How is socialism different from fascism and communism?

Question

Or isn't there a difference. You guys helped a lot with my socialism, capitalism, and libertarianism question. I know that Italy and Germany had fascism during WWII, and Soviet Union and countries around there had communism, I just can't tell if there is a difference.

Answer 1

Actual socialism as has been practiced in much of Europe for the past 50 years, arranges the laws and government so the most people can have the best life. And it Democratically decides what the priorities are.

The government acts like an insurance company against bad things that can happen to anyone, from medical problems or injuries, to loss of a job to an old age pension.

The Government also acts as a policeman, not just against street crimes but corporate crimes as well, making sure everyone is treated fairly.

They put a lot of money into education, because if a person is well educated they can help everyone, not just do well for themselves. Likewise with roads, hospitals, trains etc. because everyone can have need of these things.

By contrast Fascism, and Communism too, the way they actually did it ,(as opposed to what they said), was just a bunch of rich cronies on top, sucking off all the benefits of peoples work, making people live under terrible conditions. with what they did not steal.

As they do not care what their people think, they do not believe in democracy, and could not win an honest vote that people understood the issues in any case..

So under Socialism there are very few people very poor or extremely rich, and a very large middle class.

Under Fascism and Communism there is almost no Middle Class and most people are very poor, but a very few in charge are obscenely rich.

Answer 2

Cuba, is a Communist country. Sweden is a Social democracy. Some would argue that Israel,Rwanda,Somalia and all of those fromer Yugoslavian countries that had ethnic cleansing and religous-ethnic wars are fascist.

The difference between Russia when it was a Communist state versus Germany and Italy when they were fascist are;
Germany had laws that stripped certain religous-ethnic minorities of their basic human rights like health care,the right to vote,talk against the government,to own property or any kind of material wealth or capital and ultimately the right to live and procreate.
Communist Russia started out as a civil war against the ruling minority. Supposedly Communism was supposed to re distribute wealth evenly among everyone. It never worked perfectly. The system was always corrupt. But, there was no concentrated hatred and plans to exterminate smaller and weaker ethnic groups living in Russia. The Soviet Union has the word Union in it. So, they united all of those countries that are now separate. They all learned the same language in school; Russian. That was a good thing. They had one official language.

Answer 3

Socialism is capitalism with heavy taxation and welfare.

Communism is total state control of the economy.

Fascism is totalitarian control of the state, favoring certain ethnic or religious or national interests.

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Examples:

The United States is socialist. We have a bloated bureaucracy running way more than the Constitution intended it to. But we also have capitalism, because of market economics and private ownership of property.

Iran is fascist. They favor a religion and ethnicity.

China is communist. The ruling party controls the entire nation and allows little private wealth.

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Beware: Fascist is an over-used and loaded word with a negative connotation. It is also frequently misused to describe non-fascist political parties in the United States, as a slanderous term.

Communism is an economic theory, not a form of government, per se. You could have a monarchistic communism, or a democratic one. Whoever is the "ruling" party is the government, who then directs the economy.

Socialism is also a misused term. Any form of direct tax on people (income tax, property tax) is inherently socialist, because it implies there is no such thing as completely private ownership of money or property, especially wages. If you truly owned your property, you would not owe the government anything. If you owned your wealth, the government could not tax it.

Sales taxes and trade taxes are inherently different from direct taxes on property or wages. One can be avoided, the other cannot.

Answer 4

Socialism is a general idea of larger government intervention, especially in wealth redistribution and central direction/control of economic power. Fascism can pretty much be called corporatism, in that the dictator seeks to control the population more through morality/societal factors rather than by economic factors. The economy is pretty much left to "dog-eat-dog" capitalism, wherein the biggest players make all the rules. Communism is socialism, except theoretically, it ends in the dissolution of government at the end, as people will supposedly not need a central governmental bureaucracy to direct the economy.

Answer 5

fascism and communism are both forms of socialism. socialism is the idea that people are obligated to work for the common good.

fascism is where the businesses own the means of production but the state directs the use of those means. The fascist state is a nationalist state of exaggerated patriotism.

Communism is where the state owns the production. Here, the ideology is, from each according to his means to each according to his needs.

The downfalls are predictable in terms of encouraging production and entrepreneurship..

Answer 6

fascism is a few in control of all wealth and economy......

socialism is just redistributing wealth from the upper class to the lower class and limiting the power of corporations over government

communism is eqaul distribution of wealth, with no regard to individual success......

Answer 7

Socialism wants to redistribute wealth. Communism wants it kept within a small circle of ruling class.

Answer 8

They all have big (bad) governments, but fascism allows private property.

Liberals are not fascist, but they fascist ideas are closer to liberal ideas than conservative ideas, so liberals should do themselves a favor by not refering to conservative Republicans as Nazis.