CSS Forums

CSS Forums (http://www.cssforum.com.pk/)
-   Political Science (http://www.cssforum.com.pk/css-optional-subjects/group-i/political-science/)
-   -   Difference between marxism ,Leninism and stalinsim (http://www.cssforum.com.pk/css-optional-subjects/group-i/political-science/122775-difference-between-marxism-leninism-stalinsim.html)

blue sky Monday, January 21, 2019 03:01 AM

Difference between marxism ,Leninism and stalinsim
 
What's the difference between marxism , Leninism and Stalinism?

aishalam Monday, January 21, 2019 07:42 PM

Well basically Marxism came first. It is ideology based on works of Karl Marx from the 19th century. Marx was a heavy critic of the capitalistic system which he believed was responsible for the class system in the world. He said that the world is divided into two main classes based on factors of production; the Bourgeois (the rich-they own capital and land and they employ workers), and the Proletariat (the workers who have nothing but their labor to sell). He believed that the working class should (and would eventually) stand up for their rights since they are paid less than they are due by the rich land-owners and factory-masters. He also believed that everything in Human history was (and would always be) based on some sort of "conflict" (conflict between the rich and poor, east and west, male and female). He co-wrote the famous book "The Communist Manifesto" upon which the other two ideologies are based.

Politically Marx believed that the eventual revolution of the working class would lead to a “dictatorship” of the proletariat and they would ultimately form the communist system. I must point out an important point here. Dictatorship to Marx didn't exclusively mean what we think it means today. In many of his works he called the democratic government of the time "a dictatorship of the aristocrats" since very few working class people ever got into politics and even if they did rarely were in positions of power.

Moving on to Leninism. It is the ideology of Vladimir Lenin who was a Russian Marxist. He agreed with everything Marx said so where do they differ? Lenin believed in Marx's theories and even wanted communism. Where he differed was simply in how to get to that stage. He believed that Capitalism wouldn't just topple over itself. He suggested that a few people from the working class need to form a party and do the revolution themselves on behalf of everyone else and he did exactly that. Lenin was the mastermind behind the Russian Revolution of 1917 which overthrew and assassinated the Russian Tsar. Politically he also differed with Marx in the sense that he took "dictatorship of the proletariat" very literally. He believed that to get to communism first they must establish a temporary stage called socialism. He also believed that ONE party, to achieve its goals and guide the people to communism, needed the monopoly of state power and authority. So basically he wanted to establish a REAL dictatorship, which he did in Russia, and his Bolshevik party was highly organized, didn't tolerate internal dissent and crushed the other, more democratic socialist groups in Russia after the revolution. Note that this is the actual practical model that is being applied in the Communist countries of today.

Now here we shall talk about Stalinism which is based on Joseph Stalin's ideology. Stalin was actually Lenin's right-hand man even though they disagreed a lot. The basic differences between the two is how far aggression and totalitarian regimes can go. Lenin believed that the original Revolution and assassination of the Royal family was necessary but after that he was willing to listen to other people and exchange ideas. He also wanted to export the communist ideals that he had developed to other countries so they could overthrow their Bourgeois governments as well. Lenin was also fairly popular with human rights activists across the globe since he believed that all classes were equal under communist rule.

Stalin was a lot more aggressive and closed off. He basically killed off anyone who wasn't of importance to him anymore. He also was highly influences by Fascist ideals. In short, Stalin was very very VERY authoritarian. He also disagreed with Lenin's ideas of "exporting communism" to the world. He introduced "communism in one country" which basically just meant that the USSR should build itself up within its own borders against the rest of the Capitalistic world and not worry about helping people in other countries who were open to communism (You can read up on the case of former Yugoslavia after WWI which under Tito would not accept Stalin adamant demands that Yugoslavia become a Soviet satellite state and swear loyalty to Moscow. This caused the famous Tito-Stalin split.)

This was a very brief outline of how these three differ. They all essentially had the same goals but chose different means to get to that end.

blue sky Tuesday, January 22, 2019 09:26 AM

[QUOTE=aishalam;1084212]Well basically Marxism came first. It is ideology based on works of Karl Marx from the 19th century. Marx was a heavy critic of the capitalistic system which he believed was responsible for the class system in the world. He said that the world is divided into two main classes based on factors of production; the Bourgeois (the rich-they own capital and land and they employ workers), and the Proletariat (the workers who have nothing but their labor to sell). He believed that the working class should (and would eventually) stand up for their rights since they are paid less than they are due by the rich land-owners and factory-masters. He also believed that everything in Human history was (and would always be) based on some sort of "conflict" (conflict between the rich and poor, east and west, male and female). He co-wrote the famous book "The Communist Manifesto" upon which the other two ideologies are based.


Politically Marx believed that the eventual revolution of the working class would lead to a “dictatorship” of the proletariat and they would ultimately form the communist system. I must point out an important point here. Dictatorship to Marx didn't exclusively mean what we think it means today. In many of his works he called the democratic government of the time "a dictatorship of the aristocrats" since very few working class people ever got into politics and even if they did rarely were in positions of power.

Moving on to Leninism. It is the ideology of Vladimir Lenin who was a Russian Marxist. He agreed with everything Marx said so where do they differ? Lenin believed in Marx's theories and even wanted communism. Where he differed was simply in how to get to that stage. He believed that Capitalism wouldn't just topple over itself. He suggested that a few people from the working class need to form a party and do the revolution themselves on behalf of everyone else and he did exactly that. Lenin was the mastermind behind the Russian Revolution of 1917 which overthrew and assassinated the Russian Tsar. Politically he also differed with Marx in the sense that he took "dictatorship of the proletariat" very literally. He believed that to get to communism first they must establish a temporary stage called socialism. He also believed that ONE party, to achieve its goals and guide the people to communism, needed the monopoly of state power and authority. So basically he wanted to establish a REAL dictatorship, which he did in Russia, and his Bolshevik party was highly organized, didn't tolerate internal dissent and crushed the other, more democratic socialist groups in Russia after the revolution. Note that this is the actual practical model that is being applied in the Communist countries of today.

Now here we shall talk about Stalinism which is based on Joseph Stalin's ideology. Stalin was actually Lenin's right-hand man even though they disagreed a lot. The basic differences between the two is how far aggression and totalitarian regimes can go. Lenin believed that the original Revolution and assassination of the Royal family was necessary but after that he was willing to listen to other people and exchange ideas. He also wanted to export the communist ideals that he had developed to other countries so they could overthrow their Bourgeois governments as well. Lenin was also fairly popular with human rights activists across the globe since he believed that all classes were equal under communist rule.

Stalin was a lot more aggressive and closed off. He basically killed off anyone who wasn't of importance to him anymore. He also was highly influences by Fascist ideals. In short, Stalin was very very VERY authoritarian. He also disagreed with Lenin's ideas of "exporting communism" to the world. He introduced "communism in one country" which basically just meant that the USSR should build itself up within its own borders against the rest of the Capitalistic world and not worry about helping people in other countries who were open to communism (You can read up on the case of former Yugoslavia after WWI which under Tito would not accept Stalin adamant demands that Yugoslavia become a Soviet satellite state and swear loyalty to Moscow. This caused the famous Tito-Stalin split.)

This was a very brief outline of how these three differ. They all essentially had the same goals but chose different means to get to that end.[/QUOTE]
thankyou
why socialism failed in USSR while succeeded in china ?
can present china be categorised as a socialist state?
what was stalin and trotsky conflict about?

yasirisrar Tuesday, January 22, 2019 01:34 PM

[QUOTE=blue sky;1084254]thankyou
why socialism failed in USSR while succeeded in china ?
can present china be categorised as a socialist state?
what was stalin and trotsky conflict about?[/QUOTE]

Will try my best to answer your queries

1) Reasons for failure of socialism in USSR

A) Soviet planned economy was ill planned and boasted figures of growth but in fact there was hyper inflation, stagnant growth and poor policy by the technocrats.

B) Mass proxy wars weakened the soviets. Examples of war in Angola, Rhodesia, Vietnam, Afghanistan lead to mass funding to these states

C) Socialism was curtailed with an iron hand around the globe. Examples of mass arrests in Europe, Asia and South America against suspected sympathizers of socialism lead to the downfall in the ideology

D) Stalinist policy of mass purges and excessive totalitarianism lead made people furious against the ideology. Particularly NKVD became synonymous for Terror and Himmelr's Gestapo. The coup attempts during the year of 89 was not supported by the masses since they were fed up of socialist policies

E) Socialism did not uplifted the lives of the Russian people as claimed by Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels


2) Can China be stated as a socialist country/state?
Ans) Yes, China is a socialist country but with special Chinese characteristics. This is a political theory which explains that Chinese socialism evolved with need of time. Deng Xiaoping introduced this theory "One country and two systems"

3) This one is already answered but in simple terms

A) Stalin supported the theory of Socialism in one country and did not favored the exporting of socialistic ideas to other states. He was of the view that socialism in USSR should be solidified.

B) Trotsky favored the internationalism of socialism (Same view was held by Lenin as well). Furthermore, Trotsky was adamant that low industrialized countries can have socialistic revolutions and do not require developed bourgeoisie capitalistic economy to succeed

the trotsky view was highly regarded by members of the communist party. The fear of removal from power led to the removal of Trotsky from the party, exile from USSR and ultimately his assassination in 1940's

aishalam Tuesday, January 22, 2019 03:02 PM

[QUOTE=blue sky;1084254]thankyou
why socialism failed in USSR while succeeded in china ?
can present china be categorised as a socialist state?
what was stalin and trotsky conflict about?[/QUOTE]

The person above has wonderfully summed up the first and third questions so I shall attempt to further elaborate the second.

Well to understand this first lets establish some ground rules about socialism. Basically in socialism some private ownership is allowed. Like I have said before it is meant to be a transitory phase between capitalism and communism where the government is trying to redistribute all property. Socialist policies can be implemented in both democratic and authoritarian countries. Also note here that there are a LOT of socialist ideologies some of them don't even want communism like Democratic socialism. Some of the Nordic countries like Sweden and Denmark have their own Social Democratic Party which do come in and out of power. These countries are the best in the world especially by a human development Index so they must be doing something right and this negates the old capitalistic slogan that there is something intrinsically wrong with Socialism.

So lets say that for a country to be socialist it must have two basic properties: Central very powerful government that has goals of public welfare, re-distribution of property to make society more equitable.

Now let's return to the original question; is China Socialist? China likes to call itself "Socialist with Chinese characteristics." what that essentially means is that they have deviated a lot from the original Marx ideology (It is interesting to note here that for Karl Marx Socialism and Communism meant the same thing. He never introduced a "transitory" phase). Of the two properties mentioned above China definitely has the first. What about the second? Deng Xiaoping once said, "Under socialism, there can also be a market economy." That was the way he adopted the system and introduced a lot of incentives and economic reforms to promote free enterprise. China today has a large booming Private Sector which accounts for more than half of the whole Economy and employs the majority of the labour.

Now this may seem directly against the basic socialist ideals. Market economy is what Marx was against. Free enterprises had no place in communism. But if we look closer, Chinese government does in fact control all the factors of production. All land in China is state owned and they lease it out to people. People still own their own labour but the Chinese government has grand development plans which allocate certain amount of people to each sector for sustainable growth. Next comes capital, all banks in China are state run so they full control over that. Last factor is entrepreneurship. According to the Fortune Global 500 List, the top 15 Chinese companies with the biggest revenues are all state-owned and even the private owned companies must follow the large strategic goal frameworks of the government. So with a strong hand in all economic productive factors, China can be classified as a Socialist country.

I want to draw attention to the second basic property we had established-re-distribution of property to make society more equitable. China despite is motives isn't a very equitable society (yet). The classes still exist and there is evidence to show that the gap is growing. In fact they have the most inequality among the big economies with 30 million people living below the national poverty line yet a large number of billionaires. The government is also not very good with providing basic public services. Many Chinese often struggle to afford education and healthcare. So China has not been very successful with redistributing resources and hence doesn't fulfill one of the properties of socialism.

In conclusion, whether china is or is not socialist is up for debate since, like any ideology, socialism means many different things to many people.

yasirisrar Wednesday, January 23, 2019 12:36 PM

Nice mate

blue sky Wednesday, January 23, 2019 03:38 PM

difference between socialism and communism
 
difference between socialism and communism?

aishalam Wednesday, January 23, 2019 10:42 PM

-

aishalam Wednesday, January 23, 2019 10:43 PM

[QUOTE=blue sky;1084351]difference between socialism and communism?[/QUOTE]

Communism is the ultimate dream-a classless, government-less society which exists on the principal of "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs". It is a cooperative society with everyone working together to produce what they need without trying to exploit one another. Marx argued that the pre-industrial society was a primitive communist one as well. We can quote the Medina society and the later Ottoman Empire in this as well. They shared several characteristics with what one theoretically would want in a communist state (NOT socialist). The Byzantines also tried really hard to make a "communal state" where resources were shared and work was done to eliminate class inequalities. If we go further back in human history we will find that many of the earlier civilizations had very few classes, mainly just a leader who was either a distinguished military commander or a religious authority (or considered divine somehow) and everyone else and the people worked for the community's benefit.

Socialism is supposed to be a transitory stage. I've mentioned the two properties of a socialist state before but I'll repeat them again. The government is still in control but they work for public benefit, not for the benefit of the rich, and the resources are being re-distributed in society to reduce the class differences. It is what is practically visible today though it itself has many many forms.But the basic differences between the two have been outlines above. I hope this helped.

Malihaanam Thursday, January 24, 2019 09:48 PM

Nao-Marxism
 
Salam
can anyone please guide me about Neo Marxism, i.e. it's evolution, key ideas and main proponents?
I really need it.


04:04 PM (GMT +5)

vBulletin, Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.