterns of motivation). Marx also envisioned political dimensions of this process, including a “dictatorship of the proletariat” (which would not, as some popular interpretations hold, involve violation of civil and political rights, but a change in the political constitution and majoritarian policies that secure the elimination of capitalist property rights (Elster 1985: 447–9)). In time, the state (understood as an apparatus of class rule rather than, more generally, as an administrative device) would “wither away”.

History has not moved smoothly in the direction many socialists predicted. It has not been obvious that the following steps in the expected pattern materialized or are likely to do so: capitalism generating a large, destitute, and homogeneous working class; this class responding to some of the cyclical crises capitalism is prone to by creating a coherent and powerful political movement; this movement gaining control of government and resolutely and successfully implementing a socialist economic system (G.A. Cohen 2000b: ch.6; Laclau and Mouffe 1985). Given the fact that this process did not materialize, and seems unlikely to do so, it turns out that it would be both self-defeating and irresponsible to fail to address difficult questions about the relative feasibility and moral desirability of different strategies of potential socialist transformation. For example, if the process of transformation involves two or more stages (be they the two mentioned above, or some sequence going, say, from the welfare state to shareholder or coupon market socialism and then to the Carensian model), it might be asked who is to evaluate and decide upon what is to be done at each stage of the process, on what grounds can it be expected that earlier stages will enhance the likelihood of the success of later stages rather than undermine them (e.g., by enshrining institutions or values that will make it hard to move further along the path), what transitional costs can be accepted in earlier stages, and whether the costs expected are outweighed by the desirability and the increased probability of attaining the later stages. Such questions do not want for difficulty.

Addressing questions such as these dilemmas of transitional strategy, socialists have envisaged different approaches to social and political transformation. Four significant examples (extensively discussed in Wright 2010: Part III, 2015b, 2016—which we follow here) are articulated by considering two dimensions of analysis regarding (a) the primary goal of the strategy (either (i) transcending the structures of capitalism, or (ii) neutralizing the worst harms of it) and (b) the primary target of the strategy (either (i) the state and other institutions at the macro-level of the system, or (ii) the economic activities of individuals, organizations, and communities).

The first strategy, smashing capitalism , picks out the combination of possibilities (a.i) and (b.i). A political organization (e.g., a revolutionary party) takes advantage of some of the crises generated by capitalism to seize state power, proceeding to use that power to counter opposition to the revolution and to build a socialist society. This is the strategy favored by revolutionary socialists and many Marxists, and pursued in the twentieth century in countries such as Russia and China. If we look at the historical evidence, we see that although this strategy succeeded in some cases in transitioning out of previously existing capitalist or proto-capitalist economic systems, it failed in terms of building socialism. It led instead to a form of authoritarian statism. There is debate about the causes of these failures. Some factors may have been the economically backward and politically hostile circumstances in which the strategy was implemented, the leaders’ deficits (in terms of their tactics or motives), and the hierarchical frameworks used to suppress opposition after the revolution which remained in place for the long-term to subvert revolutionaries’ aims. Large system changes normally have to face a “transitional trough” after their onset, in which the material interests of many people are temporarily set back (Przeworski 1985). A political dilemma arises, in that, if liberal democratic politics is retained (with a free press, liberty of association, and multiparty elections) the revolutionaries may be unseated due to citizens’ political response to the “valley of transition”, while if liberal democratic politics are supplanted, then authoritarian statism may be the consequence, eradicating the possibility of a socialist outcome to which it would be worthwhile to seek to transition.

A second strategy, picking out the combination of possibilities (a.ii) and (b.i), has been taming capitalism . It mobilizes the population (sometimes in sharp political struggles) to elect governments and implement policies that respond to the worst harms generated by capitalism, with the aim of neutralizing them. New policies include social insurance responding to risks faced by the population (e.g., illness and unemployment), tax funded, state provision of public goods which markets tend to fail to provide (e.g., education, public transportation, research and development, etc.), and regulation of negative externalities produced in markets (e.g., regarding pollution, product and workplace hazards, predatory market behavior, etc.). The strategy, implemented by social-democratic parties, worked quite well during the three decades of the “Golden Age” or Trente Glorieuses following World War II. However, progress was halted and partly rolled back since the retreat of social democracy and the introduction of neoliberalism in the 1980s. Possible explanatory factors are the financialization of capitalism, and the effects of globalization, as discussed above in section 4.3 . There is a debate as to whether capitalism is really tamable—it may be that the Golden Age was only a historical anomaly, borne out of a very particular set of political and economic circumstances.

The third strategy, escaping capitalism , picks out the combination of possibilities (a.ii) and (b.ii). Capitalism might be too strong to destroy. But people could avoid its worst harms by insulating themselves from its dynamics. They could focus on family and friendships, become self-subsistence farmers, create intentional communities, and explore modes of life involving “voluntary simplicity”. However, this strategy seems available mostly to relatively well-off people who can fund their escape with wealth they have amassed or received from capitalist activities. The working poor may not be so lucky.

The final strategy, eroding capitalism , picks out the combination of (a.i) and (b.ii). Economic systems are here seen as hybrids. People can introduce new, socialist forms of collective activity (such as worker cooperatives) and progressively expand them, eventually turning them from marginal to dominant. Recently this kind of strategy of the erosion of capitalism through institutional transformation rather than piecemeal changes within existing economic structures, has been referred to as “the institutional turn” in leftist political economy (see Guinan and O’Neill 2018). Wright (2015b, 2016) suggests the analogy of a lake ecosystem, with the introduction of a new species of fish that at first thrives in one location, and then spreads out, eventually becoming a dominant species. Historically, the transformation from feudalism to capitalism in some parts of Europe has come about in this way, with pockets of commercial, financial, and manufacturing activity taking place in cities and expanding over time. Some anarchists seem to hold a version of this strategy today. It offers hope for change even when the state seems uncongenial, and likely to remain so. But critics find it far-fetched, as it seems unlikely to go sufficiently far given the enormous economic and political power of large capitalist corporations and the tendency of the state to repress serious threats to its rules. To go further, the power of the state has to be at least partially recruited. The fourth strategy then, according to Wright, is only plausible when combined with the second.

As discussed by Wright, this combined strategy would have two elements (we could see Corneo’s proposal discussed in section 4.3 as another version of this approach). First, it would address some important, problematic junctures to expand state action in ways that even capitalists would have to accept. And second, the solutions to the crises introduced by state action would be selected in such a way that they would enhance long-term prospects for socialist change. One critical juncture is global warming, and the social and political problems of the Anthropocene era (Löwy 2005; Purdy 2015; Wark 2016). Responding to its effects would require massive generation of state-provided public goods, which could remove neoliberal compunctions about state activism. A second critical juncture concerns the large levels of long-term unemployment, precariousness, and marginalization generated by new trends in automation and information technology. This involves threats to social peace, and insufficient demand for the products corporations need to sell on the consumption market. Such threats could be averted by introducing an unconditional basic income policy (Van Parijs and Vanderborght 2017), or by the significant expansion of public services, or by some other mechanism that secures for everybody a minimally dignified economic condition independent of their position within the labor market. Now, these state policies could foster the growth of social power and the prospects for socialist change in the future. Workers would have more power in the labor market when they came to be less reliant upon it. They could also be more successful in forming cooperatives. The social economy sector could flourish under such conditions. People could also devote more time to political activism. Together, these trends from below, combined with state activism from above, could expand knowledge about the workability of egalitarian, democratic, and solidaristic forms of economic activity, and strengthen the motivation to extend their scope. Although some critics find this strategy naïve (Riley 2016), proponents think that something like it must be tried if the aim is democratic socialism rather than authoritarian statism. (For specific worries about the political feasibility of a robust universal basic income policy as a precursor to rather than as a result of socialism, see Gourevitch and Stanczyk 2018).

Other significant issues regarding dimension DIII of socialism are the identification of appropriate political agents of change and their prospects of success in the context of contemporary globalization. On the first point, socialists increasingly explore the significance not only of workers’ movements, but also their intersection with the efforts of activists focused on overcoming gender- and race-based oppression (Davis 1981; Albert 2017). Some argue that the primary addressee of socialist politics should not be any specific class or movement, but the more inclusive, and politically equal group of citizens of a democratic community. For example, Honneth (2015 [2017: ch. IV]), following in part John Dewey and Juergen Habermas, argues that the primary addressee and agent of change for socialism should be the citizens assembled in the democratic public sphere. Although normatively appealing, this proposal may face serious feasibility difficulties, as existing democratic arenas are intensely contaminated and disabled by the inequalities socialists criticize and seek to overcome. The second issue is also relevant here. There is a traditional question whether socialism is to be pursued in one country or internationally. The tendency to embrace an internationalist horizon of political change is characteristic among socialists as they typically see their ideals of freedom, equality, and solidarity as having global scope, while they also note that, as a matter of feasibility, the increasing porousness of borders for capitalist economic activity make it the case that socialist politics may not go very far in any country without reshaping the broader international context. A difficulty here is that despite the existence of international social movements (including workers’ movements, international NGOs, human rights institutions and associations, and other actors), institutional agency beyond borders that can seriously contest capitalist frameworks is not currently very strong. In addressing these difficulties, action and research on socialist justice must interact with ongoing work in the related areas of gender, race, democracy, human rights, and global justice. [ 2 ]

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Acknowledgments

For helpful discussion, comments and suggestions we thank a referee, Samuel Arnold, Christopher Brooke, Lee Churchman, Michaela Collord, Chiara Cordelli, Katrina Forrester, Roberto Gargarella, Carol Gould, Alex Gourevitch, Alex Guerrero, Daniel Hill, Brendan Hogan, Juan Iosa, Bruno Leipold, Su Lin Lewis, Fernando Lizárraga, Romina Rekers, Indrajit Roy, Sagar Sanyal, Claire Smith, Lucas Stanczyk, Roberto Veneziani, Nicholas Vrousalis, Stuart White, Jonathan Wolff, and Lea Ypi.

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Today, amidst the backdrop of a highly polarized country with income inequality in the U.S. at its highest point in tracked history, socialism has been gaining increasing interest and attention. However, confusion and misconceptions are still prevalent in conversations about socialism—in part due to the term being mischaracterized and weaponized by American media and politicians throughout history.

In this piece, we aim to offer a clear foundation of how socialism operates as an economic and political framework. Our goal is to encourage more robust, thoughtful, and accurate discussions about both the benefits and shortcomings of incorporating aspects of socialism in our society today.

This Understanding … piece will:

Provide background on the evolution of socialism, with a focus on the influence of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

Explain major theoretical goals of socialism and examine the limitations of its real-world applications.

Analyze how socialism as a concept and a term has changed over time within the U.S., in particular how it fell out of popular favor and became a tool to stoke fear and advance certain political agendas.

Discuss potential opportunities for integrating beneficial aspects of socialism into U.S. politics, based on prior successful examples.

What is socialism.

An overview of socialism from an economic & political perspective

Socialism as a Critique of Capitalism

An overview of capitalism, socialism, communism, major critiques of capitalism, and the ways in which socialism evolved from communism

What is Capitalism?

Socialist critiques of capitalism.

Capitalism as a Solution to Capitalism?

Features & Characteristics of Socialism

Socialism versus communism, issues with socialism.

An analysis of the key issues with socialism

The Command Economy

Corruption in the government, the democratic process, socialism in the united states.

An overview of the evolution of socialism in the U.S., analysis of how socialism has been and continues to be weaponized today, and examples of democratic socialist policies

The Evolution of Socialism in the U.S.

The weaponization of socialism in the u.s., what’s next for socialism in the u.s., how do we encourage change.

Ways for individuals to take steps towards a more equitable and democratic society

Key Takeaways

Socialism is a philosophy of social organization that includes both economic and political aspects.

There are many different strands of socialism, but a unifying theme is that all people share in and benefit from the resources, goods, and services available in their society. The common goal is to reduce inequality and enable all people to lead fulfilling lives.

Economically, socialism generally supports more government intervention and control—especially over necessary resources like water/food, housing, healthcare, and transportation.

Politically, socialism requires a functioning democracy, where all people have a voice in the policies that affect their lives and the actions of the government accurately reflect the desires of the people.

Socialism encompasses a broad set of both political and economic philosophies on societal organization, with a general goal of giving all citizens “ broadly equal access to the necessary...means to live flourishing lives ” with minimal class division. There are many, continually evolving strands of socialist philosophy; however, they are generally based on a foundational element of social ownership over the means of production (i.e., the tools and resources needed to produce useful materials for society at large).

In its simplest form, socialism believes all people should be able to jointly use, share, and receive the benefits from both natural resources and the goods and services that are collectively produced . These processes are overseen by an elected body (the government) that is charged with allocating necessary finished products and services for the common good (e.g., public transit, healthcare, housing) while distributing the surplus of other production efforts back to citizens in an equitable manner. The majority of differences in socialism emerge from variation in how this production process is managed, how the government is assembled and maintained, and what is considered equitable distribution.

The term ‘socialist’ first came into use in Europe in the 1830s to describe individuals who advocated for workers’ equality and sought to overturn the exploitative policies brought by industrialization. Socialist thought is fundamentally a rejection of capitalism (read more about capitalism below ) , which is an economic system that prioritizes private ownership, competition, and profit. Under the basic definition of capitalism, the supply and demand of goods and services are determined by competing private businesses, with minimal (or no) governmental interference, such as setting price floors or ceilings. Businesses and business owners, not workers, own the means of production as well as the final goods and services; thus, owners claim all the profits (or losses) from the sale of these goods.

Socialists argue that this understanding of capitalism creates massive disparities between workers and owners. Even in the case of goods and services that are necessary for survival—like healthcare, housing, and medicine—the free market incentivizes owners to prioritize profit over offering these services or products to the people that need them. To eliminate exploitation of workers and redistribute profits, socialists advocate for high levels of government intervention within economic systems. Different strands of socialist thought may see intervention as anything from setting a minimum wage to the nationalization (ownership or oversight by centralized government) of specific industries, such as railway transportation.

In order for a centralized government to adequately represent the will of the people, the political system under socialism needs the state’s officials to be elected democratically. The all-affected principle defines the baseline of what a democracy should accomplish: that those affected by the outcome of decisions should have a voice in the making of those decisions. However, there have always been substantial issues regarding the accuracy with which democratically elected governments can represent their constituents' wishes.

Theoretically, socialism’s economic system (high levels of government intervention and oversight) and political format (of democracy) should allow its foundational goal to be achieved: collective, socially owned means of production. First, a democratically elected government learns the people’s needs and desires. Next, the government would then manage economic production following the principles of equity and necessity, and allocate production’s surplus (profit) in ways that are useful to its citizens.

For example, the government could regulate the supply and demand of housing to ensure everyone has access to it while also using extra money earned to fund social service programs (e.g., SNAP and Medicaid). However, historically implementing socialism politically and economically on a country-wide scale has proven to be challenging. We will cover some major drawbacks to socialist philosophies in the Issues with Socialism section.

It is also worth noting that socialist policies can exist in any political or economic system . For example, social security in the U.S. is generally considered a socialist policy despite the U.S. being a capitalist country. Workers and corporations pay into the program as part of their annual taxes, the elected government holds onto this lump sum, and later allocates it back to individuals upon their retirement. (We’ll cover additional socialist policies in the section What’s Next for Socialism in the U.S.? ).

Capitalism is an economic system based on private ownership and the free market. This means that individuals own the means of production (through their private businesses), and employ workers to produce various goods and services. Prices on the free market are determined by supply and demand, hypothetically in a way that reflects the interests of consumers at large with minimal (or no) governmental interference. In theory, competition between businesses keeps the market moving efficiently. Business owners then reap the profit (or loss) generated from selling their production.

Capitalism arose in 16th century Europe as a reaction against feudalism , a system where kings and nobles owned all the land, and peasants and serfs did all the labor in exchange for protection. After the Black Plague, the shortage of workers raised individual labor power, enabling workers to acquire more agency and control over their economic futures. At the same time, the privatization of once-public lands (known as enclosure ) expanded property ownership beyond just aristocrats, and gave these new land owners opportunities to generate wealth.

In contrast to feudalism, capitalism allows everyone to receive money for their labor, own private property and businesses, and accrue wealth. Unlike socialism, however, the goals of capitalism are not tied to improving the lives of participants, but rather to optimizing free market dynamics with “winners” being those that provide the most competitive offerings.

The primary difference between socialism and capitalism is who (or what) owns the “means of production,” or resources and tools used to produce the goods and services a society needs.

Under socialism, the people own the means of production (through a democratically elected government) while under capitalism, private individuals and businesses do.

Socialism’s primary critiques of capitalism center around the large wealth disparity between workers versus owners, the lack of government control over necessary social resources (e.g., transportation, housing), and how these inequalities undermine an individual’s right to live a fulfilling life.

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP) describes capitalism’s four major tenets:

The means of production are, for the most part, privately owned;

People own their labor power, and are legally free to sell it to (or withhold it from) others;

Production is generally oriented towards profit rather than use: firms don’t necessarily produce to satisfy human needs, but to make money; and

Markets play a major role in allocating inputs to production, and determining the amount and direction of investment.

It is important to note that no capitalist country currently operates in a completely free market where the state has zero influence over the economy. Even in capitalist countries such as the U.S., the state and the economy are intertwined.

In this section we will cover three major critiques of capitalism:

Private ownership over the means of production : This funnels the majority of profits to owners instead of workers, and prioritizes making items that sell and/or make profit over those that are necessary for society.

Outsized prioritization of economic output and minimal governmental interference with the free market : Private ownership over necessary resources comes at the expense of social safety nets and welfare programs that fulfill basic needs for individuals to lead quality lives . This undermines the freedom of individuals and further perpetuates existing class privileges;

The existence of dramatic class inequity as a result of #1 and #2 : This demonstrates how inequitable and un-democratic the government is, as those with more money and access have far more influence over the economy (and overall society) than those without.

Socialism fundamentally rejects private ownership over the necessary resources that fuel society (e.g., housing, electricity) because it fuels an ever-widening disparity between owners and the working class. While the working class produces the goods and services sold and is compensated for their labor, they have “no ownership at all over most of what they produce. [This] belongs to the capitalist rather than the worker, and is the source of all profits.” ( IEP ) Increasingly, workers’ pay is not proportionate with the profits accrued by the business, does not correspond with their productivity , and does not appropriately adjust for rising costs of living .

For example, Walmart employs a vast number of workers who earn minimum wage, which, depending on the state, starts at $11 an hour or roughly $21,000 a year for full-time work. (For context, the poverty line in the U.S. is $26,500 per year for a family of four.) By comparison, the owners of Walmart, the Waltons, are America’s richest family—worth $235 billion . This is not uncommon amongst for-profit businesses in the U.S. In 2019, the typical CEO-to-worker (i.e. “production and nonsupervisory workers”) wage ratio was 320 to 1 .

Since the goal of capitalism is to create profit for owners, the ability of an individual to produce profitable items becomes seen as a proxy for that individual’s overall worthiness to society . Thus, people are heavily incentivized to cater to the needs of the wealthy, instead of supporting activities that improve the social welfare of others that result in little profit. Those who are not considered ‘productive’ under existing capitalist structures, like people with disabilities, are also stigmatized and largely left unsupported by social services.

Under capitalism, pricing is left to market forces, even for goods that may be necessary to health and well-being like medicine. For example, Daraprim is an antiparasitic treatment for serious infections that was priced by CEO Martin Shrkeli at over $700 per pill. Insulin is another vital drug that is inexpensive to produce yet continues to increase in price . Historically, free market supply and demand have proven ineffective at appropriately regulating necessary goods like medicine and even clean water (e.g., Chile’s privatized water system, which has caused major access issues for regular citizens). Given these case studies, socialism advocates for higher levels of governmental oversight, regulation, or even full ownership over resources that individuals need.

Capitalism purports to allow everyone to work at will, use those profits to become a business owner if desired, thus achieving the “American Dream.” But in reality, there are many systemic obstacles that prevent the majority of people from generating sustainable wealth for themselves or their families. For example, in the U.S. the ripple effects of slavery contribute to a Black-white wealth gap wherein the average wealth of white families is 6.7 times that of Black families . Pervasive generational privileges—such as access to public versus private education or one’s citizenship status—are amplified under capitalism. As economist John Friedman explains , “In the last three decades, the rate of income growth among very wealthy individuals has accelerated [while the income of] individuals in the bottom half...has not grown at all in real terms.”

It is important to recognize that structural disparities under capitalism are not a defect of the system, but are rather an essential feature for the system to thrive. In order for capitalism to effectively function, there must be some level of unemployment—a “ reserve army of labor ”—to keep labor power in check. Even in times of low unemployment, it is still debatable if individuals are able to work ‘at will’ and truly free to withhold their labor, since most people in the U.S. live paycheck-to-paycheck and thus must work to survive.

There is also a major power imbalance between what workers can reasonably ask for in wages, versus what owners can demand in terms of output. (For example, many salaried workers are not paid for their overtime hours.) This unhealthy cycle of overwork can also be seen in the fact that the U.S. is the only advanced economy without federally required paid vacation or holidays , and that only half of workers with paid vacation time even take time off. Furthermore, the increasing prevalence of mechanical and autonomous machines being used to replace workers continues to diminish workers’ ability to negotiate higher wages or hold leverage over their employers.

While capitalism is often associated with the ideals of individual freedom and democracy, socialists point out that the very disparities created by capitalist systems undermine the effective freedom (i.e., the capability to achieve a desired outcome) of individuals despite the appearance of formal freedom (i.e., lack of outside interference). For example, although segregation has been outlawed, American children do not have equal access to the same educational opportunities due to structural problems like the generational wealth gap, redlining, environmental racism, and lack of community investment (e.g., public transportation), all of which are issues that require long-term, large-scale governmental intervention to change. In fact, studies show that the zip code where someone grows up in the U.S. has a major and lasting impact on their adult outcomes, which flies in the face of an individual’s supposed ability to move beyond external forces and succeed equally.

Using a misguided belief of the myth of meritocracy , or that everyone does have equal opportunity to succeed, capitalism encourages individuals to practice deeply anti-social actions. For example, rejecting measures of community care in favor of creating better scenarios for themselves—even if doing so deepens class divisions .

(An oft-cited example of this is the U.S.’s privatized healthcare industry, which leaves over 10% of the population uninsured ). Socialists reject capitalism’s idea that everything can, and should, be bought and sold for a price , as it incentivizes people to treat all interactions as a zero-sum game to be won or lost instead of prioritizing collective advancement.

When it comes to democracy, socialists argue that capitalism offers not just economic power to owners amassing far more money than workers, but also grants them political influence. In the U.S., this often comes in the form of campaign giving, PACs, and other dark money contributions, which threaten the efficacy of the country’s hypothetically ‘equally representative’ political system. When wealthy Americans and private corporations contribute billions to certain political candidates, it is only natural that decisions of the state are increasingly aligned with the desires of the rich (e.g., trickle-down economics ), instead of the needs or wants of the general public .

Capitalism As A Solution to Capitalism?

In order to address the social ills of this system, however, most capitalists will encourage more capitalism as the remedy. The U.S. government has regularly participated in this type of messaging; for example, in his acceptance speech, President Nixon advocates for:

“[letting] the government use its tax and credit policies to enlist in this battle [the war on poverty] the greatest engine of progress ever developed in the history of man—American private enterprise.”

Instead of investing in social safety nets like “government jobs and government housing and government welfare,” Nixon allocated dollars (and tax incentives) to encourage business and market growth under capitalism in hopes that the benefits would eventually support the working class—something now categorized as trickle-down economics. However, these types of pro-business, pro-wealthy policies have long proven to be ineffective in leveling the playing field for working-class individuals to succeed economically. Despite the policies of Nixon and his successors, the wealth gap in America has more than doubled between 1989 and 2016; those working full-time on minimum wage only make $3,000 above the poverty line , and often still need government-sponsored social aid.

In lieu of appropriately resourced and accessible social welfare programs, corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs have become an increasingly important way to care for and support those in need. CSR programs are lauded for giving private enterprise a path to “do good while doing well,” when in reality they have been largely unable to align for-profit motives with long-term social and environmental good. “We have seen an abject failure of companies to invest in things that may have a longer-term benefit, like health and safety systems. BP was fined a record $1.42M for health and safety offenses in Alaska in 2004, for example, even as…[the] chief executive of BP was establishing himself as a leading advocate for CSR, and the company was winning various awards for its programs.” ( Stanford )

Similarly, philanthropy efforts and nonprofits that aim to counteract the issues created by capitalism are at the mercy of the same capitalists’ generosity to fund their programs. As Dr. Marcia Chatelain writes in Franchise about McDonald’s entry and integration in neighborhoods long underserved by the government, what seemed like the choice “between a McDonald’s and no McDonald’s was actually a choice between a McDonald’s or no youth job program.” These communities are not given much of a choice: They must either succumb to a capitalist demand (the presence of a multinational corporation), or forgo an important social benefit.

This vicious cycle of supporting capitalism, so that its profits can be contributed towards PR-friendly CSR and other giving programs, has given rise to what social justice organizations call the nonprofit industrial complex :

"As the [goals of philanthropy and nonprofits] become more and more reliant on a small number of wealthy donors, as well as corporations and private philanthropy, the goals of the movement began to shift to be more in line with what those funders would prioritize."

Often, these focus on the more respectable aspects of a movement, or simply avoid solving the underlying conditions because it would threaten the profits of the donors’ businesses.

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As mentioned previously, there are many, continually evolving strands of socialist philosophy. In this section, we focus primarily on the propositions and ideas of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, authors of The Communist Manifesto (1848), and widely regarded as major influencers in the development of socialism. (Note that while Marx and Engels are important figures in understanding socialism, their end goal was not socialism, but communism. We’ll address this further in the Socialism Versus Communism section.)

Marx and Engels’ writings drew from the groundwork laid by revolutionaries such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Henri de Saint-Simon, and François-Noël Babeuf. Their Manifesto , in particular, became an important phenomenon in Europe as it came at a time when the Industrial Revolution was rapidly widening the gap between the ruling and serving classes. With the rise of factories and specialization of labor, the Manifesto likened the Industrial Revolution to the force that “converted the little workshop of the patriarchal master into the great factory of the industrial capitalist” and put the working class into a position where they were “daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the overlooker, and, above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself.”

Additionally, Marx and Engels observed that this class of workers is growing in number because the “lower strata of the middle class [like] the small tradespeople, shopkeepers, handicraftsmen, and peasants...sink gradually into the proletariat, partly because their diminutive capital does not suffice for the scale on which Modern Industry is carried on.” In other words, the pace of work alongside machines had made the widening gap between workers and the upper class of owners increasingly obvious.

To move beyond such a system, Marx and Engels urged the working class to band together to “raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class to win the battle of democracy,” or, empower the current working class to seize the necessary authority and influence to overtake the political system. After power had been secured, the Manifesto then states “the proletariat [is to] use its political supremacy to wrest, by degree, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralise all instruments of production in the hands of the State.” That is, putting the means of production in the hands of a democratically-elected government—instead of private corporations—to carry out the needs of the people.

Some important, theoretical propositions that arose through Marx, Engels, and other revolutionaries of the time to combat the issues with capitalism were:

1. Redirecting power over the means of production to the government. Originally, a centrally planned or “command economy ” was seen as the way to remove market forces from the production and distribution of goods and services, and instead allow the state to plan this supply and demand more equitably. Hypothetically, this would mean that:

Goods and services produced are those actually needed by society, instead of those desired by the wealthy while ignoring the needs of the poor.

Pricing of goods and services are reflective of the median cost of living, thus ensuring everyone has equal access to the resources necessary to live.

Unemployment would be dramatically reduced as the state would plan enough jobs to employ all available workers.

However, this type of economic system has been largely acknowledged as deeply flawed after the fall of the former U.S.S.R. (Read more about the drawbacks of a command economy under Issues with Socialism ). As such, some socialists contend that “the aim of socialism is not the realization of a plan of state ownership, but rather, the entire elimination of economic exploitation.” To achieve this, however, state involvement is still necessary to plan, organize, and distribute economic resources in order to combat social issues like unemployment, but on a smaller scale than complete economic control.

2. A democratically elected government where workers can partake in all important decisions for the economy. Hypothetically, this signifies that:

All workers share profits generated by their labor, preventing business owners (or its other top leaders) from exploitatively reaping the majority of the production benefits with an income grossly larger than others.

Workers can alter their working hours and conditions based on the actual output needed for society. Hypothetically, working hours would then decrease over time due to industrialization, specialization, and automation. Without intense consumerism, which is encouraged under capitalism, workers can stop producing wasteful excess while also maintaining better hours and working conditions.

3. Prioritization of individual well-being, dignity, and ability to pursue rewarding work that contributes to the greater good of society. Hypothetically, this would result in:

High levels of social services to equip everyone with the necessary tools and resources to live and work to the best of their ability. (Or, individuals’ effective freedoms are no longer being limited by capitalism.) In existing scenarios where there are unequal opportunities for different individuals, the democratically elected government (point #2) is meant to step in and adjust accordingly.

A society that emphasizes community and reciprocity, where people will not solely be incentivized to only produce for personal or business gain.

The feasibility of achieving a sustainable and equitable version of this centralized, worker-led, and run political system, however, has proved very challenging with no country thus far having truly achieved it. As mentioned under point #1, the former U.S.S.R.—a socialist nation by name—eventually collapsed due to a stagnant economy under the control of an authoritarian regime. (We will cover more on the problems facing a transition to a socialist society in the Issues with Socialism section).

As a result, many socialists today advocate for partial, but not total, governmental influence over the economy. In this system, capitalism and the market economy still exist, but the government regulates the economy with taxes and the redistribution of wealth. Additionally, important sources of production and social goods—or shared resources or services that benefit the general public (e.g., oil and natural gas, public housing) would be primarily owned and governed by the state. We’ll explore more efforts by governments balancing capitalism and socialism in the section What’s Next for Socialism in the U.S.?

Marx and Engels are important figures in understanding socialism, but their end goal was communism—not socialism. In The Communist Manifesto (1848), socialism is explained as a transition state between capitalism and communism, and one that still bears many problematic markers of capitalism, notably:

There would still be class inequities between people, albeit to a lesser extent, due to varying compensation structures for specialized jobs. Because capitalist society assigns different levels of worth and value for these jobs, individuals will likely desire (and feel entitled) to be paid differently depending on their contributions.

Relatedly, many individuals would continue doing jobs that Marx viewed as unproductive labor (e.g., jobs like PR or advertising that are only necessary due to the existence of private businesses). By contrast, under communism, work would be, as Marx described , “a means of life [and] life’s prime want.” That is, people should do a broad scope of tasks that support “springs of cooperative wealth,” or that are beneficial for others in the community.

Under socialism, private property would still exist, and would still be a primary marker of class differences and unequal wealth distribution, since landowners would be able to live off the passive income of their property, while others would have to live off their wages.

(It is worth noting that socialism and communism allow for personal property like clothing or toiletries. Socialism also allows for certain kinds of private property, such as privately owned businesses and land—as long as those businesses do not interfere with resources that individuals need, like air or water—whereas communism does not.)

In order to successfully move from socialism into full communism, the Manifesto lists 10 characteristics that must be met (excerpted):

Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.

A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.

Abolition of all rights of inheritance.

Confiscation of the property of all emigrants [sic] and rebels.

Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.

Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state.

Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.

Equal liability of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.

Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country by a more equitable distribution of the populace over the country.

Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production.

The ultimate goal of communism is the creation of a state where every person can contribute according to their ability, and in return receive what is necessary to live equally with everyone else. Hence, Marx’s famous quote: “Each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” Under these conditions, there would hypothetically be little need for a centralized state because “the government of persons is replaced by the administration of things, and by the conduct of processes of production. The state is not ‘abolished’. It withers away.” ( Engels ) Or, the state is eventually replaced by the systems of production themselves and able to continue onwards autonomously, so there would be no need for a separate government entity.

Today, China, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam are self-classified as Communist countries (or, as stated in their Constitutions, as working towards communism). However, the private sector in China accounts for ⅔ of its overall GDP and a significant portion of its economic growth, while the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) wields massive centralized governmental authority in the country (and does not allow public voting). This functioning capitalist market within an authoritarian government regime is a far cry from the Manifesto’s ideals of communism, but serves as a rebuttal to capitalist claims that all societies working towards communism necessarily befall the economic disaster of the former U.S.S.R.

In order to shift the means of production from private ownership into the hands of the people, the (democratically elected) government must serve as a proxy to oversee what, how, how much, and for whom goods and services are produced. It would also set the wage rates and quotas of employment to ensure everyone has the opportunity to work. When the government has control over critical resources (e.g., land, natural resources, capital) and thus makes all the economic decisions without input from market signals, this mode of central economic planning is known as a command economy.

While all governments assert some level of regulation over their nation’s economy, high levels of economic planning from the state in conjunction with widespread state ownership of important industries has proven to create significant problems:

1. A lack of incentive for taking entrepreneurial risks to innovate. As conservative commentator David Brooks writes , “It has [to be] a competitive profit-driven process to motivate you to learn and innovate.” Thus, a state that oversees all means of production will “suppress or eliminate [the] profit motives that drive people [and businesses] to learn and improve.”

In particular, heavy R&D spenders, like the pharmaceutical industry, cite the need for a “ return that allows it to continue to do its research .” (However, third-party studies have found pharmaceutical companies spend almost as much on advertising as on R&D.)

2. Decreased efficiency due to no competition. As the government now has a monopoly on all industries, there is no competitive pressure and little to no insight on the real demand for produced goods and services. Thus government-run industries can stagnate, become mired in bureaucratic red tape, or greenlight major initiatives disconnected with societal needs, such as building whole cities that sit barely occupied . (However, a counterpoint to this is that capitalism also allows for underutilized resources like houses sitting vacant while people nearby remain unhoused.)

Socialism also has inherent problems. In particular, how a democracy will be appropriately implemented, how the democratically-elected government will manage the economy without market signals (the ever-changing supply/demand under capitalism), and how corruption can be avoided when so much power is consolidated in the government.

Disasters like the collapse of the U.S.S.R. have made many fearful of a government-controlled economy (a “command economy”) and, by extension, socialism. However, the U.S.S.R. was not an accurate example of socialism for many reasons, a major one being that the government was authoritarian.

To philosopher Karl Marx, socialism is a transition state between capitalism and communism. Unlike socialism, communism dictates that all individuals are paid and treated exactly the same and cannot own anything except personal property (e.g., clothes).

When it comes to wages, determining the appropriate compensation for workers who differ in prerequisite skill and education can also be difficult without market insights. However, even with market insights under capitalism, setting appropriate wages remains an issue .

3. Poor government oversight over, and investment in, each industry. Economists such as Ludwig Von Mises have long argued that without market forces, proper allocation of resources cannot occur. With the state responding much less nimbly than market forces to economic changes, heavy-handed decisions regarding supply and demand can make for disastrous decisions with long-tailed implications (e.g., President Nixon’s price controls on oil .)

Poorly planned government policies that support one industry, or prevent unemployment, may also come at the expense of proper economic balance. In the former U.S.S.R., “Citizens found employment in one of the 300,000 construction projects, far more than was needed, but reducing that number presented a real danger of mass unemployment.... [Also], the ruble [U.S.S.R.’s currency] had only paper value, with Soviet citizens holding overall 400-450 billion rubles, [despite not having anything] to spend it on; store shelves carried few consumer goods.” ( Brookings )

4. Lack of incentive to fulfill the needs of the minority. As writer Conor Friedersdorf argues in The Atlantic :

“Under capitalism, the mere existence of buyers reliably gives rise to suppliers. Right now, under capitalism, vegetarians and vegans have more options every year. But there aren’t very many of them. Five percent of Americans are vegetarians. Three percent are vegans. Would ‘the workers’ find a societal need to produce vegan meat or milk substitutes?”

As the economist and philosopher Friedrich Hayek put it,

“Our freedom of choice in a competitive society rests on the fact that, if one person refuses to satisfy our wishes, we can turn to another.” But, he added, “if we face a monopolist we are at his absolute mercy. Socialists are attuned to the ways individuals are vulnerable in capitalism but blind to ways that it frees us from the preferences of the majority.”

Modern governments have learned these problems with implementing a command economy from nations like the former U.S.S.R. and Cuba . In areas that follow the Nordic model , high levels of state controlled industries exist in sync with a market economy where individuals and corporations can still profit from private enterprise, giving them enough of a risk and reward to encourage innovation. At the same time, important governmental regulations are in place to protect workers (i.e., Nordic countries had the highest trade union density in the world in 2016 ) and governmental ownership of certain industries, like housing or transportation, oversee the public distribution of necessary resources.

In this sense, the outstanding question is not if but how much the government should intervene on economic matters. As economist Allison Schrager writes ,

“What modern socialists and capitalists really disagree on is the right level of government intervention.”

The perfect balance has been challenging to find, even in instances of controlled state ownership in specific industries. Canada, for example, has enacted some level of centralized planning for industries like healthcare , which covers ~70% of individuals’ needs, but requires long wait times for patient care with a median wait time of 21 weeks for specialists in 2019. In response, Canada’s private healthcare industry has sprung up to fill in the gap, with expensive private clinics catering to the rich, ultimately perpetuating the same inequities the state originally intended to minimize. (It is worth noting this dichotomy also exists in the U.S., where the state-controlled Veterans Association has a poor track record for health services. Those who are covered but have the ability to opt for privatized options will often choose the latter. At the same time, privatized healthcare does not necessarily yield particularly short wait times.)

One glaring problem with consolidating the means of production in a socialist society is that government authorities are not necessarily better equipped to distribute goods and services in an equitable manner, even if they are supposed to prioritize the public good . As Mathieu Desan and Michael A. McCarthy wrote in the socialist magazine Jacobin ,

“In the same way we don’t believe that capitalists should be able to have disproportionate control over economic resources, we don’t think unaccountable state officials and bureaucrats should have the power to control investment and production through ‘ socialism from above ’ [or authoritarian socialism]. In some cases, like the former Soviet Union, the failings of such a system are as clear as those of capitalism itself.”

While corruption—and more generally, state officials prioritizing self-interests above their constituents (e.g., lawmakers engaging in insider trading)— is a concern in any type of political system , it is even more worrisome when the government wields so much power over the economy. Venezuela is a recent (and ongoing) example. The country elected Hugo Chavez in 1998 on his socialist platform to invest the country’s vast oil fortune in programs to reduce inequality and poverty. While the expansion of social programs reduced poverty by 20% , his mismanagement of the country’s oil reserves alongside a massive consolidation of political power led to rampant corruption . Poor decisions made by corrupt leaders on issues like price fixing and hyperinflation have now led to a country-wide humanitarian disaster.

Additionally, in countries like China where an authoritarian government exists in tandem with a capitalist market, bribes can make their way into public sector resources like medicine as private enterprise attempts to compete. Especially as China has been strengthening government controls over its capitalist market, these top-down governmental decisions can have long-term implications on the economy.

Preventing a political slide into corruption requires a democratic process for electing representatives that accurately represents the peoples’ needs and wants. Creating and maintaining such a system, however, remains a challenge—and not just for socialist countries. Socialists in the U.S. will point out that capitalism threatens the democratic process by giving the wealthy and powerful outsized political influence. In 2010, a group consisting of less than 27,000 wealthy individuals donated almost $800 million (roughly 25% of all individual donations) to federal political campaigns. Wealthy individuals can contribute to Super PACS that are able to accept an unlimited amount of money to support (or oppose) certain candidates. These funds become extremely important in influencing both public and legislative opinions when certain topics, like tax reforms that disproportionately benefit certain groups, are up for vote in Congress.

Additionally, systemic issues like racism, xenophobia, and mass incarceration in the U.S. limit who is even able to take part of the political process. Voting, for example, is not offered to all people, not considered a right of citizenship, and continues to be actively suppressed through actions like felony disenfranchisement and voter purges.

However, socialism also does not inherently guarantee an equitable democratic process . Pre-existing privileges and the existence of some level of private enterprise (that produces profit for owners) will still give certain people more political sway to elect officials who prioritize their interests.

Critics of socialism also argue that countries lauded for implementing socialist policies, like those operating under the Nordic model, have not actually resolved the difficulties of maintaining a democratic political process. Rather, these countries have been able to bypass the issue because of their fairly homogenous population that is sustained with restrictions on immigration . This strong foundation of similarities allows for state officials to more easily make decisions that the vast majority of its citizens find agreeable. Whether this same success can be replicated by countries with larger and more varied minority populations, like the U.S., remains uncharted territory.

Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Photo by Peter Foley ( Image source)

The latter half of this piece explores socialism as it exists in the U.S. today, why it has come to be understood as antithetical to American values, and how socialist policies could work within the U.S.

Today, against the backdrop of a highly polarized country where income inequality is at its highest point in tracked history, socialism has been gaining public interest. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) now has over 90,000 members, up from 7,000 members in 2016. In 2018, more than 40 democratic socialists won primary elections—notably Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib. There has also been a significant increase in subscribers to socialist-leaning media sources such as Jacobin since Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign.

This rise can in part be attributed to Senator Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign as a Democratic Socialist. (The phrase ‘democratic socialism’ is a bit of a redundancy, however. In order for a government to effectively control the means of production and meet the needs of individuals under socialism, a democratically elected government is required by definition.)

In reality, Sanders’ platform is more accurately classified as progressive capitalism . Sanders does not call for the consolidation of the means of production to be state-owned, but rather an expansion of economic and social welfare in the U.S. Today, the term democratic socialism is generally used in the U.S. to distinguish this mediated version of socialism from authoritarian governments such as the U.S.S.R. and China.

As the winner-takes-all voting system in the U.S. has produced a two-party system for most of American history, the rise of democratic socialism has led to a more complicated political arena. Democrats are concerned that the growth of democratic socialism will divide the Democratic party and cede government representation to Republicans who are unified in their opposition to socialism as antithetical to the American Dream.

But socialism has not always been seen so negatively by a large swath of the American public. In 1949, Gallup first asked Americans: “What is your understanding of the term ‘socialism?’”, and has repeated the survey every year since. In the first year, Americans generally defined socialism through an economic lens, as “government ownership of the means of production” including business and utilities. That same year, almost 50% of survey respondents associated socialism with progressive policies such as free social services, with 43% believing that some American policies were socialist in practice.

By 2018, American perceptions of socialism had shifted , with Americans more likely to associate socialism with a broadly defined concept of equality. The divide between those in favor of, versus against, socialism had also grown more stark: 57% of Democrats viewed socialism positively versus only 16% of Republicans.

To understand how American views towards socialism have changed so dramatically over the past 100 years, it is necessary to contextualize the international geopolitical climate during this period.

1900s–1920s: Initial popularity and dramatic downturn

In the early 1900s, socialism was well-positioned to enter mainstream U.S. politics because many groups—farmers, factory workers, and new immigrants—were dissatisfied with their harsh working conditions and low pay. To find more power in numbers, they formed unions that supported the Populist Party and the Socialist Party.

In the 1912 election , Socialist candidate Eugene V. Debs won almost six percent of the popular vote while running against eventual President Woodrow Wilson—the highest ever in U.S. history for a Socialist candidate. During that same year, the Socialist party held more than 1,000 political offices across 340 cities. Shortly thereafter, however, socialism experienced a political decline as the U.S. entered World War I. Political opponents described Socialist Party members as anti-American due to their continued opposition of the pro-capitalist war efforts .

Socialism peaked in popularity in the U.S. during the early 1900s when workers who were increasingly dissatisfied with their pay and working conditions turned to the Populist and Socialist parties.

In the past five years, interest in socialism has grown in the U.S. due to Bernie Sanders’ 2016 Presidential campaign, and dissatisfaction among young Americans after the 2008 recession and increasing social inequities.

Corporations also contributed heavily to anti-socialist sentiments, spreading aggressive pro-capitalist propaganda that pitted socialism against “American values” of patriotism and nationalism. Aided by policies such as the Espionage Act , which allowed the U.S. government to suppress wartime dissent during World War I, government agencies like the Committee of Public Information (CPI) worked to ensure any unfavorable messages against the U.S. were routinely censored from the public. At the same time, propaganda exploited existing racism and xenophobia to correlate people of color and recent immigrants with socialism. Compounded with widespread fear of a newly formed communist U.S.S.R. in 1918, socialism all but disappeared from electoral politics ( Brookings ).

Socialism’s downturn was also aided by fundamental problems stemming from within the Socialist Party. At the first party convention in 1901, Black Americans called for the broader movement to recognize “equal rights for all human beings without distinction of color, race, or sex.” The decision over whether to formally acknowledge racism and systemic oppression towards Black Americans split the party. Right-wing members denounced social equality for Black Americans and supported segregation, while left-wing members fought against Black disenfranchisement and segregation. This volatility disenchanted many, causing Black socialists to leave and further contributing to the dissolution of the Socialist Party.

1930s–2000s: Unnamed influence on governmental policies & new era of capitalism

As socialism became unfavorable in the political landscape, political candidates and presidents took care to distance themselves from the concept. However, in the post-Great Depression 1930s, Americans desperately needed governmental assistance. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal program provided just that with the Social Security Act, union protection programs, emergency work relief programs, and agricultural programs. He also raised the income tax on the wealthiest to 75% to subsidize welfare programs. While the benefits of the New Deal were extremely unequally distributed along racial lines, it set a precedent of government intervention to provide social safety nets for citizens.

At the time, Senator Thomas Pryor Gore asked, “Isn’t [Social Security] socialism? Isn’t this a teeny-weeny bit of socialism?” Despite many of these New Deal programs being clearly socialist in nature, Roosevelt vehemently denied these claims, instead reasoning that these programs were necessary in the face of increasing socioeconomic inequity. Following Roosevelt’s lead, his successor President Truman attempted to provide a national health insurance program, but failed due to accusations from the American Medical Association (AMA) that the program represented “socialized medicine.”

Anti-Socialist perceptions reached a fever pitch in the 1950s with the communist takeover of China , in the wake of the Soviet takeover of Eastern Europe . Senator Joseph McCarthy led the crusade against communism by mandating surveillance on all Americans—from labor union leaders and civil rights activists, to suspected homosexuals —under the guise of protecting national security. In particular, Chinese Americans were targeted through programs like the Chinese Confession Program . While the program was technically created to identify illegal entry into the country, it was covertly utilized to identify potential Chinese Communist Party spies through whatever means possible. In reality, however, confessions amounted to a small number of the suspected illegal entries into the country, but this government move successfully sowed distrust and fear amongst the Chinese American community.

Throughout this era later known as McCarthyism , Chinese-owned businesses were vandalized and Chinese Americans feared a repeat of Japanese American internment. These anti-Asian sentiments were further stoked by the Korean War (1950–1953) and the Vietnam War (1955–1975), especially given China’s involvement and support of Vietnamese and North Korean communists. As a result of government efforts to vilify communism and related ideologies like socialism, these ideas became associated with foreign governments and therefore incompatible within U.S. politics.

U.S. corporations played a major role in accelerating anti-socialist and anti-communist sentiments. The Advertising Council , an organization created in 1942 with pro-corporation and business policies, created several campaigns that portrayed communism—and by association, socialism—as antithetical to American freedom during and after WWII. Campaigns such as the Freedom Train Campaign and The Miracle of America linked American superiority to its capitalist model, demonized the Soviet Union by associating communism with tyranny, and warned of other nations becoming “ communist or fascist ” if the U.S. did not export the capitalist model. Corporations such as General Electric and Standard Oil financially sponsored these programs.

The downfall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s further cemented Americans’ belief of capitalist supremacy. Media publications such as The New Yorker celebrated the event as a “ triumph of capitalism .” Social philosopher Francis Fukuyama declared it “capitalism’s ultimate victory as the world’s only viable economic system” and the “victory of liberal democracy in the political sphere.” Despite the reality that the U.S. was undergoing a long period of economic stagnation due to rising economic inequality , the War on Drugs , and the deregulation and breaking of unions , overwhelmingly positive public perceptions of capitalism ushered in a new era of “ turbo-capitalism .”

2000s to present day: The rise of democratic socialism and entrance into public discourse

The financial collapse in 2008–2009 and subsequent Great Recession revealed a dramatic disparity between the American ideals of capitalism and the belief that the U.S. inhabited an era of stability and economic prosperity. For many young Americans entering the workforce, the Great Recession proved a turning point in their rising disillusionment in capitalism. Over the years, state reductions in public education budgets combined with rising tuition rates for higher education forced many to take on expensive student loans. After graduation, however, these same young Americans faced significant difficulty in finding jobs amongst a competitive job market where wage growth had stagnated .

Today, the generational divide in perceptions toward socialism is noticeable. In a 2018 survey , 35% of respondents aged 18–29 found socialism favorable compared to only 25% of respondents aged 65+. (Whereas, 56% of respondents aged 65+ found socialism unfavorable compared to 40% of respondents aged 18-29.) Also in 2018, for the first time in Gallup’s history of surveying Americans about socialism, more Democrats had a positive image of socialism than they did of capitalism. However, while socialism has grown in public acceptance, a 2018 Hill.TV/HarrisX American Barometer poll found that only 24% of respondents would actually vote for a socialist candidate.

Democratic candidates are well-aware that underlying fears of socialism remain strong within politically moderate voters. Seeing the Republican Party utilizes the negative connotations around the term socialism to attract people to the Republican base (e.g., Senator Tim Scott said, “Democrats will turn our country into a socialist utopia”), many Democrats actively distance themselves from self-described socialists and socialist language within their own party. Despite supporting higher taxes and policies with socialist principles, President Biden responded to criticism with, “I beat the socialists. That's how I got elected. That's how I got the nomination. Do I look like a socialist? Look at my career, my whole career. I am not a socialist.”

Using Socialism to Stigmatize Social Welfare Programs

Socialist policies that focus on expanding social welfare have proven to be worthwhile and necessary for lessening systemic inequities: Social Security, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and tax credits have all helped reduce poverty rates. Properly resourced public services such as fire stations and libraries are clearly needed by citizens, despite being criticized as “ socialist programs .” (For example, the Bronx fires of the 1970s, which eventually led to the abandonment of 97% of buildings in some neighborhoods, were a result of budget cuts that dramatically reduced the number of fire companies, fire inspections, and available firefighting stations in the borough.)

However, these social welfare programs cost money. Paying for the needed resources to keep them running often come in the form of taxes on individuals and corporations. As a result, the wealthy and private enterprises have a vested interest in resisting new public safety nets. A 2011 study found that the top 1% of wealth-holders were mostly in favor of cutting spending on welfare programs that almost 20% of Americans rely on. While 68% of the polled American public believed that the federal government should ensure no full-time worker would fall below the federal poverty line, only 19% of these high net-worth individuals voted in favor of regulations to enable this. Across the board, the extremely wealthy were less likely to believe the government had an essential role in regulating market conditions (e.g., minimum wage, job programs, childcare policies).

Socialism was, and is still, weaponized by politicians and the wealthy to undermine the need of social services, as well as rationalize surveillance on marginalized groups that are seen as a threat to existing power structures.

The rejection of socialism in the U.S. was first prompted by Cold War tensions and the fear of communism, but the continued extremism in discourse has been the result of politicians and corporations vilifying the term for their own gain.

These wealthy individuals and corporations have found a myriad of ways to rationalize their backing of pro-corporate, anti-welfare policies. One such way is supporting trickle-down economics , or the idea that tax savings to the wealthy will eventually trickle down to benefit workers in the form of increased wages and decreased unemployment. This has repeatedly proven to not work. For example, Trump’s Tax Cuts & Jobs Act of 2017 , which cut taxes for businesses and wealthy individuals, managed to consolidate more wealth in the top echelons of society but did little to stimulate the economy.

To successfully persuade the (more numerous) swaths of Americans to buy into pro-corporate policies, the wealthy have readily used the anxiety and fear around socialism to stigmatize social services . Even though not all government aid is necessarily socialist in nature, associating social services at large with socialism rationalized the rejection of these programs. For example, the 2007 proposal by the Bush administration to expand the federally sponsored Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), intended to help those unable to afford private insurance, was described as “a ‘trap,’ a slide toward a socialist healthcare system.”

A related method is to attack ‘socialist’ welfare policies as depriving tax-paying citizens of the public budget in order to provide resources for “freeloaders.” Racist tropes like the ‘welfare queen ’ have been in use since the Reagan era to depict those using social services as lazy and unwilling to work, while ignoring the fact that historic injustices like slavery and policy that systemically perpetuates poverty are what created such widespread need for aid. Even today, these stereotypes influence decisions around access to social services. For example, recent congressional proposals asked to remove eligibility for services like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Medicaid if recipients did not have full-time work or could not produce a negative drug test.

It’s important to note that this behavior isn’t solely confined to Republicans. Democrats have also enacted neoliberal policies reducing government intervention in the market as a means to encourage more economic growth. For example, the Affordable Care Act was enacted on the belief that a private marketplace should provide healthcare to individuals based on principles of competition that lead to lower premiums and greater efficiency, rather than positioning healthcare as a fundamental human right.

Using Socialism to Limit Equality for Marginalized Groups

The idea of socialism has long been used as a political tool to isolate and alienate individuals and groups who were deemed threats to those in power. Following the Civil War and Reconstruction Era , anti-Communist sentiments were used as a pretense to deny non-white individuals and immigrants of governmental support, and justify limitations on their ability to participate in government. At the time, white Americans felt increasingly threatened by newly freed Black Americans and recent immigrants entering the job market—especially as many were organizing for better wages and working conditions on par with their white counterparts. In response, politicians such as President Andrew Johnson deliberately vetoed certain policies, such as expanding the Freedmen’s Bureau to provide land and education to impoverished Black and white Southerners.

The political messaging of the Reconstruction Era attached the concept of reparations and wealth redistribution to the image of unfair allocation to ‘undeserving’ communities of Black people, immigrants, and the urban working class. For politicians who feared a powerful, educated, and multiracial working class coalition, this racist fiction provided a convenient divide-and-conquer strategy to pit marginalized groups against one another . Newspaper articles furthered this sentiment by drawing parallels between immigrant workers and French Communists who wished to redistribute the hard-earned wealth of white families to themselves. A century later, the political campaigns of 1980s welfare benefits, such as Medicaid and food stamps, were still associated with a “socialist welfare state.”

The racism, xenophobia, and corresponding fear of socialism were also supported by legal policies at the time. In the 1875 case of Minor v. Happersett , the Supreme Court ruled that U.S. citizenship did not give individuals the right to vote. Although Minor v. Happersett has since been overturned by the Nineteenth Amendment (1920) and the voting rights reforms of the 1960s, unequal access to voting rights can still be seen to this day. For example, felony disenfranchisement , where prisoners are not allowed to vote but still are counted towards a state’s population for electoral college votes, continues to be a major issue.

The fear of socialism has also been continually used to justify surveillance of groups deemed threats to the U.S. The 1940 Alien Registration Act, known as the Smith Act , criminalized any advocacy towards the violent overthrow of the U.S. government or participation in any group working towards that goal. First put into action in 1941 against the leaders of the Socialist Workers Party , who received jail sentences for advocating for labor strikes, it was eventually used against leaders of the American Communist Party in 1948 (as well as anyone suspected of being sympathetic to communism) claiming they were “part of a conspiracy to advance a political ideology whose eventual goal was the destruction of the U.S. government.”

McCarthyism during the 1950s (read The Evolution of Socialism in the U.S. section for additional detail) also contributed to widespread acceptance of mass surveillance and political repression under the guise of protecting American values. As former Supreme Court Justice William Douglas described,

This era created "black silence of fear, narrowing the spectrum of acceptable ideas, while demonizing left-wing dissent."

The legacy of the U.S. government to stifle dissent and opposition to “American values'' is no relic of the past. After 9/11, the Patriot Act allowed the government to spy on residents—often foreign nationals—deemed “suspicious.” Despite the fact that most of these people were eventually found to be innocent, it solidified the idea of immigrants as perpetual foreigners that harbor anti-American values.

While the rhetoric surrounding post-9/11 counterterrorism efforts emphasize religious extremism, versus the political extremism feared under the McCarthy Era or the pro-segregation ideas of Reconstruction, the eagerness to reduce Americans’ civil liberties remains a constant. Social policies that support marginalized communities are regularly vilified as un-American, or even detrimental to society as a whole, while hyper-surveillance of marginalized groups are justified as a necessary aspect of protecting “American people” (or at least, a privileged segment of American people).

This section outlines the current state of socialist policies in the U.S., as well as examples of programs abroad that have expanded social services for its citizens through state-run programs and using state-owned means of production.

Socialist Policies in the U.S.

Democratic Socialists like Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) are championing more socialist-minded policies, including universal healthcare, tuition-free higher education, guaranteed minimum living wage, and democratically elected boards overseeing these initiatives. Some of these policies are currently only blueprints to more equitable economic and social growth; as more concrete details are shared around these policies, we encourage everyone to take a critical eye in analyzing these policies (read the next section How Do We Encourage Change? for additional details) .

The oft-cited model for modern-day socialism is the Nordic model. Some of its key aspects include state-owned natural resources (Norway), and more government over essential services such as education and healthcare (Sweden).

The future of socialism in the U.S. remains uncertain, but there are three major bills (Medicare For All, Green New Deal, THRIVE Act) that incorporate aspects of socialism in its attempts towards political and socioeconomic change.

1. Medicare For All (Health Care Emergency Guarantee Act) proposes a universal healthcare system that eliminates private health insurance plans and is instead financed by federal taxes. Read more about it here: primer , bill summary , update on Medicare For All .

Healthcare is an extremely expensive and privatized industry in the U.S.: more than 30 million people are uninsured , and healthcare outcomes in the U.S. are worse than many comparable European countries on measures such as life expectancy and infant mortality. The idea behind Medicare For All is to shift power and control away from large, profit-driven corporations, and into the hands of a state-run system where individuals’ welfare can be prioritized. However, long-standing problems with the state-run Veterans Association and existing Medicaid have contributed to cynicism around this policy providing quality, timely, services.

2. The Green New Deal (GND) is a 10-year effort with three core principles at its heart including “decarbonization, jobs, and justice.” The GND has outlined its mission in the form of high-level goals to address climate change, economic inequality, and racial injustice by striving to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while also creating new economic opportunities for communities reliant on the fossil fuel industry. Read more about it here: primer , bill summary , AOC’s perspective on the Green New Deal .

The Green New Deal seeks to return power to individuals by providing education, access to clean air, water, and a guaranteed job to everybody in the U.S. “where every businessperson is free from unfair competition and domination by domestic or international monopolies.” The GND also emphasizes the prioritization of individuals’ welfare through increased government oversight across many environmental and social issues that have long been dominated by the interests of profit-driven individuals and corporations . GND also calls for the use of “democratic and participatory processes” during the planning and implementation stages, to elevate the needs of community members who have been most severely impacted by environmental and social inequities.

3. The THRIVE (Transform, Heal, and Renew by Investing in a Vibrant Economy) Act “offers a blueprint for economic renewal backed by a movement of movements, including unions, racial justice, climate, and other grassroots groups.” Read more about it here: primer , bill summary , context behind the THRIVE Act .

Similar to the GND, THRIVE aims to give ownership and power to those most impacted in order to address issues such as the climate crisis, economic insecurity, and systemic racism on the community’s terms. THRIVE specifically calls for the creation of an oversight committee composed of individuals at the forefront of fighting systemic inequity to oversee the investment of $1 trillion per year in federal funds to build a more just society. THRIVE also seeks to expand funding of public resources such as in public education and the public healthcare system, while also preventing the privatization of natural resources.

Americans are no stranger to socialist practices, even if they are not defined as such. In addition to programs like Social Security and the existing Medicaid, community health centers established in the 1960s are continued evidence of the success of community-organized health centers. Based on South Africa’s model of community health care , these federally funded and community-run health centers provide affordable healthcare to 27 million Americans in the most impoverished urban and rural communities. These centers have also empowered community members to oversee their own healthcare services by participating in governing boards that establish and direct care.

As the current generation begins to shift public perception of what it means to be a socialist in our country today, the U.S. has an opportunity to reject the stigmatization of social services or state-run agencies to implement new policies that support and uplift U.S. citizens. Some notable examples from around the world include:

Sweden uses public funding to offer its citizens subsidized universal healthcare (under a single payer model) and subsidized elder care, as well as free education (for those aged six and up). A mix of public organizations and private businesses provide the actual services, while each municipality is responsible for funding and regulating these programs (e.g., enforcing clinic hours). This offers citizens the power to choose a preferred provider, whether a school or doctor, while fostering competition within the private sector.

These services and programs are mainly funded through taxes; citizens typically pay half or more of their income into federal taxes. Since so many dollars are allocated through a central government, many have also criticized the sustainability of the ‘ Swedish model ’ given the natural inefficiencies and high cost. It is precisely the high levels of income tax required to create and maintain these programs that serve as a major deterrent for U.S. politicians to propose similar ideas.

Norway, with its state-owned production of oil and natural gas, is another Nordic country with a significant welfare state. Norway first began producing oil in the 1970s and created a sovereign wealth fund in the 1990s to manage revenue from production. (It is currently the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world with 1.3 trillion dollars in reserve.) The government holds a major stake in its oil production to provide residents a safety net from the volatility of energy prices, and profits are reinvested. In 2016, the Norwegian government made its first ever withdrawal of $780 million to provide welfare services during an economic downturn.

While Norway can be lauded for its state-owned-and-run entity for oil and natural gas production, it also presents a certain paradox: “Norway wants to be at the forefront of international efforts to address climate change, yet it continues to rely on heavily polluting fossil fuel extraction for continued economic prosperity.” ( Vox )

The literacy programs or ‘National Literacy Crusade’ is an example of a successful state-sanctioned education program overseen by a separate governing board. To combat high illiteracy rates, Nicaragua first launched its free literacy program in 1980 under the Sandinista government; it was run by a governing body of 18 different organizations, including various workers’ and teachers’ associations. In addition to governmental financial support through international aid organizations, nearly 200,000 Nicaraguans volunteered to teach reading and writing to rural peasants. An estimated 600,000 Nicaraguans emerged literate—effectively reducing the overall illiteracy rate from 50% to 13%.

While this program has offered Nicaraguans an objective benefit, the heavy political motivations behind this program must be acknowledged. At the time of the literacy program, the Sandinista government was striving to overthrow the Somoza dynasty by uniting the “Nicaraguan workers and peasants to destroy the present system of capitalist exploitation and oppression.” The Sandinista government believed the literacy program would not only reduce illiteracy, but also unite the rural residents of Nicaragua in support of the revolution.

Fruitful and serious conversations about how socialism can happen in the U.S. first require a better understanding of the term and its historical context. Currently, the term socialism is used to oppose certain policies and politicians without a full understanding as to why socialism is now seen as antithetical to U.S. values. Professor John McWhorter has even suggested retiring the term due to its lack of consensus amongst the American public:

"Debates about the use of the democratic-socialist label are a losing enterprise for everyone involved, because the American public doesn’t have a shared understanding of what socialism signifies ... some words are too weighted with history, ambiguity, and disparaging associations to be a part of effective political communication . By using them, politicians, political commentators, and voters are consigning themselves to an unnecessary battle to clarify and defend their positions.”

Professor McWhorter instead suggests focusing our time on measures that can be taken towards enabling equity and democratic representation , and in doing so, work towards a democratic socialist society even if the term is not explicitly used. Below are some suggestions of ways we can collectively work towards a more equitable society:

1. Consider these questions as you evaluate the efficacy and impact of the various policies and programs being proposed in U.S. government:

Power : Does this disrupt existing power dynamics by redistributing power to people who historically haven’t had access to power, or further consolidate power in the hands of those who already have it without any change in democratic representation?

Market : Does this process or system rely on market forces (e.g., free market, private entities, competition) to self-regulate, or does it necessitate government intervention?

Democratic ownership : Are individuals and/or their democratically elected representatives involved in the strategy, design, and implementation of this process? How do we ensure and evaluate the democratic nature of the election process?

Equality : Does this fundamentally support the notion that everyone is worthy of living a “flourishing life” and deserves equal access to opportunities?

2. Overhaul our election process to work towards a more democratic society, representative of ordinary people and their needs. The Brennan Center for Justice suggests dramatically changing how campaign donations are handled, including defining a donation threshold and advocating for transparency in donations. When policies that reform the election process come up on the ballot, make sure to learn about them and vote!

3. Support and uplift social service programs and policies, even if they do not directly benefit you. Recognize that social services often provide a safety net for individuals who have long been marginalized, and work to destigmatize receiving governmental aid in your circles of influence. This can begin as simply as educating others on the histories of injustice in the U.S., as well as how political posturing has come to position social services in such a negative light.

4. Mobilize within your community. Mutual aid is a form of collective effort or “building socialism from the bottom up” through the creation of democratic systems that collect and distribute communal resources. While the onus of changing capitalist systems should not fall on mutual aid efforts, the power of community organizing has had, and continues to have, a significant impact in the U.S. As Professor Dean Spade summarizes in his book, Mutual Aid :

Mutual aid is only one tactic in the social movement ecosystem. It operates alongside direct action, political education, and many other tactics. But it is the one that most successfully helps us grow our movements and build our people power, because it brings people into coordinated action to change things right now.

4. Continue to learn about socialist theory, socialist movements, and question the status quo, even amongst existing democratic socialists. Some questions that arose while writing this paper include:

How do we reconcile private land ownership, socialism’s call for governmental control and distribution of natural resources, and Indigenous activists’ call for land repatriation?

How should a country’s geopolitical actions (e.g., history of colonialism and imperialism) inform our understanding of them as effectively socialist today (e.g., Sweden, Norway)?

How do we evaluate the environmental impacts of countries like Norway that rely on extractive commodities (e.g., oil) to fund and sustain its welfare services?

How do we reconcile the U.S.’s fear of socialism with its history of tense relationships and implicitly biased coverage of countries like China or the U.S.S.R? (A recent example: the varying coverage of Xinjiang .)

How can we redefine ‘welfare’ and ‘welfare state’ to include other aspects of equality/equity (e.g., bodily integrity or bodily citizenship)? How can an updated definition of welfare then address systemic inequities for different marginalized groups?

“Socialism 101” (2021) by Sarah Gonzalez and Robert Smith – NPR Planet Money

“What is Socialism? And What Do Socialists Really Want in 2021?” (2021) by Leslie Gornstein – CBS News

“Citizenship and the Welfare State” (2016) by Simon Duffy – The Centre for Welfare Reform

“Killing Reconstruction” (2015) by Heather Cox Richardson – Jacobin

“What Is Democratic Socialism? A Democratic Socialist Explains” (2018) by Meagan Day – Vox

“‘Progressive Capitalism’ Is Impossible” (2020) by Max B. Sawicky – Jacobin

“Socialism and Black Oppression” (2018) by Paul Heideman – Jacobin

Patriotic Education in a Global Age (2018) by Randall Curren, Charles Dorn

The Communist Manifesto ( 1848) by Karl Max and Friedrich Engels

Viking Economics: How the Scandinavians Got it Right - And We Can, Too (2017) by George Lakey

The Big Scary “S” Word . Directed by Yael Bridge, 2020.

“Is Child Care a Public Responsibility?”

“Does Anyone Really Know What Socialism Is? (Ep. 408)”

More Primers You May Enjoy

Understanding Cultural Appropriation

Understanding Respectability Politics

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The recent Occupy Wall Street protests have focused public attention on what organizers see as the excesses of America’s free market system, but perceptions of capitalism have changed little since early 2010 despite the recent tumult. Half of all Americans have a positive view of capitalism, while 40% react negatively to the term.

Little Change in Public’s Response to ’Capitalism,’ ’Socialism’

“socialism” not so negative, “capitalism” not so positive, socialism, american-style.

We love the free market, but fear corporations and global competition, and depend on Uncle Sam to keep us safe.

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Term Paper on Socialism | Economic System | Economics

Here is a term paper on ‘Socialism’. Find paragraphs, long and short term papers on ‘Socialism’ especially written for school and college students.

Term Paper on Socialism

Term paper # 1. meaning of socialism:.

Socialism is an economic system where the means of production are either owned or managed by the state and where the investment structure, consumption, allocation of resources, distribution of income etc. are regulated and directed by the state.

These state regulations, control etc. may relate to total aggregate of demand, allocation of factors of production, full employment and distribution of national income etc. In fact, in socialism, there is public ownership and democratic management of the basic industries and public control of the distribution of income. In socialism, there is in fact a variety of systems. On one hand there are the communist countries characterised by state capitalism and on the other hand, there are the democratic socialist nations with a dominant private sector.

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“The political economy of socialism is a living, rapidly developing science. Its foundations were laid by Karl Marx and Federic Engels, who revealed the tendencies in the development of capitalism that were leading inevitably to its downfall and triumph of the communist mode of production.”

In a socialised economy, labour becomes directly social and the ownership of the means of production becomes the equality of every persons of society in relation to the means of production and everyone gets their share of common wealth in proportion to their labour input.

“An essential feature of the law of socialist accumulation is that its operation is accompanied by the development and consolidation of social property and a steady rise in the well-being of the people.”

Under socialism system the workers of industry, agriculture, transport and other sectors of the economy themselves become the joint owners of the means and results of production. Under socialism, the labour of both the individual workers and the working collective is integrated in the process of production itself into the aggregate social labour as an indispensable component.

The difference between socialism and capitalism lies in the ownership of property; the former is a system where non-human production resources are mainly socially or state owned, while in the latter they are primarily owned by private individuals.

Term Paper # 2. Features of Socialism:

Socialism in underdeveloped countries increases the rate of capital development which further accelerates the rate of economic development. That is the reason U.S.S.R and other socialist countries lag behind some of the developed capitalist countries as far as per capita income is concerned. However their development process is faster than that of capitalist economies because of increase in the rate of accumulation.

The main features of a socialist system are as under:

i. Equitable Distribution of Income :

Socialism is better for peace and happiness. In socialist countries, an equitable distribution of income is an important feature. Equitable distribution of income does not mean that there is a perfect equality in income distribution. There may be wage differentials, depending on the nature and requirements of the nature of the job. By fixing the appropriate wage rates and other economic benefits, the objective of equitable income distribution may be achieved.

ii. Government Ownership :

Another feature of socialist system is government ownership. Here, the main means of production are either owned by the Government or its use is governed by the government. It becomes easy to achieve the desired pattern of resource allocation if the state owns almost the whole of the means of production. Socialists believe in working a political party, by educating public opinion, to win enough votes to put their programme peacefully into effect.

iii. Economic Laws :

In socialist system, all working people have an interest in the fullest understanding and application of the economic, laws of socialism. The main change in economic conditions in a country that has taken the road of building socialism leads to the economic laws of socialism coming into being and beginning to operate. These laws have some special features/conditions by the specific socio-economic structure of society. The freedom of occupation is absent or restricted in socialist countries. An individual may not have the freedom to select any occupation he is qualified for.

iv. Plan of Action or Central Authority :

The liberal socialist economy preserves to a considerable extent free choice of consumption. The socialist economies generally have a uniform plan of action or central authority like the central planning agency to formulate the national plan for development. Socialism stipulates an authority which can set and accomplish socioeconomic goods of authority, which must have power to direct the means of production according to some plan of action. In socialist system, the central planning authority commands the pattern of resource utilisation and development.

Both the systems i.e. socialism and capitalism have certain advantages and disadvantages. Capitalism may secure better production but socialism secures better distribution. The difference between socialism and capitalism also lies in the ownership of property; the former is a system where non-human production resources are mainly socially or state owned, while in the latter they are primarily owned by private individuals.

Term Paper # 3. Merits of Socialism:

i. Better Allocation and Utilisation of Resources:

In socialist economy resources are owned and controlled by the state, so no wastage and duplication takes place. There is no self-interest of private individuals and so no profit motive. ‘What to produce and how much to produce’ is done according to what is really useful to the people.

ii. Elimination of Unemployment:

Central planning authority on behalf of state gives boost to employment. It also ensures that all resources are put to their best use.

iii. No Cyclic Fluctuations:

As socialist economy is a planned economy, there is no surplus and deficiency which results in smooth working of the economy. There are no business fluctuations.

iv. No Class Struggle:

There is collective ownership of different factors of production which ensures the best utilisation of available resources of economy and equal distribution. So there is no gap between haves and have-nots.

v. Reduction in Inequality of Income:

Since there is no gap between haves and have-nots there is equality of incomes. Equal chances are given to all in all the fields like occupation, education etc.

Term Paper # 4. Demerits of Socialism:

The following are shortcomings of socialism:

i. Bureaucratization:

The owners in private enterprises take interest in their work in capitalism. But in socialism government gets all the work done through their people who do not take so much interest and lack enthusiasm as people of private enterprise.

ii. Lack of Incentives:

Major disadvantage of socialism is that people do not have incentive for greater work, efficiency and enterprise. People get fixed wage and salaries from government so they lack initiative and incentive.

iii. Red Tapism:

In socialist system the decisions are delayed as files go on moving from one place to another which results in wastage of time and money also.

iv. Concentration of Economic Power in the Hands of State:

The power gets concentrated in the hands of government or state, and thus government may not do work according to desires and preferences of the consumers. Economic freedom and Democratic rights of people are endangered because of danger of authorities.

v. Promotes Corruption:

The government being ultimate authority the govt. servants often becomes dishonest and corrupt while doing work of people.

vi. Misallocation of Resources:

Allocation of resources is not made according to the desires and demands of the consumers since there is no place for price mechanism.

vii. No Consumer Sovereignty:

Wants of consumer are generally not taken into consideration for production of various goods. There is rationing system in distribution of goods as well which is against consumer freedom.

Socialism: Merits and Demerits | Economic System
Socialist Economy: Meaning and Features of Socialist Economy
Economic System and Its different Types
Capitalism Economic System | Economics

200 Term Paper Topics in Different Fields

Table of contents

Writing Metier

Welcome to a treasure trove of term paper topics thoughtfully crafted by the expert team of term paper writers at Writing Metier.

As a co-founder of this dynamic company, I’ve witnessed the struggles many students face when choosing the right topic for their term paper. That’s why we’ve rolled up our sleeves to provide you with an arsenal of ideas that are not only academically enriching but also incredibly engaging.

In this article, you’ll find a rich array of topics to start with while writing your term paper , handpicked to ignite your curiosity and fuel your academic pursuits.

From the persuasive depth required in argumentative papers to the innovative angles needed for experimental research, our collection is a kaleidoscope of possibilities.

Whether you’re in search of easy term paper topics to get you over the line or you’re hunting for something more challenging to showcase your analytical prowess, this list is your starting point on the path to academic success.

I’ll break our term paper topic suggestions list into such types:

Argumentative Papers – c ommon in many disciplines, they develop critical thinking and persuasion skills.
Analytical Papers – widely assigned, these papers help students develop analytical and interpretive skills.
Compare and Contrast Papers – regularly used across subjects, they teach students to identify similarities and differences in concepts, theories, or works.
Cause and Effect Papers – often found in social sciences, they help students understand the relationship between different events or phenomena.
Definition Papers – useful in explaining complex concepts or terms, especially in technical or specialized fields.
Interpretive Papers – common in literature, history, and arts, these papers require a deep understanding of the material and the ability to interpret underlying meanings.
Reports – these are fundamental in many scientific and technical courses, focusing on clear, structured presentation of information.
Survey Research Papers – particularly common in social sciences, they involve data collection and analysis skills.
Experimental Research Papers – a staple in natural and applied sciences, these papers are crucial for understanding scientific methodologies and processes.
Review Papers – often found in graduate studies, they require a comprehensive understanding of existing research in a particular field.

Term Paper Topic and Question Ideas

Let’s begin with what you all have been waiting for – topic suggestions!

Argumentative Term Paper Topics

When it comes to crafting a compelling argumentative term paper, the choice of topic is crucial. In this section, we present some of the best topics for term papers that challenge you to take a stand, defend your viewpoint, and persuade your audience.

These topics are not just good term paper topics; they are gateways to exploring contemporary issues with depth and clarity.

Social Media Influence : Does social media do more harm than good in shaping young people’s worldviews?
Climate Change Policies : Should governments enforce stricter regulations to combat climate change?
Artificial Intelligence Ethics : Is the rapid development of AI technology a threat to human employment?
Vaccination Mandates : Should vaccinations be mandatory for public health safety?
Online Education vs Traditional : Is online education as effective as traditional classroom learning?
Animal Testing in Research : Should animal testing be banned in scientific research?
Genetic Engineering : Are the benefits of genetic engineering worth the ethical concerns?
Privacy in the Digital Age : Is government surveillance a necessary tool for national security or an invasion of privacy?
Renewable Energy : Should governments invest more in renewable energy sources over fossil fuels?
Minimum Wage Increase : Does increasing the minimum wage help or hurt the economy?
Gun Control Laws : Do stricter gun control laws reduce gun violence?
Legalization of Marijuana : Should marijuana be legalized for recreational use?
Death Penalty : Is the death penalty an effective deterrent for major crimes?
School Uniforms : Do school uniforms contribute to a better learning environment?
Universal Basic Income : Can a universal basic income solve economic inequality?
Space Exploration Funding : Should space exploration be prioritized over addressing Earth’s issues?
Plastic Ban : Would a global ban on single-use plastics be environmentally beneficial?
Affirmative Action in Education : Is affirmative action still necessary in education admissions?
Euthanasia : Should euthanasia be legalized to allow people with terminal illnesses to die with dignity?
Censorship in Media : Is censorship necessary to protect society, or does it infringe on freedom of expression?

While argumentative papers test your persuasive skills, the realm of analytical papers requires a different approach. Let’s shift our focus to topics that demand a detailed examination and critical analysis .

Analytical Term Paper Topics

If dissecting complex topics and examining them from multiple angles excites you, our list of analytical term paper topics is tailor-made for you.

Ranging from easy term paper topics to more intricate ones, these themes allow you to showcase your analytical prowess and turn a critical eye on a variety of subjects.

Impact of COVID-19 on Global Economy : Analyze the long-term economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic globally.
Social Impacts of Remote Work : Examine how remote work has changed social interactions and workplace dynamics.
Cryptocurrency’s Role in Finance : Analyze the potential impacts of cryptocurrency on traditional banking systems.
Psychological Effects of Social Media : Evaluate how social media platforms impact mental health and self-esteem.
Climate Change and Migration : Investigate the relationship between climate change and patterns of human migration.
Rise of Streaming Services : Analyze the impact of streaming services on the traditional television and movie industries.
Gender Pay Gap : Examine the factors contributing to the gender pay gap in different industries.
Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare : Analyze the benefits and challenges of implementing AI in healthcare systems.
Cybersecurity in the Digital Age : Evaluate the effectiveness of current cybersecurity measures in protecting data privacy.
Impact of Electric Vehicles on the Auto Industry : Investigate how electric vehicles are reshaping the future of the automotive industry.
Effects of Urbanization on Environment : Analyze the environmental consequences of rapid urbanization.
Mental Health in the Workplace : Examine the role of workplace culture in employee mental health and wellbeing.
Renewable Energy’s Economic Feasibility : Analyze the economic sustainability of transitioning to renewable energy sources.
Influence of Advertising on Consumer Behavior : Evaluate how advertising strategies affect consumer choices and spending habits.
Gentrification and Community Displacement : Investigate the social and economic impacts of gentrification on local communities.
Sustainable Fashion Industry : Analyze the challenges and opportunities in making the fashion industry more sustainable.
Impact of Globalization on Local Cultures : Examine how globalization affects the preservation and evolution of local cultural identities.
E-Sports and Gaming Culture : Analyze the rise of e-sports and its impact on mainstream sports and entertainment.
Food Security and Climate Change : Investigate the relationship between climate change and global food security challenges.
Technology and Education Reform : Analyze how technological advancements are shaping modern education methods and accessibility.

From the precision of analysis, we now move to the art of comparison and contrast, where you will juxtapose differing views or phenomena to shed new light on your subject.

Compare and Contrast Term Paper Topics

Finding the perfect balance between two subjects is at the heart of a great compare and contrast term paper .

This section offers a range of topics that serve as excellent examples of term paper topics, inviting you to explore and contrast diverse ideas, theories, or events, enriching your understanding of both.

Online Learning vs. Traditional Classroom : Compare and contrast the effectiveness of online learning with traditional classroom settings.
Capitalism vs. Socialism : Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of capitalism compared to socialism.
Renewable Energy vs. Fossil Fuels : Compare the environmental impacts and sustainability of renewable energy sources versus fossil fuels.
Modern Art vs. Classical Art : Contrast the themes and techniques of modern art with those of classical art.
Public Healthcare vs. Private Healthcare : Compare the efficiency and quality of public healthcare systems to private healthcare systems.
E-books vs. Printed Books : Analyze the differences in user experience and environmental impact between e-books and traditional printed books.
Western Diet vs. Mediterranean Diet : Contrast the health impacts of a typical Western diet with the Mediterranean diet.
Android vs. iOS : Compare the functionality, user interface, and customization options of Android and iOS platforms.
Traditional Marketing vs. Digital Marketing : Analyze the effectiveness and reach of traditional marketing methods compared to digital marketing strategies.
Democracy vs. Authoritarianism : Contrast the political, social, and economic outcomes in democratic versus authoritarian regimes.
Organic Farming vs. Conventional Farming : Compare the environmental impact and productivity of organic farming methods to conventional farming practices.
Freudian Psychoanalysis vs. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy : Analyze the methodologies and effectiveness of Freudian psychoanalysis compared to cognitive behavioral therapy.
Remote Work vs. Office Work : Contrast the impacts on productivity and work-life balance between remote work and traditional office settings.
Vegetarian Diet vs. Meat-Inclusive Diet : Compare the health benefits and environmental impacts of a vegetarian diet versus a diet that includes meat.
Classical Music vs. Pop Music : Analyze the differences in structure, audience, and cultural impact between classical music and contemporary pop music.
Electric Cars vs. Gasoline Cars : Contrast the environmental impact, cost, and performance of electric cars with traditional gasoline cars.
Public Schools vs. Private Schools : Compare the educational outcomes and resources available in public schools versus private schools.
Social Networking vs. Traditional Networking : Analyze the effectiveness and depth of connections made through social networking sites compared to traditional networking methods.
Modern Architecture vs. Gothic Architecture : Contrast the design principles, materials, and cultural significance of modern architecture with that of Gothic architecture.
Globalization vs. Nationalism : Compare the economic, cultural, and political impacts of globalization against the principles of nationalism.

As we transition from the balance of comparison to the cause and effect dynamics, prepare to delve into topics that explore the relationship between various factors and their consequences.

Cause and Effect Term Paper Topics

Understanding the intricate relationship between cause and effect is essential for any academic exploration.

This list provides a range of interesting term paper topics that will help you unravel the connections between causes and their subsequent effects, offering a fascinating journey into the why and how of various phenomena.

Technology Advancements and Job Market : Analyze the effect of technological advancements on the job market and employment trends.
Global Warming and Weather Patterns : Examine the causal relationship between global warming and extreme weather patterns.
Social Media and Youth Mental Health : Investigate the effects of social media usage on the mental health of young people.
Economic Recession and Small Businesses : Analyze the impact of economic recessions on the survival and growth of small businesses.
Urbanization and Wildlife Habitats : Explore the effects of urbanization on local wildlife habitats and biodiversity.
Education System Reforms and Student Performance : Examine how recent reforms in the education system have impacted student performance and learning outcomes.
Parenting Styles and Child Development : Investigate the effect of different parenting styles on the emotional and psychological development of children.
Air Pollution and Respiratory Health : Analyze the causal relationship between air pollution levels and respiratory health issues in urban areas.
Diet and Physical Health : Examine the effects of different dietary habits on physical health and wellness.
Political Policies and Economic Growth : Investigate the impact of various political policies on a country’s economic growth and stability.
Stress and Workplace Productivity : Analyze the effects of workplace stress on employee productivity and job satisfaction.
Deforestation and Climate Change : Explore the causal relationship between deforestation and climate change.
Exercise and Mental Wellbeing : Examine the effect of regular physical exercise on mental health and mood stability.
Consumer Behavior and Marketing Strategies : Investigate how marketing strategies cause shifts in consumer buying behavior.
Immigration Policies and Labor Markets : Analyze the impact of immigration policies on the labor market and workforce demographics.
Mobile Technology and Social Interaction : Examine the effects of mobile technology on face-to-face social interactions and communication.
Sleep Patterns and Academic Performance : Investigate the causal relationship between sleep patterns and academic performance in students.
Cultural Globalization and National Identities : Analyze the effect of cultural globalization on the preservation of national identities and traditions.
Government Regulations and Entrepreneurship : Examine the impact of government regulations on entrepreneurship and business innovation.
Online Retail and Brick-and-Mortar Stores : Explore the effects of the rise of online retail on traditional brick-and-mortar stores.

Moving from the causality of events, let’s turn our attention to the essence of specific concepts and ideas, where definition term papers allow you to articulate and explore in-depth.

Definition Term Paper Topics

The art of defining a concept or a term goes beyond mere description.

In this section, you’ll find term paper topics for students that revolve around defining and explicating complex ideas or phenomena, challenging you to crystallize your understanding into clear, concise language.

Defining Artificial Intelligence : Explore the various dimensions and implications of artificial intelligence in the modern world.
Understanding Blockchain Technology : Provide a comprehensive definition and examine the potential impacts of blockchain technology.
Concept of Sustainability : Define sustainability in the context of environmental, economic, and social dimensions.
Defining Modern Feminism : Explore the evolution and current meaning of feminism in contemporary society.
Understanding Cultural Appropriation : Define cultural appropriation and discuss its implications in arts, fashion, and media.
The Gig Economy : Provide a detailed definition and explore the rise and impact of the gig economy on traditional work structures.
Defining Cybersecurity : Examine the scope and importance of cybersecurity in the digital age.
Understanding Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) : Define GMOs and discuss their role and controversy in food production.
Concept of Globalization : Offer a comprehensive definition and explore the multifaceted impacts of globalization.
Mental Health Awareness : Define mental health and discuss the importance of awareness and de-stigmatization in society.
Defining Renewable Energy : Explore the concept of renewable energy and its role in combating climate change.
The Digital Divide : Define the digital divide and examine its implications in various socio-economic contexts.
Understanding Euthanasia : Provide a comprehensive definition and discuss the ethical implications of euthanasia.
Concept of Social Justice : Define social justice and explore its significance in modern societal structures.
Understanding Quantum Computing : Define quantum computing and discuss its potential impacts on the future of technology.
Defining Urbanization : Explore the process of urbanization and its impacts on societies and environments.
Concept of Virtual Reality : Provide a comprehensive definition and explore the applications and implications of virtual reality.
Understanding Nutrigenomics : Define nutrigenomics and discuss its role in personalized nutrition and health.
Defining Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) : Examine the concept of CSR and its importance in the modern business world.
Understanding Telemedicine : Define telemedicine and discuss its growing role in the healthcare system.

With definitions well in hand, we now venture into the territory of interpretive term papers, where your insight and personal perspective bring unique interpretations to the forefront.

Interpretive Term Paper Topics

Interpretive term papers provide a canvas for your thoughts and analyses, allowing you to delve into texts, artworks, or phenomena with a subjective lens.

Here, we offer term paper topics easy for engagement yet rich in potential for deep, personal interpretation, perfect for those looking to add their unique voice to academic discourse .

Interpreting Shakespeare’s Hamlet : Explore the themes of madness, revenge, and morality in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”.
The Great Gatsby and the American Dream : Interpret F. Scott Fitzgerald’s representation of the American Dream in “The Great Gatsby”.
Picasso’s Guernica : Analyze the symbolism and political commentary in Picasso’s masterpiece “Guernica”.
Orwell’s 1984 and Modern Surveillance : Interpret the relevance of George Orwell’s “1984” in the context of today’s digital surveillance society.
Symbolism in Dante’s Inferno : Explore the use of symbolism in Dante Alighieri’s “Inferno” and its representation of sin and redemption.
Jane Austen’s Critique of Social Class : Interpret the social class critique in Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”.
Van Gogh’s Starry Night and Emotional Expression : Analyze the expression of emotion and meaning in Vincent van Gogh’s “Starry Night”.
To Kill a Mockingbird and Racial Injustice : Interpret Harper Lee’s depiction of racial injustice and moral growth in “To Kill a Mockingbird”.
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Its Historical Context : Analyze the historical context and musical innovation of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.
Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and Alienation : Explore themes of alienation and identity in Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”.
The Symbolism in Salvador Dali’s Surrealist Art : Interpret the symbolism and psychological depth in Salvador Dali’s surrealist paintings.
Homer’s Odyssey and the Hero’s Journey : Analyze the elements of the hero’s journey in Homer’s “Odyssey”.
Frida Kahlo’s Self-Portraits and Personal Struggle : Interpret the expression of personal struggle and identity in Frida Kahlo’s self-portraits.
Mark Twain’s Satire in Huckleberry Finn : Analyze Mark Twain’s use of satire in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” to critique society.
The Tragic Hero in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex : Interpret the concept of the tragic hero in Sophocles’ “Oedipus Rex”.
Joyce’s Ulysses and Stream of Consciousness : Explore the use of stream of consciousness in James Joyce’s “Ulysses”.
Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Mythology : Analyze J.R.R. Tolkien’s use of mythology and folklore in “The Lord of the Rings”.
Michelangelo’s David and Renaissance Ideals : Interpret the representation of Renaissance ideals in Michelangelo’s statue of David.
Emily Dickinson’s Poetry and Themes of Death : Explore the recurring themes of death and immortality in Emily Dickinson’s poetry.
The Matrix and Philosophical Symbolism : Analyze the philosophical themes and symbolism in the film “The Matrix”.

From the subjective nuances of interpretation, we shift gears to the objective and structured world of report papers, focusing on presenting information in a clear, organized manner.

Report Term Paper Topics

Report term papers demand precision, structure, and clarity in presenting information and analysis.

This section provides you with a range of term paper research topics that are ideal for crafting detailed and informative reports, covering a spectrum of subjects that are both current and engaging.

COVID-19’s Impact on Global Health Systems : Report on how different health systems worldwide have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Renewable Energy Progress Report : Analyze the current state and future prospects of renewable energy technologies globally.
Urbanization and Its Environmental Impact : Report on the environmental consequences of rapid urbanization in major cities.
Technological Advancements in Education : Explore the integration and impact of technology in modern educational systems.
Climate Change and Agricultural Practices : Analyze how climate change is affecting agricultural practices and food production.
Mental Health Services Accessibility : Report on the accessibility and quality of mental health services in various countries.
Consumer Trends in E-commerce : Analyze the evolving consumer behavior trends in the e-commerce industry.
Public Transportation Systems Comparison : Compare and evaluate public transportation systems across major global cities.
Plastic Pollution and Marine Life : Report on the impact of plastic pollution on marine ecosystems and biodiversity.
Digital Divide and Internet Access : Explore the current state of the digital divide and its impact on internet access globally.
Advancements in Cancer Research : Report on the latest developments and challenges in cancer research and treatment.
Impact of Social Media on Politics : Analyze how social media platforms are influencing political discourse and elections.
Sustainable Tourism Practices : Report on the adoption and effectiveness of sustainable practices in the tourism industry.
Artificial Intelligence in Business : Explore the use and impact of AI technologies in various business sectors.
Effects of Urban Green Spaces : Analyze the social and environmental effects of green spaces in urban areas.
Childhood Obesity Trends and Policies : Report on the trends and public health policies addressing childhood obesity.
Gender Equality in the Workforce : Analyze the progress and challenges of achieving gender equality in the workplace.
Impact of GMOs on Agriculture and Environment : Report on the benefits and risks associated with the use of GMOs in agriculture.
Cybersecurity Threats and Prevention Measures : Explore current cybersecurity threats and the effectiveness of various prevention strategies.
Affordable Housing Crisis Analysis : Report on the state of the affordable housing crisis and the effectiveness of measures taken to address it.

As we move from structured reports to the dynamic world of survey research, prepare to engage with topics that require you to gather and analyze data from real-world sources.

Survey Research Term Paper Topics

Survey research term papers are your gateway to exploring the opinions, behaviors, and trends that shape our world.

This list of term paper topics help you design, conduct, and analyze surveys, providing valuable insights into various aspects of human behavior and societal trends.

Student Perceptions of Online Learning : Conduct a survey to understand student experiences and perceptions of online learning environments.
Consumer Attitudes Towards Green Products : Survey consumer attitudes and purchasing behaviors regarding environmentally friendly products.
Impact of Work-from-Home on Productivity : Survey employees across different sectors to analyze the impact of remote work on productivity.
Social Media’s Role in Mental Health : Conduct a survey to explore the relationship between social media use and mental health among adolescents.
Public Opinion on Climate Change Policies : Survey public opinion on various climate change policies and their perceived effectiveness.
Healthcare Accessibility and Satisfaction : Conduct a survey to assess public satisfaction with healthcare services and accessibility.
Attitudes Toward Vaccination in Different Communities : Survey different communities to understand attitudes towards vaccinations and their reasons.
Consumer Behavior in the Fashion Industry : Conduct a survey to analyze consumer buying patterns and trends in the fashion industry.
Employee Satisfaction and Workplace Culture : Survey employees in various organizations to assess the impact of workplace culture on job satisfaction.
Dietary Habits and Health Outcomes : Conduct a survey to explore the relationship between dietary habits and health outcomes.
Public Perception of Police and Law Enforcement : Survey the public’s perception and trust in police and law enforcement agencies.
Influence of Influencer Marketing on Purchasing Decisions : Survey consumers to analyze the impact of influencer marketing on their purchasing decisions.
Attitudes Towards Renewable Energy Adoption : Conduct a survey to understand public attitudes and barriers to adopting renewable energy sources.
Effects of Music on Concentration and Productivity : Survey a group of individuals to assess how different genres of music affect their concentration and productivity.
Cultural Participation and Its Social Impact : Conduct a survey to explore the impact of cultural participation on social cohesion and community engagement.
Perceptions of Online Privacy and Data Security : Survey internet users to understand their concerns and perceptions about online privacy and data security.
Trends in Fitness and Exercise Habits : Conduct a survey to analyze current trends and attitudes towards fitness and exercise routines.
Reading Habits and Preferences : Survey a demographic to understand their reading habits and preferences in the digital age.
Public Attitudes Towards Space Exploration : Conduct a survey to gauge public interest and opinions on space exploration and its funding.
Consumer Attitudes Towards Sustainable Packaging : Survey consumer opinions and behaviors related to sustainable packaging and its importance.

From the practical applications of survey research, we now dive into the experimental realm, where hypotheses and scientific methods lead the way.

Experimental Research Term Paper Topics

For those fascinated by the scientific method, this collection of experimental research term paper topics offers a playground of inquiry and discovery.

These topics encourage you to design experiments, test hypotheses, and explore the intricacies of scientific phenomena, making them some of the best topics for term paper in English for aspiring scientists.

Effect of Light on Plant Growth : Conduct an experiment to determine how different light conditions affect the growth rate of plants.
Memory Recall in Different Environments : Investigate how environmental factors influence memory recall in individuals.
Water Quality and Plant Health : Experiment to analyze the effects of various water qualities on the health of a specific plant species.
Caffeine’s Effect on Cognitive Performance : Conduct a study to assess how caffeine consumption impacts cognitive tasks and reaction times.
Behavioral Changes in Animals Due to Environmental Stimuli : Observe and record behavioral changes in animals in response to different environmental stimuli.
Impact of Diet on Athletic Performance : Experiment to evaluate how different diets affect the physical performance of athletes.
Air Pollution’s Effect on Respiratory Health : Conduct an experiment to explore the impacts of air pollution on respiratory health indicators.
Sound Frequencies and Plant Growth : Investigate the effect of different sound frequencies on the growth rate of plants.
Sleep Patterns and Academic Performance : Study the correlation between varying sleep patterns and academic performance in students.
Effectiveness of Natural vs. Chemical Fertilizers : Experiment to compare the effectiveness of natural and chemical fertilizers on plant growth.
Temperature Effects on Battery Performance : Assess how different temperatures affect the performance and efficiency of various types of batteries.
Social Media Use and Attention Span : Conduct a study to explore the relationship between social media usage and attention span in individuals.
Impact of Exercise on Mental Health : Experiment to analyze the effects of regular physical exercise on mental health and stress levels.
Plastic Degradation in Different Environments : Investigate the rate of plastic degradation in various environmental conditions.
Influence of Music on Cognitive Task Performance : Study how listening to different genres of music affects performance on cognitive tasks.
Effects of Urban Noise on Bird Behavior : Observe and record changes in bird behavior and communication in urban environments with high noise levels.
Antibacterial Properties of Natural Substances : Experiment to evaluate the antibacterial properties of various natural substances.
Color Psychology and Consumer Behavior : Study how different colors influence consumer behavior and decision-making in marketing.
Effect of Video Games on Reflexes and Decision Making : Assess the impact of playing video games on the reflexes and decision-making skills of individuals.
Microplastics’ Impact on Marine Life : Conduct an experiment to observe the effects of microplastics on the health and behavior of marine organisms.

Finally, we arrive at review papers, where synthesizing and critiquing existing literature becomes your path to academic exploration.

Review Term Paper Topics

Review term papers are an opportunity to engage with and reflect upon existing literature in a meaningful way.

This list offers a variety of term paper title ideas, inviting you to synthesize, critique, and discuss existing research and literature, placing you at the heart of the academic conversation.

Literature Review on Climate Change Mitigation Strategies : Review and synthesize current research on various strategies to mitigate climate change.
Technological Advancements in Renewable Energy : A review of the latest technological innovations in renewable energy and their potential impacts.
Review of Mental Health Interventions in Schools : Evaluate the effectiveness of different mental health interventions implemented in educational settings.
Impact of Social Media on Society : A comprehensive review of research examining the social, psychological, and cultural impacts of social media.
Economic Consequences of Global Pandemics : Review the economic impacts of global pandemics, with a focus on COVID-19.
Advancements in Artificial Intelligence and Ethics : Analyze current literature on the advancements in AI and the surrounding ethical considerations.
Sustainable Urban Planning Practices : Review of sustainable urban planning strategies and their effectiveness in various global cities.
Trends in Global Obesity and Public Health Strategies : Synthesize research on the trends in global obesity and evaluate public health strategies.
Evolution of Cybersecurity Threats and Defenses : A review of how cybersecurity threats have evolved over time and the responses developed.
Nutritional Science and Chronic Disease Prevention : Review current research on the role of nutrition in preventing chronic diseases.
The Psychology of Advertising : Analyze literature on how advertising tactics psychologically influence consumer behavior.
Innovations in Water Purification Technology : Review recent advancements in water purification technologies and their global implications.
Impact of Autonomous Vehicles on Transportation : Evaluate research on the potential impacts of autonomous vehicles on transportation systems.
The Role of Microfinance in Poverty Reduction : Review the effectiveness of microfinance initiatives in reducing poverty in various regions.
Developments in Cancer Treatment : Synthesize recent developments in cancer treatment, including breakthrough therapies and drugs.
The Effectiveness of Renewable Energy Subsidies : Review the economic and environmental impacts of subsidies for renewable energy sources.
Mental Health Effects of Climate Change : Analyze literature on the psychological effects of climate change on different populations.
Blockchain Technology and Financial Services : Review the implications of blockchain technology in reshaping financial services.
Genetic Engineering in Agriculture : Evaluate the benefits and risks associated with the use of genetic engineering in agriculture.
Telemedicine and Healthcare Accessibility : Review the impact of telemedicine on improving healthcare accessibility and efficiency.

As you reach the end of this list, remember that choosing the right topic is the first step in the dance of academic writing. Each topic here is a window into a new world of ideas and discoveries, waiting for you to open it.

Your term paper is an opportunity to not just meet academic expectations, but to express your thoughts, analyze critically , and contribute to a broader conversation in your field.

If you need assistance with more specific topic suggestions from our experts, you can fill out our “Free topic suggestions” form. Moreover, our term paper writers are at your service if you need writing or editing assistance.

So, pick a topic that resonates with you, let your curiosity guide your research, and create a term paper that stands out. At Writing Metier , we’re excited to see where your choice will take you, and we’re here to support you every step of the way.

Free topic suggestions

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Vasyl Kafidoff is a co-founder and CEO at WritingMetier. He is interested in education and how modern technology makes it more accessible. He wants to bring awareness about new learning possibilities as an educational specialist. When Vasy is not working, he’s found behind a drum kit.

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How to Write a Term Paper From Start to Finish

The term paper, often regarded as the culmination of a semester's hard work, is a rite of passage for students in pursuit of higher education. Here's an interesting fact to kick things off: Did you know that the term paper's origins can be traced back to ancient Greece, where scholars like Plato and Aristotle utilized written works to explore and document their philosophical musings? Just as these great minds once wrote their thoughts on parchment, you, too, can embark on this intellectual voyage with confidence and skill.

How to Write a Term Paper: Short Description

In this article, we'll delve into the core purpose of this kind of assignment – to showcase your understanding of a subject, your research abilities, and your capacity to communicate complex ideas effectively. But it doesn't stop there. We'll also guide you in the art of creating a well-structured term paper format, a roadmap that will not only keep you on track but also ensure your ideas flow seamlessly and logically. Packed with valuable tips on writing, organization, and time management, this resource promises to equip you with the tools needed to excel in your academic writing.

Understanding What Is a Term Paper

A term paper, a crucial component of your college education, is often assigned towards the conclusion of a semester. It's a vehicle through which educators gauge your comprehension of the course content. Imagine it as a bridge between what you've learned in class and your ability to apply that knowledge to real-world topics.

For instance, in a history course, you might be asked to delve into the causes and consequences of a significant historical event, such as World War II. In a psychology class, your term paper might explore the effects of stress on mental health, or in an environmental science course, you could analyze the impact of climate change on a specific region.

Writing a term paper isn't just about summarizing facts. It requires a blend of organization, deep research, and the art of presenting your findings in a way that's both clear and analytical. This means structuring your arguments logically, citing relevant sources, and critically evaluating the information you've gathered.

For further guidance, we've prepared an insightful guide for you authored by our expert essay writer . It's brimming with practical tips and valuable insights to help you stand out in this academic endeavor and earn the recognition you deserve.

How to Start a Term Paper

Before you start, keep the guidelines for the term paper format firmly in mind. If you have any doubts, don't hesitate to reach out to your instructor for clarification before you begin your research and writing process. And remember, procrastination is your worst enemy in this endeavor. If you're aiming to produce an exceptional piece and secure a top grade, it's essential to plan ahead and allocate dedicated time each day to work on it. Now, let our term paper writing services provide you with some valuable tips to help you on your journey:

Hone Your Topic : Start by cultivating a learning mindset that empowers you to effectively organize your thoughts. Discover how to research a topic in the section below.
Hook Your Readers: Initiate a brainstorming session and unleash a barrage of creative ideas to captivate your audience right from the outset. Pose intriguing questions, share compelling anecdotes, offer persuasive statistics, and more.
Craft a Concise Thesis Statement Example : If you find yourself struggling to encapsulate the main idea of your paper in just a sentence or two, it's time to revisit your initial topic and consider narrowing it down.
Understand Style Requirements: Your work must adhere to specific formatting guidelines. Delve into details about the APA format and other pertinent regulations in the section provided.
Delve Deeper with Research : Equipped with a clearer understanding of your objectives, dive into your subject matter with a discerning eye. Ensure that you draw from reputable and reliable sources.
Begin Writing: Don't obsess over perfection from the get-go. Just start writing, and don't worry about initial imperfections. You can always revise or remove those early sentences later. The key is to initiate the term papers as soon as you've amassed sufficient information.

Ace your term paper with EssayPro 's expert help. Our academic professionals are here to guide you through every step, ensuring your term paper is well-researched, structured, and written to the highest standards.

Term Paper Topics

Selecting the right topic for your term paper is a critical step, one that can significantly impact your overall experience and the quality of your work. While instructors sometimes provide specific topics, there are instances when you have the freedom to choose your own. To guide you on how to write a term paper, consider the following factors when deciding on your dissertation topics :

Relevance to Assignment Length: Begin by considering the required length of your paper. Whether it's a substantial 10-page paper or a more concise 5-page one, understanding the word count will help you determine the appropriate scope for your subject. This will inform whether your topic should be broad or more narrowly focused.
Availability of Resources : Investigate the resources at your disposal. Check your school or community library for books and materials that can support your research. Additionally, explore online sources to ensure you have access to a variety of reference materials.
Complexity and Clarity : Ensure you can effectively explain your chosen topic, regardless of how complex it may seem. If you encounter areas that are challenging to grasp fully, don't hesitate to seek guidance from experts or your professor. Clarity and understanding are key to producing a well-structured term paper.
Avoiding Overused Concepts : Refrain from choosing overly trendy or overused topics. Mainstream subjects often fail to captivate the interest of your readers or instructors, as they can lead to repetitive content. Instead, opt for a unique angle or approach that adds depth to your paper.
Manageability and Passion : While passion can drive your choice of topic, it's important to ensure that it is manageable within the given time frame and with the available resources. If necessary, consider scaling down a topic that remains intriguing and motivating to you, ensuring it aligns with your course objectives and personal interests.

Worrying About the Quality of Your Upcoming Essay?

"Being highly trained professionals, our writers can provide term paper help by creating a paper specifically tailored to your needs.

Term Paper Outline

Before embarking on the journey of writing a term paper, it's crucial to establish a well-structured outline. Be mindful of any specific formatting requirements your teacher may have in mind, as these will guide your outline's structure. Here's a basic format to help you get started:

Cover Page: Begin with a cover page featuring your name, course number, teacher's name, and the deadline date, centered at the top.
Abstract: Craft a concise summary of your work that informs readers about your paper's topic, its significance, and the key points you'll explore.
Introduction: Commence your term paper introduction with a clear and compelling statement of your chosen topic. Explain why it's relevant and outline your approach to addressing it.
Body: This section serves as the meat of academic papers, where you present the primary findings from your research. Provide detailed information about the topic to enhance the reader's understanding. Ensure you incorporate various viewpoints on the issue and conduct a thorough analysis of your research.
Results: Share the insights and conclusions that your research has led you to. Discuss any shifts in your perspective or understanding that have occurred during the course of your project.
Discussion: Conclude your term paper with a comprehensive summary of the topic and your findings. You can wrap up with a thought-provoking question or encourage readers to explore the subject further through their own research.

How to Write a Term Paper with 5 Steps

Before you begin your term paper, it's crucial to understand what a term paper proposal entails. This proposal serves as your way to introduce and justify your chosen topic to your instructor, and it must gain approval before you start writing the actual paper.

In your proposal, include recent studies or research related to your topic, along with proper references. Clearly explain the topic's relevance to your course, outline your objectives, and organize your ideas effectively. This helps your instructor grasp your term paper's direction. If needed, you can also seek assistance from our expert writers and buy term paper .

Draft the Abstract

The abstract is a critical element while writing a term paper, and it plays a crucial role in piquing the reader's interest. To create a captivating abstract, consider these key points from our dissertation writing service :

Conciseness: Keep it short and to the point, around 150-250 words. No need for lengthy explanations.
Highlight Key Elements: Summarize the problem you're addressing, your research methods, and primary findings or conclusions. For instance, if your paper discusses the impact of social media on mental health, mention your research methods and significant findings.
Engagement: Make your abstract engaging. Use language that draws readers in. For example, if your paper explores the effects of artificial intelligence on the job market, you might begin with a question like, 'Is AI revolutionizing our work landscape, or should we prepare for the robots to take over?'
Clarity: Avoid excessive jargon or technical terms to ensure accessibility to a wider audience.

Craft the Introduction

The introduction sets the stage for your entire term paper and should engage readers from the outset. To craft an intriguing introduction, consider these tips:

Hook Your Audience: Start with a captivating hook, such as a thought-provoking question or a compelling statistic. For example, if your paper explores the impact of smartphone addiction, you could begin with, 'Can you remember the last time you went a whole day without checking your phone?'
State Your Purpose: Clearly state the purpose of your paper and its relevance. If your term paper is about renewable energy's role in combating climate change, explain why this topic is essential in today's world.
Provide a Roadmap: Briefly outline how your paper is structured. For instance, if your paper discusses the benefits of mindfulness meditation, mention that you will explore its effects on stress reduction, emotional well-being, and cognitive performance.
Thesis Statement: Conclude your introduction with a concise thesis statement that encapsulates the central argument or message of your paper. In the case of a term paper on the impact of online education, your thesis might be: 'Online education is revolutionizing learning by providing accessibility, flexibility, and innovative teaching methods.'

Develop the Body Sections: Brainstorming Concepts and Content

Generate ideas and compose text: body sections.

The body of your term paper is where you present your research, arguments, and analysis. To generate ideas and write engaging text in the body sections, consider these strategies from our research paper writer :

Structure Your Ideas: Organize your paper into sections or paragraphs, each addressing a specific aspect of your topic. For example, if your term paper explores the impact of social media on interpersonal relationships, you might have sections on communication patterns, privacy concerns, and emotional well-being.
Support with Evidence: Back up your arguments with credible evidence, such as data, research findings, or expert opinions. For instance, when discussing the effects of social media on mental health, you can include statistics on social media usage and its correlation with anxiety or depression.
Offer Diverse Perspectives: Acknowledge and explore various viewpoints on the topic. When writing about the pros and cons of genetic engineering, present both the potential benefits, like disease prevention, and the ethical concerns associated with altering human genetics.
Use Engaging Examples: Incorporate real-life examples to illustrate your points. If your paper discusses the consequences of climate change, share specific instances of extreme weather events or environmental degradation to make the topic relatable.
Ask Thought-Provoking Questions: Integrate questions throughout your text to engage readers and stimulate critical thinking. In a term paper on the future of artificial intelligence, you might ask, 'How will AI impact job markets and the concept of work in the coming years?'

Formulate the Conclusion

The conclusion section should provide a satisfying wrap-up of your arguments and insights. To craft a compelling term paper example conclusion, follow these steps:

Revisit Your Thesis: Begin by restating your thesis statement. This reinforces the central message of your paper. For example, if your thesis is about the importance of biodiversity conservation, reiterate that biodiversity is crucial for ecological balance and human well-being.
Summarize Key Points: Briefly recap the main points you've discussed in the body of your paper. For instance, if you've been exploring the impact of globalization on local economies, summarize the effects on industries, job markets, and cultural diversity.
Emphasize Your Main Argument: Reaffirm the significance of your thesis and the overall message of your paper. Discuss why your findings are important or relevant in a broader context. If your term paper discusses the advantages of renewable energy, underscore its potential to combat climate change and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.
Offer a Thoughtful Reflection: Share your own reflections or insights about the topic. How has your understanding evolved during your research? Have you uncovered any unexpected findings or implications? If your paper discusses the future of space exploration, consider what it means for humanity's quest to explore the cosmos.
End with Impact: Conclude your term paper with a powerful closing statement. You can leave the reader with a thought-provoking question, a call to action, or a reflection on the broader implications of your topic. For instance, if your paper is about the ethics of artificial intelligence, you could finish by asking, 'As AI continues to advance, what ethical considerations will guide our choices and decisions?'

Edit and Enhance the Initial Draft

After completing your initial draft, the revision and polishing phase is essential for improving your paper. Here's how to refine your work efficiently:

Take a Break: Step back and return to your paper with a fresh perspective.
Structure Check: Ensure your paper flows logically and transitions smoothly from the introduction to the conclusion.
Clarity and Conciseness: Trim excess words for clarity and precision.
Grammar and Style: Proofread for errors and ensure consistent style.
Citations and References: Double-check your citations and reference list.
Peer Review: Seek feedback from peers or professors for valuable insights.
Enhance Intro and Conclusion: Make your introduction and conclusion engaging and impactful.
Coherence Check: Ensure your arguments support your thesis consistently.
Read Aloud: Reading your paper aloud helps identify issues.
Final Proofread: Perform a thorough proofread to catch any remaining errors.

Term Paper Format

When formatting your term paper, consider its length and the required citation style, which depends on your research topic. Proper referencing is crucial to avoid plagiarism in academic writing. Common citation styles include APA and MLA.

If unsure how to cite term paper for social sciences, use the APA format, including the author's name, book title, publication year, publisher, and location when citing a book.

For liberal arts and humanities, MLA is common, requiring the publication name, date, and location for referencing.

Adhering to the appropriate term paper format and citation style ensures an organized and academically sound paper. Follow your instructor's guidelines for a polished and successful paper.

Term Paper Example

To access our term paper example, simply click the button below.

The timeline of events from 1776 to 1861, that, in the end, prompted the American Civil War, describes and relates to a number of subjects modern historians acknowledge as the origins and causes of the Civil War. In fact, pre-Civil War events had both long-term and short-term influences on the War—such as the election of Abraham Lincoln as the American president in 1860 that led to the Fall of Fort Sumter in April of the same year. In that period, contentions that surrounded states’ rights progressively exploded in Congress—since they were the initial events that formed after independence. Congress focused on resolving significant issues that affected the states, which led to further issues. In that order, the US’s history from 1776 to 1861 provides a rich history, as politicians brought forth dissimilarities, dissections, and tensions between the Southern US & the people of slave states, and the Northern states that were loyal to the Union. The events that unfolded from the period of 1776 to 1861 involved a series of issues because they promoted the great sectional crisis that led to political divisions and the build-up to the Civil War that made the North and the South seem like distinctive and timeless regions that predated the crisis itself.

Final Thoughts

In closing, approach the task of writing term papers with determination and a positive outlook. Begin well in advance, maintain organization, and have faith in your capabilities. Don't hesitate to seek assistance if required, and express your individual perspective with confidence. You're more than capable of succeeding in this endeavor!

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Home » Term Paper – Format, Examples and Writing Guide

Term Paper – Format, Examples and Writing Guide

Table of Contents

Definition:

Term paper is a type of academic writing assignment that is typically assigned to students at the end of a semester or term. It is usually a research-based paper that is meant to demonstrate the student’s understanding of a particular topic, as well as their ability to analyze and synthesize information from various sources.

Term papers are usually longer than other types of academic writing assignments and can range anywhere from 5 to 20 pages or more, depending on the level of study and the specific requirements of the assignment. They often require extensive research and the use of a variety of sources, including books, articles, and other academic publications.

Term Paper Format

The format of a term paper may vary depending on the specific requirements of your professor or institution. However, a typical term paper usually consists of the following sections:

Title page: This should include the title of your paper, your name, the course name and number, your instructor’s name, and the date.
Abstract : This is a brief summary of your paper, usually no more than 250 words. It should provide an overview of your topic, the research question or hypothesis, your methodology, and your main findings or conclusions.
Introduction : This section should introduce your topic and provide background information on the subject. You should also state your research question or hypothesis and explain the importance of your research.
Literature review : This section should review the existing literature on your topic. You should summarize the key findings and arguments made by other scholars and identify any gaps in the literature that your research aims to address.
Methodology: This section should describe the methods you used to collect and analyze your data. You should explain your research design, sampling strategy, data collection methods, and data analysis techniques.
Results : This section should present your findings. You can use tables, graphs, and charts to illustrate your data.
Discussion : This section should interpret your findings and explain what they mean in relation to your research question or hypothesis. You should also discuss any limitations of your study and suggest areas for future research.
Conclusion : This section should summarize your main findings and conclusions. You should also restate the importance of your research and its implications for the field.
References : This section should list all the sources you cited in your paper using a specific citation style (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago).
Appendices : This section should include any additional materials that are relevant to your study but not essential to your main argument (e.g., survey questions, interview transcripts).

Structure of Term Paper

Here’s an example structure for a term paper:

I. Introduction

A. Background information on the topic

B. Thesis statement

II. Literature Review

A. Overview of current literature on the topic

B. Discussion of key themes and findings from literature

C. Identification of gaps in current literature

III. Methodology

A. Description of research design

B. Discussion of data collection methods

C. Explanation of data analysis techniques

IV. Results

A. Presentation of findings

B. Analysis and interpretation of results

C. Comparison of results with previous studies

V. Discussion

A. Summary of key findings

B. Explanation of how results address the research questions

C. Implications of results for the field

VI. Conclusion

A. Recap of key points

B. Significance of findings

C. Future directions for research

VII. References

A. List of sources cited in the paper

How to Write Term Paper

Here are some steps to help you write a term paper:

Choose a topic: Choose a topic that interests you and is relevant to your course. If your professor has assigned a topic, make sure you understand it and clarify any doubts before you start.
Research : Conduct research on your topic by gathering information from various sources such as books, academic journals, and online resources. Take notes and organize your information systematically.
Create an outline : Create an outline of your term paper by arranging your ideas and information in a logical sequence. Your outline should include an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
Write a thesis statement: Write a clear and concise thesis statement that states the main idea of your paper. Your thesis statement should be included in your introduction.
Write the introduction: The introduction should grab the reader’s attention, provide background information on your topic, and introduce your thesis statement.
Write the body : The body of your paper should provide supporting evidence for your thesis statement. Use your research to provide details and examples to support your argument. Make sure to organize your ideas logically and use transition words to connect paragraphs.
Write the conclusion : The conclusion should summarize your main points and restate your thesis statement. Avoid introducing new information in the conclusion.
Edit and proofread: Edit and proofread your term paper carefully to ensure that it is free of errors and flows smoothly. Check for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors.
Format and cite your sources: Follow the formatting guidelines provided by your professor and cite your sources properly using the appropriate citation style.
Submit your paper : Submit your paper on time and according to the instructions provided by your professor.

Term Paper Example

Here’s an example of a term paper:

Title : The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Cybersecurity

As the world becomes more digitally interconnected, cybersecurity threats are increasing in frequency and sophistication. Traditional security measures are no longer enough to protect against these threats. This paper explores the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in cybersecurity, including how AI can be used to detect and respond to threats in real-time, the challenges of implementing AI in cybersecurity, and the potential ethical implications of AI-powered security systems. The paper concludes with recommendations for organizations looking to integrate AI into their cybersecurity strategies.

Introduction :

The increasing number of cybersecurity threats in recent years has led to a growing interest in the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve cybersecurity. AI has the ability to analyze vast amounts of data and identify patterns and anomalies that may indicate a security breach. Additionally, AI can automate responses to threats, allowing for faster and more effective mitigation of security incidents. However, there are also challenges associated with implementing AI in cybersecurity, such as the need for large amounts of high-quality data, the potential for AI systems to make mistakes, and the ethical considerations surrounding the use of AI in security.

Literature Review:

This section of the paper reviews existing research on the use of AI in cybersecurity. It begins by discussing the types of AI techniques used in cybersecurity, including machine learning, natural language processing, and neural networks. The literature review then explores the advantages of using AI in cybersecurity, such as its ability to detect previously unknown threats and its potential to reduce the workload of security analysts. However, the review also highlights some of the challenges associated with implementing AI in cybersecurity, such as the need for high-quality training data and the potential for AI systems to be fooled by sophisticated attacks.

Methodology :

To better understand the challenges and opportunities associated with using AI in cybersecurity, this paper conducted a survey of cybersecurity professionals working in a variety of industries. The survey included questions about the types of AI techniques used in their organizations, the challenges they faced when implementing AI in cybersecurity, and their perceptions of the ethical implications of using AI in security.

The results of the survey showed that while many organizations are interested in using AI in cybersecurity, they face several challenges when implementing these systems. These challenges include the need for high-quality training data, the potential for AI systems to be fooled by sophisticated attacks, and the difficulty of integrating AI with existing security systems. Additionally, many respondents expressed concerns about the ethical implications of using AI in security, such as the potential for AI to be biased or to make decisions that are harmful to individuals or society as a whole.

Discussion :

Based on the results of the survey and the existing literature, this paper discusses the potential benefits and risks of using AI in cybersecurity. It also provides recommendations for organizations looking to integrate AI into their security strategies, such as the need to prioritize data quality and to ensure that AI systems are transparent and accountable.

Conclusion :

While there are challenges associated with implementing AI in cybersecurity, the potential benefits of using these systems are significant. AI can help organizations detect and respond to threats more quickly and effectively, reducing the risk of security breaches. However, it is important for organizations to be aware of the potential ethical implications of using AI in security and to take steps to ensure that these systems are transparent and accountable.

References:

Alkhaldi, S., Al-Daraiseh, A., & Lutfiyya, H. (2019). A Survey on Artificial Intelligence Techniques in Cyber Security. Journal of Information Security, 10(03), 191-207.
Gartner. (2019). Gartner Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2020. Retrieved from https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/gartner-top-10-strategic-technology-trends-for-2020/
Kshetri, N. (2018). Blockchain’s roles in meeting key supply chain management objectives. International Journal of Information Management, 39, 80-89.
Lipton, Z. C. (2018). The mythos of model interpretability. arXiv preprint arXiv:1606.03490.
Schneier, B. (2019). Click Here to Kill Everybody: Security and Survival in a Hyper-Connected World. WW Norton & Company.
Wahab, M. A., Rahman, M. S., & Islam, M. R. (2020). A Survey on AI Techniques in Cybersecurity. International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, 11(2), 22-27.

When to Write Term Paper

A term paper is usually a lengthy research paper that is assigned to students at the end of a term or semester. There are several situations when writing a term paper may be required, including:

As a course requirement: In most cases, a term paper is required as part of the coursework for a particular course. It may be assigned by the instructor as a way of assessing the student’s understanding of the course material.
To explore a specific topic : A term paper can be an excellent opportunity for students to explore a specific topic of interest in-depth. It allows them to conduct extensive research on the topic and develop their understanding of it.
To develop critical thinking skills : Writing a term paper requires students to engage in critical thinking and analysis. It helps them to develop their ability to evaluate and interpret information, as well as to present their ideas in a clear and coherent manner.
To prepare for future academic or professional pursuits: Writing a term paper can be an excellent way for students to prepare for future academic or professional pursuits. It can help them to develop the research and writing skills necessary for success in higher education or in a professional career.

Purpose of Term Paper

The main purposes of a term paper are:

Demonstrate mastery of a subject: A term paper provides an opportunity for students to showcase their knowledge and understanding of a particular subject. It requires students to research and analyze the topic, and then present their findings in a clear and organized manner.
Develop critical thinking skills: Writing a term paper requires students to think critically about their subject matter, analyzing various sources and viewpoints, and evaluating evidence to support their arguments.
Improve writing skills : Writing a term paper helps students improve their writing skills, including organization, clarity, and coherence. It also requires them to follow specific formatting and citation guidelines, which can be valuable skills for future academic and professional endeavors.
Contribute to academic discourse : A well-written term paper can contribute to academic discourse by presenting new insights, ideas, and arguments that add to the existing body of knowledge on a particular topic.
Prepare for future research : Writing a term paper can help prepare students for future research, by teaching them how to conduct a literature review, evaluate sources, and formulate research questions and hypotheses. It can also help them develop research skills that they can apply in future academic or professional endeavors.

Advantages of Term Paper

There are several advantages of writing a term paper, including:

In-depth exploration: Writing a term paper allows you to delve deeper into a specific topic, allowing you to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the subject matter.
Improved writing skills: Writing a term paper involves extensive research, critical thinking, and the organization of ideas into a cohesive written document. As a result, writing a term paper can improve your writing skills significantly.
Demonstration of knowledge: A well-written term paper demonstrates your knowledge and understanding of the subject matter, which can be beneficial for academic or professional purposes.
Development of research skills : Writing a term paper requires conducting thorough research, analyzing data, and synthesizing information from various sources. This process can help you develop essential research skills that can be applied in many other areas.
Enhancement of critical thinking : Writing a term paper encourages you to think critically, evaluate information, and develop well-supported arguments. These skills can be useful in many areas of life, including personal and professional decision-making.
Preparation for further academic work : Writing a term paper is excellent preparation for more extensive academic projects, such as a thesis or dissertation.

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How to Find Psychology Research Topics for Your Student Paper

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Steven Gans, MD is board-certified in psychiatry and is an active supervisor, teacher, and mentor at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Specific Branches of Psychology
Topics Involving a Disorder or Type of Therapy
Human Cognition
Human Development
Critique of Publications
Famous Experiments
Historical Figures
Specific Careers
Case Studies
Literature Reviews
Your Own Study/Experiment

Are you searching for a great topic for your psychology paper ? Sometimes it seems like coming up with topics of psychology research is more challenging than the actual research and writing. Fortunately, there are plenty of great places to find inspiration and the following list contains just a few ideas to help get you started.

Finding a solid topic is one of the most important steps when writing any type of paper. It can be particularly important when you are writing a psychology research paper or essay. Psychology is such a broad topic, so you want to find a topic that allows you to adequately cover the subject without becoming overwhelmed with information.

I can always tell when a student really cares about the topic they chose; it comes through in the writing. My advice is to choose a topic that genuinely interests you, so you’ll be more motivated to do thorough research.

In some cases, such as in a general psychology class, you might have the option to select any topic from within psychology's broad reach. Other instances, such as in an abnormal psychology course, might require you to write your paper on a specific subject such as a psychological disorder.

As you begin your search for a topic for your psychology paper, it is first important to consider the guidelines established by your instructor.

Research Topics Within Specific Branches of Psychology

The key to selecting a good topic for your psychology paper is to select something that is narrow enough to allow you to really focus on the subject, but not so narrow that it is difficult to find sources or information to write about.

One approach is to narrow your focus down to a subject within a specific branch of psychology. For example, you might start by deciding that you want to write a paper on some sort of social psychology topic. Next, you might narrow your focus down to how persuasion can be used to influence behavior .

Other social psychology topics you might consider include:

Prejudice and discrimination (i.e., homophobia, sexism, racism)
Social cognition
Person perception
Social control and cults
Persuasion, propaganda, and marketing
Attraction, romance, and love
Nonverbal communication
Prosocial behavior

Psychology Research Topics Involving a Disorder or Type of Therapy

Exploring a psychological disorder or a specific treatment modality can also be a good topic for a psychology paper. Some potential abnormal psychology topics include specific psychological disorders or particular treatment modalities, including:

Eating disorders
Borderline personality disorder
Seasonal affective disorder
Schizophrenia
Antisocial personality disorder
Profile a type of therapy (i.e., cognitive-behavioral therapy, group therapy, psychoanalytic therapy)

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Human Cognition

Some of the possible topics you might explore in this area include thinking, language, intelligence, and decision-making. Other ideas might include:

False memories
Speech disorders
Problem-solving

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Human Development

In this area, you might opt to focus on issues pertinent to early childhood such as language development, social learning, or childhood attachment or you might instead opt to concentrate on issues that affect older adults such as dementia or Alzheimer's disease.

Some other topics you might consider include:

Language acquisition
Media violence and children
Learning disabilities
Gender roles
Child abuse
Prenatal development
Parenting styles
Aspects of the aging process

Do a Critique of Publications Involving Psychology Research Topics

One option is to consider writing a critique paper of a published psychology book or academic journal article. For example, you might write a critical analysis of Sigmund Freud's Interpretation of Dreams or you might evaluate a more recent book such as Philip Zimbardo's The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil .

Professional and academic journals are also great places to find materials for a critique paper. Browse through the collection at your university library to find titles devoted to the subject that you are most interested in, then look through recent articles until you find one that grabs your attention.

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Famous Experiments

There have been many fascinating and groundbreaking experiments throughout the history of psychology, providing ample material for students looking for an interesting term paper topic. In your paper, you might choose to summarize the experiment, analyze the ethics of the research, or evaluate the implications of the study. Possible experiments that you might consider include:

The Milgram Obedience Experiment
The Stanford Prison Experiment
The Little Albert Experiment
Pavlov's Conditioning Experiments
The Asch Conformity Experiment
Harlow's Rhesus Monkey Experiments

Topics of Psychology Research About Historical Figures

One of the simplest ways to find a great topic is to choose an interesting person in the history of psychology and write a paper about them. Your paper might focus on many different elements of the individual's life, such as their biography, professional history, theories, or influence on psychology.

While this type of paper may be historical in nature, there is no need for this assignment to be dry or boring. Psychology is full of fascinating figures rife with intriguing stories and anecdotes. Consider such famous individuals as Sigmund Freud, B.F. Skinner, Harry Harlow, or one of the many other eminent psychologists .

Psychology Research Topics About a Specific Career

Another possible topic, depending on the course in which you are enrolled, is to write about specific career paths within the field of psychology . This type of paper is especially appropriate if you are exploring different subtopics or considering which area interests you the most.

In your paper, you might opt to explore the typical duties of a psychologist, how much people working in these fields typically earn, and the different employment options that are available.

Topics of Psychology Research Involving Case Studies

One potentially interesting idea is to write a psychology case study of a particular individual or group of people. In this type of paper, you will provide an in-depth analysis of your subject, including a thorough biography.

Generally, you will also assess the person, often using a major psychological theory such as Piaget's stages of cognitive development or Erikson's eight-stage theory of human development . It is also important to note that your paper doesn't necessarily have to be about someone you know personally.

In fact, many professors encourage students to write case studies on historical figures or fictional characters from books, television programs, or films.

Psychology Research Topics Involving Literature Reviews

Another possibility that would work well for a number of psychology courses is to do a literature review of a specific topic within psychology. A literature review involves finding a variety of sources on a particular subject, then summarizing and reporting on what these sources have to say about the topic.

Literature reviews are generally found in the introduction of journal articles and other psychology papers , but this type of analysis also works well for a full-scale psychology term paper.

Topics of Psychology Research Based on Your Own Study or Experiment

Many psychology courses require students to design an actual psychological study or perform some type of experiment. In some cases, students simply devise the study and then imagine the possible results that might occur. In other situations, you may actually have the opportunity to collect data, analyze your findings, and write up your results.

Finding a topic for your study can be difficult, but there are plenty of great ways to come up with intriguing ideas. Start by considering your own interests as well as subjects you have studied in the past.

Online sources, newspaper articles, books , journal articles, and even your own class textbook are all great places to start searching for topics for your experiments and psychology term papers. Before you begin, learn more about how to conduct a psychology experiment .

What This Means For You

After looking at this brief list of possible topics for psychology papers, it is easy to see that psychology is a very broad and diverse subject. While this variety makes it possible to find a topic that really catches your interest, it can sometimes make it very difficult for some students to select a good topic.

If you are still stumped by your assignment, ask your instructor for suggestions and consider a few from this list for inspiration.

Hockenbury, SE & Nolan, SA. Psychology. New York: Worth Publishers; 2014.
Santrock, JW. A Topical Approach to Lifespan Development. New York: McGraw-Hill Education; 2016.

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

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Research Papers

Everything You Need to Know to Write an A+ Term Paper

Last Updated: March 4, 2024 Fact Checked

Sample Term Papers

Researching & outlining.

Drafting Your Paper
Revising Your Paper

Expert Q&A

This article was co-authored by Matthew Snipp, PhD and by wikiHow staff writer, Raven Minyard, BA . C. Matthew Snipp is the Burnet C. and Mildred Finley Wohlford Professor of Humanities and Sciences in the Department of Sociology at Stanford University. He is also the Director for the Institute for Research in the Social Science’s Secure Data Center. He has been a Research Fellow at the U.S. Bureau of the Census and a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. He has published 3 books and over 70 articles and book chapters on demography, economic development, poverty and unemployment. He is also currently serving on the National Institute of Child Health and Development’s Population Science Subcommittee. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin—Madison. There are 13 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 2,230,963 times.

A term paper is a written assignment given to students at the end of a course to gauge their understanding of the material. Term papers typically count for a good percentage of your overall grade, so of course, you’ll want to write the best paper possible. Luckily, we’ve got you covered. In this article, we’ll teach you everything you need to know to write an A+ term paper, from researching and outlining to drafting and revising.

Quick Steps to Write a Term Paper

Hook your readers with an interesting and informative intro paragraph. State your thesis and your main points.
Support your thesis by providing quotes and evidence that back your claim in your body paragraphs.
Summarize your main points and leave your readers with a thought-provoking question in your conclusion.

Think of your term paper as the bridge between what you’ve learned in class and how you apply that knowledge to real-world topics.
For example, a history term paper may require you to explore the consequences of a significant historical event, like the Civil War. An environmental science class, on the other hand, may have you examine the effects of climate change on a certain region.
Your guidelines should tell you the paper’s word count and formatting style, like whether to use in-text citations or footnotes and whether to use single- or double-spacing. If these things aren’t specified, be sure to reach out to your instructor.

Make sure your topic isn’t too broad. For example, if you want to write about Shakespeare’s work, first narrow it down to a specific play, like Macbeth , then choose something even more specific like Lady Macbeth’s role in the plot.
If the topic is already chosen for you, explore unique angles that can set your content and information apart from the more obvious approaches many others will probably take. [3] X Research source
Try not to have a specific outcome in mind, as this will close you off to new ideas and avenues of thinking. Rather than trying to mold your research to fit your desired outcome, allow the outcome to reflect a genuine analysis of the discoveries you made. Ask yourself questions throughout the process and be open to having your beliefs challenged.
Reading other people's comments, opinions, and entries on a topic can often help you to refine your own, especially where they comment that "further research" is required or where they posit challenging questions but leave them unanswered.

For example, if you’re writing a term paper about Macbeth , your primary source would be the play itself. Then, look for other research papers and analyses written by academics and scholars to understand how they interpret the text.

For example, if you’re writing a paper about Lady Macbeth, your thesis could be something like “Shakespeare’s characterization of Lady Macbeth reveals how desire for power can control someone’s life.”
Remember, your research and thesis development doesn’t stop here. As you continue working through both the research and writing, you may want to make changes that align with the ideas forming in your mind and the discoveries you continue to unearth.
On the other hand, don’t keep looking for new ideas and angles for fear of feeling confined. At some point, you’re going to have to say enough is enough and make your point. You may have other opportunities to explore these questions in future studies, but for now, remember your term paper has a finite word length and an approaching due date!

Step 5 Develop an outline for the paper.

Abstract: An abstract is a concise summary of your paper that informs readers of your topic, its significance, and the key points you’ll explore. It must stand on its own and make sense without referencing outside sources or your actual paper.
Introduction: The introduction establishes the main idea of your paper and directly states the thesis. Begin your introduction with an attention-grabbing sentence to intrigue your readers, and provide any necessary background information to establish your paper’s purpose and direction.
Body paragraphs: Each body paragraph focuses on a different argument supporting your thesis. List specific evidence from your sources to back up your arguments. Provide detailed information about your topic to enhance your readers’ understanding. In your outline, write down the main ideas for each body paragraph and any outstanding questions or points you’re not yet sure about.
Results: Depending on the type of term paper you’re writing, your results may be incorporated into your body paragraphs or conclusion. These are the insights that your research led you to. Here you can discuss how your perspective and understanding of your topic shifted throughout your writing process.
Conclusion: Your conclusion summarizes your argument and findings. You may restate your thesis and major points as you wrap up your paper.

Drafting Your Term Paper

Step 1 Make your point in the introduction.

Writing an introduction can be challenging, but don’t get too caught up on it. As you write the rest of your paper, your arguments might change and develop, so you’ll likely need to rewrite your intro at the end, anyway. Writing your intro is simply a means of getting started and you can always revise it later. [10] X Trustworthy Source PubMed Central Journal archive from the U.S. National Institutes of Health Go to source
Be sure to define any words your readers might not understand. For example, words like “globalization” have many different meanings depending on context, and it’s important to state which ones you’ll be using as part of your introductory paragraph.

Step 2 Persuade your readers with your body paragraphs.

Try to relate the subject of the essay (say, Plato’s Symposium ) to a tangentially related issue you happen to know something about (say, the growing trend of free-wheeling hookups in frat parties). Slowly bring the paragraph around to your actual subject and make a few generalizations about why this aspect of the book/subject is so fascinating and worthy of study (such as how different the expectations for physical intimacy were then compared to now).

Step 3 Summarize your argument with your conclusion.

You can also reflect on your own experience of researching and writing your term paper. Discuss how your understanding of your topic evolved and any unexpected findings you came across.

While peppering quotes throughout your text is a good way to help make your point, don’t overdo it. If you use too many quotes, you’re basically allowing other authors to make the point and write the paper for you. When you do use a quote, be sure to explain why it is relevant in your own words.
Try to sort out your bibliography at the beginning of your writing process to avoid having a last-minute scramble. When you have all the information beforehand (like the source’s title, author, publication date, etc.), it’s easier to plug them into the correct format.

Revising & Finalizing Your Term Paper

Step 1 Make your writing as concise as possible.

Trade in weak “to-be” verbs for stronger “action” verbs. For example: “I was writing my term paper” becomes “I wrote my term paper.”

Step 2 Check for grammar and spelling errors.

It’s extremely important to proofread your term paper. If your writing is full of mistakes, your instructor will assume you didn’t put much effort into your paper. If you have too many errors, your message will be lost in the confusion of trying to understand what you’ve written.

Step 3 Have someone else read over your paper.

If you add or change information to make things clearer for your readers, it’s a good idea to look over your paper one more time to catch any new typos that may have come up in the process.

The best essays are like grass court tennis—the argument should flow in a "rally" style, building persuasively to the conclusion. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
If you get stuck, consider giving your professor a visit. Whether you're still struggling for a thesis or you want to go over your conclusion, most instructors are delighted to help and they'll remember your initiative when grading time rolls around. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
At least 2 hours for 3-5 pages.
At least 4 hours for 8-10 pages.
At least 6 hours for 12-15 pages.
Double those hours if you haven't done any homework and you haven't attended class.
For papers that are primarily research-based, add about two hours to those times (although you'll need to know how to research quickly and effectively, beyond the purview of this brief guide).

↑ https://www.binghamton.edu/counseling/self-help/term-paper.html
↑ Matthew Snipp, PhD. Research Fellow, U.S. Bureau of the Census. Expert Interview. 26 March 2020.
↑ https://emory.libanswers.com/faq/44525
↑ https://writing.wisc.edu/handbook/assignments/planresearchpaper/
↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/the_writing_process/thesis_statement_tips.html
↑ https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/outline
↑ https://gallaudet.edu/student-success/tutorial-center/english-center/writing/guide-to-writing-introductions-and-conclusions/
↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26731827
↑ https://writing.wisc.edu/handbook/assignments/writing-an-abstract-for-your-research-paper/
↑ https://www.ivcc.edu/stylesite/Essay_Title.pdf
↑ https://www.uni-flensburg.de/fileadmin/content/institute/anglistik/dokumente/downloads/how-to-write-a-term-paper-daewes.pdf
↑ https://library.sacredheart.edu/c.php?g=29803&p=185937
↑ https://www.cornerstone.edu/blog-post/six-steps-to-really-edit-your-paper/

About This Article

If you need to write a term paper, choose your topic, then start researching that topic. Use your research to craft a thesis statement which states the main idea of your paper, then organize all of your facts into an outline that supports your thesis. Once you start writing, state your thesis in the first paragraph, then use the body of the paper to present the points that support your argument. End the paper with a strong conclusion that restates your thesis. For tips on improving your term paper through active voice, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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University Libraries acquires papers of Brown School’s Jack Kirkland

University Archives at Washington University in St. Louis recently acquired the papers of Jack Arnett Kirkland, an associate professor in the Brown School and an internationally known scholar who writes, lectures and consults on the African American family and social and economic development. The collection documents his long career at WashU and is a valuable piece of university history, including early material from the Black Studies program.

The collection includes a wide variety of materials. One series is Kirkland’s teaching material consisting of syllabi from various classes and his teaching notes. Another series is Black Studies program Material, which includes Black student guides from the early 1970s, program brochures and publicity. Kirkland is a prolific writer and the collection includes his articles, reports, speeches and more. His professional correspondence dates from the 1960s through the 2000s and includes information about his teaching, work with the community and his time as director of the Missouri Department of Transportation.

To learn more, visit the University Libraries website .

Comments and respectful dialogue are encouraged, but content will be moderated. Please, no personal attacks, obscenity or profanity, selling of commercial products, or endorsements of political candidates or positions. We reserve the right to remove any inappropriate comments. We also cannot address individual medical concerns or provide medical advice in this forum.

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General Brown speaks while Lamothe and audience members listen.

Title: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Discusses International Conflict, Defense and Leadership on the Hilltop

On Thursday April 25, 2024 Georgetown students gathered in the Healey Family Student Center Social Room to hear from General Charles Q. Brown, Jr., Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about the role of the U.S. military in U.S. politics and the world. As the most senior-ranking military officer in the U.S. and military advisor to the President , General Brown shared his experiences as a military leader and students had the opportunity to ask questions.

Vilda Westh Blanc (SFS‘27), a student who was on Dan Lamothe’s Student Strategy Team this semester, introduced the event. She welcomed Brown to the stage as well as current GU Politics Fellow Dan Lamothe to moderate the conversation.

Lamothe started the conversation by asking Brown about the current state of U.S. military operations and the threats to national security. “What makes this time uniquely dangerous, uniquely challenging?” Lamothe asked.

Brown emphasized the complex dynamics of this moment for U.S. national security, noting the significance of threats from North Korea, China, Russia and Iran. He explained that before coming to his current position he championed the phrase “Accelerate change or lose.”

“Personally and professionally, I do not play for second place. And I am very focused on ensuring we have all the capabilities to ensure our national security,” Brown said.

Outlining his priorities for the U.S. military, Brown highlighted the importance of training skilled service members, embracing the modernization of capabilities, and creating a foundation of trust with communities and elected officials.

On the importance of maintaining trust with American people, Brown said “Having that trust is hugely important to ensure that we do the things the nation calls us to do as military members.”

Next, Lamothe asked Brown how the Israel-Hamas conflict shapes the priorities of the U.S. military.

On the tension between current crises and future threats, Brown said “You’ve got to balance risk over time.”

“You never want to take short-term satisfaction at the expense of your long-term goals,” Brown said.

Continuing to discuss the conflict in the Middle East, Lamothe asked Brown about what it takes to deal with such a volatile situation and what strategies the military is utilizing to keep the conflict contained.

“From the very beginning, we looked at how do we deter a future conflict and at the same time protect our armed forces and support Israel to defend itself,” Brown said. “In addition to that is making sure we were providing humanitarian assistance and minimizing collateral damage.”

“This has been a theme throughout: how do we deter a broader conflict,” Brown said. Brown further emphasized the military’s preparedness, the efforts of the U.S. National Security Council, and the role of other foreign nations.

Lamothe then asked about what initial concerns Brown had regarding Iran’s attack on Israel on April 13th.

“First thing I’ll tell you is that I didn’t have a lot of concern because I have complete confidence in our force and they were well-prepared,” Brown said. He emphasized the work of the U.S. military in the week leading up to the April 13th attack and explained the communication and collaboration between the Pentagon and White House that happened the day of.

Turning to the topic of Ukraine, Lamothe noted that despite the recent aid package approved by the U.S. Congress, many think that “Ukraine will continue to be outgunned this year. What do you see as the likely outcome this summer?”

“When Ukraine is supplied, they have been able to be effective,” Brown said, stressing the importance of continuing to provide support.

“Even broader than this: what happens in one corner of the world does not stay in one corner of the world,” Brown added. “Unchecked aggression provides opportunity for future aggression.”

Next, Lamothe asked about building trust in the U.S. military. “We’re in a time where there is dwindling support for the U.S. military in a lot of polls. There are concerns about American democracy at large. What does it take to build new faith in the American military?” Lamothe asked.

“Trust is the foundation of our profession. And part of that, my focus, is not only maintaining the trust we have but to continue to build upon it.” Brown added, “I think the most important thing I can do is lead by example.”

Brown also emphasized the importance of being non-partisan as a military member. “Our oath is to the Constitution of the United States, to an ideal— not to a leader, not to an office,” Brown said.

Students then had the opportunity to ask Brown questions.

Captain Trevor Barton, Omar Bradley Fellow and McCourt Student studying national security issues asked: “What is your assessment, as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, of the current health of the defense industrial base related to our production capability, and what can policymakers do to increase the resiliency of the defense industrial base?”

“There’s key things, from a policymaker standpoint, that I think are very important. Consistency is probably top of the notch,” Brown said. “What I mean by that is that there’s consistency in our demand signal from the Department of Defense in what we need. And then consistency in resourcing. When you have that consistency, that helps predictability for the defense industrial base.”

MJ Ninal (C’24), a cadet in the Air Force ROTC , asked Brown about his advice for young lieutenants in this unique time of international threats and political polarization.

“Whatever job you’re going into, get really good at it. That’s probably the most important thing you can do. I’d also say ask a lot of questions. There are no dumb questions,” Brown said. “And when you ask tough questions of your leaders, it challenges us.”

One student asked Brown about the challenges of advising political leaders and what his advice was for fostering mutual understanding of perspectives and positions.

“When providing advice, you need to understand your boss, and your boss’s boss, and their intent and what their focused on,” Brown said. He emphasized that the perfect military solution does not always line up with what is going on geopolitically, economically and diplomatically, but understanding the bigger picture is key to effective conversations and problem-solving.

Lewis Williams III (S’28), a student studying applied intelligence at Georgetown’s School of Continuing Studies asked Brown, “What are some of your role models or individuals that have inspired you, whether civilian or military?”

Brown talked about the influence of his father, who was in the Army and encouraged Brown to apply. “This is all his idea,” Brown said.

“I think the other thing that has been an inspiration to me has been the Tuskegee Airmen,” Brown said, referring to the first African American military aviators in the U.S. “Just in general, what they were able to do leading up to World War II and during World War II.”

Brown recounted his experience getting to talk to some of the Tuskegee Airmen and hear their stories. He remembered Brigadier General Charles McGee and reflected on the honor it was to meet him.

Brown also answered student questions about cybersecurity, use of innovative technologies in Ukraine, climate change as a national security threat, and promoting cooperation between branches of the U.S. military.

Luke Hughes (SFS‘27) asked Brown what his message would be to incoming Georgetown students who are considering joining the ROTC.

On reasons to join, “I would say two things: One, the opportunity to serve your nation but the opportunity to gain some valuable experience,” Brown noted.

Brown emphasized the opportunities for growing as a leader, building meaningful relationships, and giving back to your community through involvement in the military.

“We need you, whether you serve in uniform or you serve in some other part of government, that’s what makes our democracy so strong,” Brown said.

GU Politics extends its gratitude to the Walsh School of Foreign Service , the SFS Security Studies Program , the Georgetown University Military and Veterans Resource Center and the National Defense Policy Initiative for co-sponsoring this event.

This article was written by Jane Wright , a first-year graduate student in the McCourt School of Public Policy.

Watch the full recording below.

Lamothe asks General Brown a question as he listens.

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Computer Science > Computation and Language

Title: classifying human-generated and ai-generated election claims in social media.

Abstract: Politics is one of the most prevalent topics discussed on social media platforms, particularly during major election cycles, where users engage in conversations about candidates and electoral processes. Malicious actors may use this opportunity to disseminate misinformation to undermine trust in the electoral process. The emergence of Large Language Models (LLMs) exacerbates this issue by enabling malicious actors to generate misinformation at an unprecedented scale. Artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content is often indistinguishable from authentic user content, raising concerns about the integrity of information on social networks. In this paper, we present a novel taxonomy for characterizing election-related claims. This taxonomy provides an instrument for analyzing election-related claims, with granular categories related to jurisdiction, equipment, processes, and the nature of claims. We introduce ElectAI, a novel benchmark dataset that consists of 9,900 tweets, each labeled as human- or AI-generated. For AI-generated tweets, the specific LLM variant that produced them is specified. We annotated a subset of 1,550 tweets using the proposed taxonomy to capture the characteristics of election-related claims. We explored the capabilities of LLMs in extracting the taxonomy attributes and trained various machine learning models using ElectAI to distinguish between human- and AI-generated posts and identify the specific LLM variant.

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Journal of Materials Chemistry A

A fluorene-carbazole conjugated polymer hole conductor for efficient and stable perovskite solar cells.

Semiconducting lead halide perovskites are currently attracting increasing attention, showing great potential for next-generation photovoltaic devices. To date, the molecular hole conductor 2,2',7,7'-tetrakis[N,N-di(4-methoxyphenyl)amino]-9,9'-spirobifluorene (Spiro-OMeTAD) has been dominantly used as the hole transport materials (HTMs) in these solar cell devices, which is notorious for causing device instability. Here, we first report a promising and easily accessible fluorene-carbazole conjugated polymer hole conductor, namely PF8Cz, as an alternative HTM for efficient and stable perovskite solar cells (PSCs). The PSCs based on PF8Cz have the excellent capability to achieve efficient charge extraction at perovskite/polymer interfaces due to their appreciable energy level alignment, high hole mobility, and avoid instability caused by doping and oxidation processes in Spiro-OMeTAD based ones. Meanwhile, PF8Cz can be solution processed at large-area and exhibits more uniform and reproducible film morphology. Through detailed optimization, we have demonstrated PF8Cz based PSCs with a remarkable efficiency of 23.28% and significantly improved ambient, thermal as well as operational stability. In comparison with the state-of-the-art polymeric hole conductor poly[bis(4-phenyl)(2,4,6-trimethyl-phenyl)amine] (PTAA) (20.38%) and Spiro-OMeTAD (23.55%), we believe that PF8Cz can well balance the interplay of cost-processing-performance, more importantly, catalyze further development of high-performing organic HTMs and help realize the promising potential of PSCs.

This article is part of the themed collection: Journal of Materials Chemistry A HOT Papers

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B. Wang, J. Guo, X. Luo, C. Han, B. Zhao, I. Ullah, Y. Kong, X. Zhao, Y. Lei and J. Yuan, J. Mater. Chem. A , 2024, Accepted Manuscript , DOI: 10.1039/D4TA02009J

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“[letting] the government use its tax and credit policies to enlist in this battle [the war on poverty] the greatest engine of progress ever developed in the history of man—American private enterprise.”

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