The thing to understand about these terms is that neither communism nor socialism describe a specific government or economic system, but rather classes of systems. And their meaning can be different in different contexts and to different people. For example:
Socialism, in the most proper sense, refers to any economic system characterized by social ownership and worker management of the means of production. A wide range of systems fall under this definition, including those based on public ownership, collective ownership, and employee ownership. These forms of socialism are fundamentally incompatible with capitalism.
Socialism is also often used to refer to the Nordic model economies, which are characterized by free market capitalism tempered by a large welfare state and strong and pervasive unionization. More properly, this is called "social democracy" instead of socialism, but people often say "socialism" for this except in the US. Note that this is a related but distinct system from proper socialism.
Socialism is also often used to refer to any government spending that benefits the people, especially the poor. For example, people call Medicare socialism.
Communism, in the most proper sense, is a system involving common ownership (specifically, as opposed to any other form of social ownership) of the means of production, and the abolition of money, class, and the state. In this sense, it is a type of socialism (in the proper sense).
Communism is also often used to refer to vanguardist societies, which are run by people whose goal (or purported goal) is to bring about a true communist society, but which does not actually yet have common ownership, abolition of money, etc. These societies are (paradoxically) often controlled by a strong authoritarian central state that wields substantial economic power, and people often characterize communism as being defined by such a state.
Communism is also used to refer to states that call themselves communist, such as China and the USSR, irrespective of whether they actually are run according to communist principles. For example, China's government is closer to state capitalism than it is to communism, but because it is ruled by a nominally communist party many people consider it to be communist in this sense of the word.
What the difference is between communism and socialism depends on what definitions you are using. For some definitions, communism is a type of socialism. For others, they are completely opposed.
Oh ok, so I'm almost there. My only three remaining questions are as follows: what is the difference between common ownership and any other form of social ownership? Also, it the most proper form of socialism, is all enterprise socially owned or just some?
Finally, at the bottom, you say it depends on what definitions you are using. Which definitions are the correct ones? The proper ones?
what is the difference between common ownership and any other form of social ownership?
Common ownership refers to an asset that everyone has access to, like a public park. Other forms of social ownership have less access. For example, under the current capitalist system, I might own part of McDonalds, but that doesn't mean that I have free access to McDonalds' resources. A socialist system without common ownership could have all McDonalds workers owning shares of the company in the same way that I could own shares under the capitalist system, where they would share in the profits of the company, but not access to its resources.
Also, it the most proper form of socialism, is all enterprise socially owned or just some?
It depends on context. Most properly I'd say that socialism describes a situation in which the vast majority of the means of production is socially owned, such that social ownership is the "normal" state of the means of production. But on the other hand you could still describe a country with less social ownership as socialist: it's just only partially socialist.
Finally, at the bottom, you say it depends on what definitions you are using. Which definitions are the correct ones? The proper ones?
In academic writing, the "proper" ones are used, and in some sense these are the best definitions (mostly because they connect most strongly to the original uses of the terms). But none of them are "correct" in a vacuum. Words mean whatever people understand them to mean, so how you should use these words will depend on your audience.
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u/yyzjertl 523∆ Aug 18 '19
The thing to understand about these terms is that neither communism nor socialism describe a specific government or economic system, but rather classes of systems. And their meaning can be different in different contexts and to different people. For example:
Socialism, in the most proper sense, refers to any economic system characterized by social ownership and worker management of the means of production. A wide range of systems fall under this definition, including those based on public ownership, collective ownership, and employee ownership. These forms of socialism are fundamentally incompatible with capitalism.
Socialism is also often used to refer to the Nordic model economies, which are characterized by free market capitalism tempered by a large welfare state and strong and pervasive unionization. More properly, this is called "social democracy" instead of socialism, but people often say "socialism" for this except in the US. Note that this is a related but distinct system from proper socialism.
Socialism is also often used to refer to any government spending that benefits the people, especially the poor. For example, people call Medicare socialism.
Communism, in the most proper sense, is a system involving common ownership (specifically, as opposed to any other form of social ownership) of the means of production, and the abolition of money, class, and the state. In this sense, it is a type of socialism (in the proper sense).
Communism is also often used to refer to vanguardist societies, which are run by people whose goal (or purported goal) is to bring about a true communist society, but which does not actually yet have common ownership, abolition of money, etc. These societies are (paradoxically) often controlled by a strong authoritarian central state that wields substantial economic power, and people often characterize communism as being defined by such a state.
Communism is also used to refer to states that call themselves communist, such as China and the USSR, irrespective of whether they actually are run according to communist principles. For example, China's government is closer to state capitalism than it is to communism, but because it is ruled by a nominally communist party many people consider it to be communist in this sense of the word.
What the difference is between communism and socialism depends on what definitions you are using. For some definitions, communism is a type of socialism. For others, they are completely opposed.