Do you know the difference between socialism and communism?

socialism is more geared towards economy,and communism more geared towards politics..neither will work on a grand scale(such as the usa)..and no, liberals are not "socialist" nor "communist". neither is obama,it's all just hype.

Auntb93, yes, I KNOW the difference, because I am a survivor of the COMMUNIST-FACSIST regime of ussr.

YOU, on the other hand, have NO IDEA what a socialism in its marxist-leninist form, translated into practice, really looks like (all lowercase is intentional).

Therefore, I will give you THE ONLY correct answer, regardless of any "definition" you could search on Net or get from your teachers:

The difference between socialism and communism is in that, that communism as a utopia, proved nonviable for any significant amount of time, even under most favorable conditions (e.g., kibbutzes in democratic Israel). Thus, communism is rather an ideological than practical construct (e.g., communist party of any country, including USSR, China and Cuba).

On the other hand, socialism in practice, or, to be precise, SOME of elements of socialism "with human face" - are being used in several countries and are adjusted to those countries' leading regimes. Examples include, but are not limited to, USA, Canada, Russia, several European countries, etc., etc. The jury is still out on the "benefits" of socialism, but it looked pretty bad in national-socialist Germany of the 1930s-1940s, and is looking bleak in Europe right now.

Finally, the igeologists of totalitarianism (who trully understood socialism as is), had always referred to communism as a FINAL stage of socialism. Read any soviet-era "history" books for yourself.

I will go much firther and say this:

May dear Lord Bless ans Save my beloved America from American neolibnazis, lead by a fake and a fraud, but still a TRUE fuhrer, hussein obaminator!

AMEN, AMEN, AMEN!

Socialism is the grease used to grease the skids on the way to Communism.

Socialism is an economic system, while communism addresses both an economic and political system.

Socialism and communism are both based on the principle that the limited goods and services produced in an economy are publicly owned, planned and controlled by a centralized organization. Socialism says that the distribution should take place according to the amount of an individual's production efforts, whilst communism asserts that that goods and services should be distributed among the populace according to individuals' needs.

Communism is the believe in a classless society.

Pure Communism seeks to manage both the economy and society by ensuring that property is owned collectively, and by controlling the distribution of property in order to achieve a classless and stateless society.

Marxism is in my opinion a complete melding and joining of both Communism and Socialism.

So yes I do know the difference. Any other questions I can help you with... comrade?

They are both technically left wing ideals but very different from each other. Canada is pretty much socialist in a lot of their programs such as health care. Socialism involves everybody having an equal right to services because they contribute an equal amount, although they might make a different income. Communism is more along the lines of everybody making the same amount of money so everybody is equal.

Socialism is the transition, the pre-stage to communism. It's when the working class takes over the state and begins to transform society. Communism is the classless and stateless society.

Edit: Sweden is not socialist, I don't know where people get that idea.

@Twurzz: Most industries in Sweden are privately owned, and wage-slavery still exists. They are a capitalist country, the only difference to American capitalism is that the state does more to help the poor. I get my definitions from Marx and Lenin, I'm not sure where you get yours.

The problem is that "socialism" is pretty much a blanket term, for instance authoritarian socialism hardly resembles democratic socialism, so talking heads often call democratic socialist countries, like sweden, socialist, and their viewers automatically jump to authoritarian socialist examples, like soviet Russia as a reference point even though Sweden doesn't resemble soviet Russia in the slightest.

edit: Anna, Sweden's government completely controls certain industries... That's by definition a democratic socialist system.

I'm not sure where you got the rest of what you said either, none of it is true, socialism is the degree to which a countries government controls its economy. We're not talking about marxist theory here.

'Course I do.

Socialism is the economic and social model of common ownership of enterprise that is followed by many countries, first and foremost the Communist nations. These nations, however, view Socialism as a pre-stage to Communism, in that Socialism allows multiple parties instead of a proletarian dictatorship. But Socialism includes everything from Lenin-Marxism Communism to Social Democracy, the latter the most common model in Europe, notable because it allows free enterprise, privately owned educational and health care institutions, in addition to more classic Socialist ideas.

Of course we know, we learned that in ninth grade. Its' not like we are American. Bloody Yanks can't even tell Socialism from Liberalism.

They are different, but it's a matter of degree.

From Democrat to Liberal to Progressive to Socialist to Communist (and if not Communist some form of Dictatorship)

We used to be a country of Moderate Democrats, Moderate Republican and a few Extremist to either side.

But, lately it seems we are a Bunch of Liberals with a Liberal President and the Republicans think they have to have a Conservative President to combat him.

It's Crazy!!!!!

What is wrong with Moderation? If we keep going down the Liberal Path, Socialism is not far down the trail and we are Europe.

All it would take at that point is a Castro or Hugo Chavez, then we are in a Military Dictatorship.

Thanks for your honest question, and I tried to answer it as honestly as I see it.

EDIT: In all fairness I'd like to add the other side of the spectrum, although it has not been as prevalent in history:

Republican to Conservative to Theocracy to a Religious State governed by a "Supreme/Divine" Dictator.

Communism has never truly existed and never will due to human nature. North Korea is not communist. It has a royal family that does not call itself such, but behaves exactly like one. In fact they call themselves the DPRK, Democratic People's Republic of Korea. They are Korean and not any of the other adjectives.

The hard truth is that the current economic system we have is the best in spite of its flaws.

I think there is a huge difference between a Socialist country like Sweden and a Communist country like North Korea.

like a product, lets be rhetoric, Socialism is Lanvin , while communism is a "Butterfly" a made in China brand

so high end goods versus cheap fake goods