Socialism Key Definitions Flashcards
(25 cards)
Fraternalism
CORE: The belief in brotherhood and mutual support between people, encouraging unity and cooperation rather than competition.
Equality of Opportunity
CORE: The idea that everyone should have the same starting chances in life, regardless of background.
Comradeship
REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALISM: A sense of shared struggle and mutual loyalty among working people, especially in political or class-based movements.
Equality of Outcome
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY AND REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALISM: The belief that people should have similar living conditions and life chances, not just starting points.
Solidarity
CORE: Unity and collective responsibility among individuals, especially among the working class.
Common Ownership
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY, REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALISM: Ownership of the means of production (factories, land, etc.) by the community or state instead of private individuals.
Collectivism
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY, REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALISM: The practice or principle of giving a group priority over each individual in it.
‘Robin Hood’ Principle
REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALISM: The idea of taking wealth from the rich (through tax or redistribution) and giving it to the poor.
Alienation
REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALISM: Marxist concept describing how workers become disconnected from the product of their labour, their work, and themselves under capitalism.
Exploitation
REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALISM: The Marxist idea that capitalists profit by paying workers less than the value of their labour.
‘Homo-Faber’
REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALISM: Latin for “man the maker”; the Marxist idea that humans find meaning through creative labour and transforming nature.
Class solidarity
REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALISM, SOCIAL DEMOCRACY: The belief that members of the working class must unite to resist exploitation and achieve social change.
Altruism
CORE: The belief in acting in the interest of others, not just oneself; tied to the idea that humans are naturally cooperative.
Dictatorship of the Proletariat
REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALISM: Marxist idea of a temporary working-class state that suppresses the bourgeoisie during the transition to communism.
‘Illusions of choice’
REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALISM: The Marxist idea that under capitalism, people appear to have freedom, but real control lies with the ruling class.
Welfare state
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY, THIRD WAY: A system in which the government provides social services (healthcare, education, pensions) to reduce inequality.
Social Justice
CORE: The fair distribution of wealth, power, and opportunities in society.
Humanism
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY: A belief in the value, dignity, and potential of all human beings, often linked to freedom, rationality, and cooperation
Pluralist Society
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY, THIRD WAY: A society that includes multiple groups, values, and identities coexisting peacefully and participating politically.
Capitalism
THIRD WAY: An economic system based on private ownership and profit. Socialists critique it for producing inequality and exploitation
Keynesian Economics
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY: The economic theory that governments should intervene in the economy through spending and taxation to manage demand and prevent recession.
Individualism
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY AND THIRD WAY: The belief in personal independence and self-reliance. Often seen as opposed to collectivism.
‘Market with a heart’
THIRD WAY: Third Way idea that free markets can be combined with compassion, welfare, and social justice.
Rewording of Clause IV of the Labour Party
THIRD WAY: In 1995, Tony Blair changed Labour’s commitment from “common ownership of the means of production” to a focus on “opportunity, not dependency,” modernising the party’s ideology.
