Differences between various political theories

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• 1 Like

  akistotle Member ⭐ 🍌🍌

  April 2018 9382 karma

  Hi @"Do the right way"

  There are many easy videos on these concepts if you look them up!

  Here are some examples:
  

  

  Just so you know, you do not have to know the difference between Socialism and Communism to do well on RC.
• Do the right way Alum Member

  April 2018 181 karma

  Hi @akistotle

  Just so you know, you do not have to know the difference between Socialism and Communism to do well on RC

  I understood your point.

  Thank you for the links.
• 5 Likes

  Seeking Perfection Alum Member

  April 2018 edited April 2018 4428 karma

  @"Do the right way" said:
  Hi Guys,
  Can anyone explain the differences between
  Marxism
  Socialism
  Communism
  Capitalism
  Fascism
  Nazism

  Differences between these with examples or any Video explanation?
  Thanks in Advance.

  Obviously this isn't relevant to success on the LSAT, but I'll give an excessively simple explanation a spin.

  I think a historical explanation will serve you best since some of these things are(we all hope) relics of past history.

  For us Western History is going to start with Aristocracy(not because it did, but because I can only go back so far). Europe is largely broken into things called nation states whose leaders(generally monarchs) have begun to lose absolute control. The wealthiest individuals who often also had some sort of attachment to the monarchy(also known as aristocrats) are begining to wrest some control from the monarchs. This leads to a certain liberalization of trade. It's not quite capitalism, but it is much closer than ownership of everything by a single monarch.

  As a consequence of this free trade new professions begin to emerge including buying and selling the things which enable a new class other than the monarch, aristocrats, and serfs to emerge. This new class will be known as the middle class. The middle class is heavilly dependent upon trade and pushes the moves toward capitalism(basically government protected free exchange and trading of goods) as much as it can. This class is very sensitive to things like tax increases which threaten to reduce them back to the level of serfs.

  Speaking of these former serfs, it now becomes clearer that they have an alternative to living under the control of the aristocracy. They can move to the cities and try to joint the middle class. This cheaply available labor in cities along with the movements toward capitalism and technological developments fuels industrialization. This creates jobs in the cities which attract more poor people to the cities. But because of how many people are willing to work the quality of living as an industrial worker isn't great and wages are brutally low. This creates resentment among poor workers. We have introduced the idea that they are not doomed to stay poor forever, they contribute to the making of more economic value than ever before in the history of the world, and yet their lives are not getting better. In France, this boils over at one point into the French Revolution where middle class and poor people take over the country and ultimately slaughter aristocrats and others with ties to the monarchy including the clergy. The begining of the French Revolution also sees experiments with a lot of ideas including the banishment of religion, the creation of a ten day calender, and of course some of the ideas about the alienation workers feel which form some of the basis of communism.

  Next we meet Karl Marx. Marx is the root of socialism and communism which were initially basically the same as far as you need to be conserned. Marx was a political philosopher who wrote something called the Communist Manifesto urging the workers of the world(who he called the proletariot) to revolt against the owners of the means of production(factory owners he called the Bourgeoisie). At core at this time Marx believed that the material conditions of the world for the working class would eventually get so bad that the proletariot would throw off their metaphorical chains, revolt, take ownership of the means of production, and divide societies resources more equally. Marx didn't go very far into the details of how this would be achieved, but didn't seem opposed to a little political violence in the revolution. He also hated things like religion(ties to French Revolution) which he called the Opium of the Masses believing it prevented them from revolting and instead got them to suffer through really bad material conditions. Marx claimed his revolution was going to happen in industrialized countries first where conditions would become too intolerable.

  Eventually Marx died and a man named Lenin sought to put his ideas into effect. Realizing that there was not enough support in the West for such a revolution, Lenin started the revolution in Russia. During World War I, Lenin attained enough popular support to take over Russia. Lenin thought a Vanguard of the Revolution(basically some philosophical leaders to guide communism on the right course) was needed because Russia had not actually been sufficiently industrialized for the revolution to be completed there. This leads to really agressive industrialization plans as well as attempts to spread communism to the West where it should have started according to Marx. When Lenin dies, there is some in fighting over who will succeed him and ultimately Joseph Stalin does with Trotsky being exiled.

  At this same time following the destruction of World War 1 political change is afoot in Western Europe. Communism doesn't have enough political power in these countries to take over, but there are socialist parties. A split begins to emerge between the socialist parties that simply want to get elected and reform countries from within(ultimately becoming known as democratic socialists who succesfully ran many European countries after WW2) and those who want a revolution with a whole different if ill defined way of governing their countries.

  However, at this point a third possibility emerges(other than capitalism and socialism) known as Fascism. Fascism doesn't have a very well developed ideology, but some of the features of it are extreme nationalism, a belief that the government can work together with corporations for the good of the country(not really capitalism which would be letting corporations do what they want and definitely not socialism which would be elliminating private ownership of them), belief in the importance of art to culture, and belief that war is a sort of noble Darwinistic experience with the best surviving(borrowed and adapted from Nitzche). Italian Fascism spearheaded by Mussolini at first appears relatively successful at combatting the financial instability of the Great Depression. This strength and stability has broad public support. Eventually, Hitler gains control in Germany and begins implementing his own fascist regime with a heavier emphasis on anti-semitism and the purification of the Aryan race than the Italian version. This German brand of Fascism is Nazism.

  The rest you probably know. The Germans snatch up a little of Czechoslovakia through appeasment, make a deal with Stalin to divvy up Poland, attack and take over most of continental Europe including France really quick, are of course in an alliance with the Italians the whole time, stab Russia in the back, eventually stall out at Stalingrad, have an alliance with Japan because they both hate Russia, get the US drawn into the war because FDR wanted it and Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, are operating horrifying concentration camps killing Jewish people and many others throughout the war, and eventually lose with the USSR taking over from the east and the UK and US through Italy and France.This basically wipes away fascism. Both communism and socialism survive many more years with communism spreading to underdeveloped countries and democratic socialism to some Western countries. Eventually the USSR collapses(both because it tried to spend a lot on the millitary, because Communism isn't a very workable political or economic system, and because it tried to reform and created rising expectations). Most other Communist countries gradually reform or collapse. Cuba and North Korea are the main examples now since China has drifted further from Communism(though what exactly they are is hard to define now).

  Hopefully that gives it all a little clarity. Obviously this is a very simplified explanation which could be reasonably criticized, but it should give you a broad sketch you can research and criticize.
• Do the right way Alum Member

  April 2018 181 karma

  @"Seeking Perfection" You explained all the political ideologies very well. I owe you for this one. Thanks a lot for such a great explanation.
• BirdLaw818 Free Trial Member

  April 2018 553 karma

  Theyre on a spectrum and one is a more/less severe version of the other =P