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Totalitarianism vs Socialism - What's the difference?

totalitarianism | socialism |

As nouns the difference between totalitarianism and socialism

is that totalitarianism is a system of government in which the people have virtually no authority and the state wields absolute control, for example, a dictatorship while socialism is the intermediate phase of social development between capitalism and full communism in Marxist theory in which the state has control of the means of production.

totalitarianism

Noun

(-)
  • A system of government in which the people have virtually no authority and the state wields absolute control, for example, a dictatorship.
  • Usage notes

    Contentious usage: precise definition, application to specific cases, and distinction from similar terms varies by author. Narrowly, a government in which everything is political and controlled by the state, coined to describe (m), in contrast to the older terms and concepts of (m), (m), and (m), which focus more on centralization of power, not its pervasiveness. Later applied to (l), to emphasize its commonalities with fascism. Sometimes considered an extreme form of (m), in other cases contrasted with it.

    References

    socialism

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • (Marxism) The intermediate phase of social development between capitalism and full communism in Marxist theory in which the state has control of the means of production.
  • Any of several later political philosophies such as libertarian socialism, democratic socialism and social democracy which do not envisage the need for full state ownership of the means of production nor transition to full communism, and which are typically are based on principles of community decision making, social equality and the avoidance of economic and social exclusion, with economic policy should giving first preference to community goals over individual ones.
  • * 1978 , , The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism , Basic Books, page xii:
  • For me, socialism is not statism, or the collective ownership of the means of production. It is a judgment on the priorities of economic policy.. the community takes precedence over the individual in legitimate economic policy. The first lien on the resources of a society therefore should be to establish that "social minimum" which would allow individuals to lead a life of self-respect, to be members of the community.

    Derived terms

    * socialist

    See also

    * capitalism * communism * Leninism * Maoism * Marxism * Stalinism * Trotskyism