Difference Between Communism and Socialism

The following table lists the difference between communism and socialism:

Basis of Difference	Communism	Socialism
Basic ideology	It opposes capitalism, and the decision-making authority is held by a central unit that represents society. Under communism, wage labor, commodity production, and the market are all abandoned.	The idea of individual freedom and equality of opportunity is available only to those who can control the means of production.
Key Proponents	Known researchers like Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Peter Kropotkin, Rosa Luxemburg, and Vladimir Lenin, propounded and supported this theory	Known researchers like Charles Hall, François-Noël Babeuf, Henri de Saint-Simon, and Louis Auguste Blanqui supported this theory.
Central idea	Here the central idea is that all the people are the same and therefore no class distinction. The government here should own all the means of production and land and also concept of private property should not exist.	Here the central idea is that all individuals should have access to necessities of consumption and public goods.
Political System	This society is stateless, classless, and is governed directly by the people. Although this has been never practiced practically and has never been achieved.	This ideology can coexist with different political systems. Most socialists uphold the idea of participatory democracy, also some advocate parliamentary democracy, whereas Marxist-Leninists advocate the idea of “Democratic centralism.”
Social Distinction	Here all types of class distinctions are eliminated. It is a society where everyone is both the owner of the means of production and their own employees.	In this school of thought the Class distinctions are diminished to a minimum level. Here status derived is more from the political distinctions as compared to class distinctions.
Religion	Here religion based distinctions are abolished. All religious and metaphysics of all sorts are rejected.	Under this society there is freedom of religion, but usually the scholars here promotes practice of secularism.
Private Ownership	The concept of property is negated and abolished. Here private ownership is replaced with the concept of commons and ownership with “usership”.	Under this society there will be two kinds of property which are Personal property, which can be houses, clothing, other personal assets etc. owned by the individual.
Means of control	Under this society theoretically there exists no state control.	Under this form of society there is involvement of government.

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Difference Between Communism and Socialism

Difference Between Communism and Socialism: The difference between Socialism and Communism is a matter of long debate. Scholars have their thoughts on the genesis and the practicality. Socialism, for the matter, seeks to bring equality among the means of production to the working class, whereas Communism takes the concepts of socialism a step further and revolutionizes the aspects of production and consumption.

In this article, we will look into the definitions, types, and examples of communism and socialism. Also, we will cover the key differences between communism and socialism.

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