Forms
Market socialism
Market socialism refers to various economic systems where the means of production are either publicly owned or cooperatively/socially owned and operated in a market economy . Depending on the specific model, the profits generated by socially owned firms could be used to directly remunerate employees, or could accrue to society at large thus becoming the source of public finance , or would be distributed amongst the population in a social dividend . [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Theoretically, the fundamental difference between market socialism and a non-market socialism is the existence of a market for the means of production and capital goods . Market socialism is distinguished from models of mixed economies, because unlike the mixed economy , models of market socialism are complete and self-regulating systems. [ 3 ] Additionally, market socialism is contrasted with social democratic policies implemented in capitalist market economies.
Cooperative
A cooperative ("coop"), co-operative ("co-op"), or coöperative ("coöp") is an autonomous association of persons who voluntarily cooperate for their mutual, social, economic, and cultural benefit. [ 1 ] Cooperatives include non-profit community organizations and businesses that are owned and managed by the people who use its services (a consumer cooperative) or by the people who work there (a worker cooperative) or by the people who live there (a housing cooperative), hybrids such as worker cooperatives that are also consumer cooperatives or credit unions, multi-stakeholder cooperatives such as those that bring together civil society and local actors to deliver community needs, and second and third tier cooperatives whose members are other cooperatives. In the United States, the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA) serves as the sector's national membership association.
Poster for the Movimiento Nacional de Empresas Recuperadas (MNER), at a worker-recovered print shop, Chilavert Artes Gráficas in Buenos Aires Worker self-management (sometimes called workers' control or autogestion ) is a form of workplace decision-making in which the workers themselves agree on choices (for issues such as customer care, general production methods, scheduling, division of labour) instead of an owner or traditional supervisor telling workers what to do, how to do it and where to do it. Examples of such self-management allegedly include the Paris Commune , the Russian Revolution , the German Revolution , the Spanish Revolution , Titoist Yugoslavia , Algeria under Ahmed Ben Bella , the Nicaraguan Revolution , the fábricas recuperadas movement in Argentina , the LIP factory in France in the 1970s, the Mondragón Cooperative Corporation which is the Basque Country 's largest corporation, AK Press [ 1 ] in the United States , the Venezuelan Revolution , [ 2 ] etc.
Workers' self-management
Mutualism
Mutualism is an economic theory and anarchist school of thought that advocates a society where each person might possess a means of production , either individually or collectively, with trade representing equivalent amounts of labor in the free market . [ 1 ] Integral to the scheme was the establishment of a mutual-credit bank that would lend to producers at a minimal interest rate, just high enough to cover administration. [ 2 ] Mutualism is based on a labor theory of value that holds that when labor or its product is sold, in exchange, it ought to receive goods or services embodying "the amount of labor necessary to produce an article of exactly similar and equal utility". [ 3 ] Mutualism originated from the writings of philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon . Mutualists oppose the idea of individuals receiving an income through loans, investments, and rent, as they believe these individuals are not laboring.
Guild socialism is a political movement advocating workers' control of industry through the medium of trade-related guilds "in an implied contractual relationship with the public". [ 1 ] It originated in the United Kingdom and was at its most influential in the first quarter of the 20th century. It was strongly associated with G. D. H.
Guild socialism
Gandhian economics is a school of economic thought based on the socio-economic principles expounded by Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi . It is largely characterised by its affinity to the principles and objectives of nonviolent humanistic socialism , but with a rejection of violent class war and promotion of socio-economic harmony. Gandhi's economic ideas also aim to promote spiritual development and harmony with a rejection of materialism . The term "Gandhian economics" was coined by J. C.
Gandhian economics
Syndicalism
Syndicalism is a type of economic system proposed as a replacement for capitalism and an alternative to state socialism , which uses Confederations of collectivised trade unions or industrial unions . It is a form of socialist economic corporatism that advocates interest aggregation of multiple non-competitive categorised units to negotiate and manage an economy. [ 1 ] For adherents, labour unions are the potential means of both overcoming economic aristocracy and running society fairly in the interest of the majority, through union democracy .
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry based upon a materialist interpretation of historical development , a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis of class-relations within society and their application in the analysis and critique of the development of capitalism . In the mid-to-late 19th century, the intellectual development of Marxism was pioneered by two German philosophers , Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels . Marxist analyses and methodologies have influenced multiple political ideologies and social movements throughout history.
Marxism
Planned economy
A planned economy is an economic system in which decisions regarding production and investment are embodied in a plan formulated by a central authority, usually by a public body such as a government agency. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Although a planned economy may be based on either centralized or decentralized forms of economic planning , it usually refers to a centrally planned economy . Central planning aims to improve productivity and coordination by enabling planners to take advantage of better information achieved through the consolidation of economic resources when making decisions regarding investment and the allocation of economic inputs. Planned economies are usually categorized as a particular variant of socialism , and have historically been supported by and implemented by Marxist-Leninist socialist states .
Libertarian socialism
Libertarian socialism (sometimes called social anarchism [ 1 ] [ 2 ] or left-libertarianism ) [ 3 ] [ 4 ] is a group of political philosophies that promote a non-hierarchical, non-bureaucratic society without private property in the means of production . Libertarian socialists believe in converting present-day private productive property into common or public goods , while retaining respect for personal property . [ 5 ] Libertarian socialism is opposed to coercive forms of social organization. It promotes free association in place of government and opposes the social relations of capitalism, such as wage labor . [ 6 ] The term libertarian socialism is used by some socialists to differentiate their philosophy from state socialism , [ 7 ] [ 8 ] and by some as a synonym for left anarchism . [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 9 ]
The Paris Commune or Fourth French Revolution ( French : La Commune de Paris , IPA: [la kɔmyn də paʁi] ) was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 (more formally, from March 28) to May 28, 1871. In a formal sense, it acted as the local authority, the city council (in French, the "commune" ), which exercised power in Paris for two months in the spring of 1871. However, the conditions in which it formed, its controversial decrees, and the indiscriminate violence with which it was brutally suppressed make its brief tenure one of the more important political episodes in the history of working class revolutions. The Paris Commune existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists , and is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution .