What is "socialism"? The word "socialism" comes from Latin, which is derived from the word socialis and the word socius, meaning primitive society, common and collective life. About the earliest use of the word "socialism", there are usually three statements. The first view is that Anselm Desing, a German theologian and a Catholic Benedictine priest, was the first to call people who follow the laws of nature socialists when arguing with people in 1753. The second view holds that the word "socialism" was first used by Italian missionaries, indicating a legendary system arranged by God. Later, it was linked with the proletarian liberation movement and gained political significance. The third view holds that the word "socialism" first appeared in1Owen's Cooperation magazine and Saint-Simon Globe magazine in the 1920s and 1930s. Utopian socialists use this word to express their collective ideals that they are dissatisfied with the individualism prevailing in capitalist society and expect to realize. From 1930s to 1940s, the word "socialism" was widely circulated in Western Europe. At first, the word meant reforming the social system to improve the welfare of working people, ensure social peace and allow property inequality. At that time, the term "communism" generally referred to the establishment of social equality through public ownership of means of production (sometimes including means of subsistence) and advocated the abolition of property inequality. Therefore, proletarian revolutionary instructors sometimes refer to utopian socialism and utopian communism before scientific socialism as "socialism", and sometimes distinguish them. Marx and Engels used the word "socialism" and made a scientific explanation, which turned socialism from fantasy into science. After the proletariat began its independent political struggle, the bourgeoisie often used "socialism" to oppose class struggle and proletarian revolution. Engels once pointed out: "1847, socialism is a bourgeois movement, while communism is a working class movement." 18421October15th, Marx wrote the article "Communism and General Report of augsburg", 1843, Engels wrote the article "Progress of Social Reform Movement on the Mainland", which respectively used the word "socialism" for the first time and gave it scientific meaning. However, at that time, Marx and Engels regarded socialism as a synonym for communism. Since then, "socialism", as the name of ideological trend, usually refers to scientific socialism, which is a theory about the conditions of proletarian liberation, that is, a science about the general law of eliminating all classes and realizing communism. However, "socialism" still has various meanings and usages. In the * * * Declaration, Marx and Engels classified the socialist ideological trend popular in Europe except scientific socialism in the middle of19th century as reactionary socialism (including feudal socialism, petty-bourgeois socialism and "real" socialism, bourgeois socialism and critical utopian socialism). In 1970s, the word "socialism" began to appear in Japanese and China books and periodicals. 1870, Japanese scholar Hiroyuki Kato transliterated the western word "socialism" with Japanese katakana, 187 1 year, which was translated into "Editorial of Hundred Schools" in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and 1878, which was first translated into "by Fukuchi Genichiro in Chinese characters. China's western language magazine 1878 was transliterated as "sosialis", and World Bulletin 1899 was translated as "learning for the people" and "learning for the people". From 190 1 year to 1902, Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao were translated into "On People Clouds" and "People Clouds". Liang Qichao transplanted the word "socialism" which was widely used in Japan at that time from 18 of Xinmin Cong Bao published on September 25th, 902. Since then, the word "socialism" has gradually been used in China's books and periodicals. Liang Qichao was the first person to introduce the socialist theory to China, and Li Dazhao was the first person to spread the scientific socialist theory in China. There is no exact definition of capitalism, and different economists have different definitions of capitalism. Generally speaking, capitalism refers to a system of economics or economic sociology, in which most of the means of production are privately owned and profits are created through wage labor. In this system, goods and services circulate in the free market with the help of money. Investment decisions are made by private individuals, and production and sales are mainly controlled by companies and businesses, which compete with each other and take actions according to their own interests. Sociologist Max Weber defines capitalism as a social system in which "industries that provide human needs are realized by enterprises". In 1920, he put forward a broader definition, which includes what Marx called commercial and usurious capital in the "ancient" period, as well as profits made by opportunities (such as speculation)-not just direct commercial activities. Some people think that it is incorrect to call modern major industrial economies "capitalism" because there is a certain degree of government intervention in these economic systems. For example, many people think that the American market is far from real "freedom", so it is more correct to call it a mixed economy. However, some people still think that the American economy is capitalist and the British economy is a "mixed economy", or that the Hong Kong economy is capitalist and the American economy is a mixed economy, and so on. , depending on their views on economic freedom in these areas. Robert Hessen, an economic and business historian, said: "A completely free economy (truly laissez-faire) has never existed, but since the18th century, especially after the great economic panic, the control of government power on economic activities has risen sharply ... Today, the United States used to be a bastion of capitalism, but it is actually a" mixed economy ",and the government subsidizes the economy without transparency and consistency. Economists of the Austrian School of Economics also adopted a similar definition. They believe that the current economic system is mostly capitalist-sometimes called crony capitalism. Similarly, some people use the word "laissez-faire capitalism" to distinguish "ordinary capitalism" and think that there is a difference between the two. Some people think that the word "laissez-faire capitalism" is unnecessary, because the general definition of capitalism has clearly pointed out that there must be "free market" trade. Many Marxists, anarchists, green organizations and anti-globalization advocates believe that in a capitalist society, when the bourgeoisie is the ruling class, these ruling classes will not protect the free market, but will give priority to protecting the owners and companies of those capitals. Noam Chomsky thought: "Capitalism never existed. If there is, it has already disappeared in 1920s and 1930s. "Liberals and other supporters of the free market may also agree with this view. However, even in the United States in the18th century, the production and sales of products were controlled by government departments, and the government subsidized agriculture, and economic intervention continued in the19th century. Supporters of the world system theory believe that the world has been integrated into the capitalist world economy, and even socialist countries (such as Cuba) have cooperated with the capitalist world economy. Some mainstream economists also believe that the current economic system has been divorced from the early form of "capitalism", but some people think that some modern economies can still be called "capitalism". {Similarities and differences between socialism and capitalism} The superstructure of socialism and capitalism is different. Politically, the essence of the socialist political system is that the people are the masters of the country, and all state power belongs to the people. Capitalist countries implement "multi-party system" and "parliamentary system", ostensibly speaking, freedom, democracy and equality, but in essence, monopoly capital manipulates elections with money, and then controls the government and its decision-making in order to seek favorable policies and systems. In 2000 alone, the campaign funds of the democratic and Republican parties in the United States reached as high as $3 billion, and almost all American governments after the war were "rich cabinets." "From the ideological point of view, the economic system with public ownership as the main body and the socialist political system with the people as the masters of the country as the core determine that socialist culture is a national, scientific and popular culture, and its goal is to cultivate new people with' four haves'. Capitalist culture based on private ownership advocates absolute individualism and egoism, and the supremacy of personal interests is the core of bourgeois values. Individualism, hedonism and money supremacy prevail in TV, movies and literary books, and social problems such as drug abuse, murder and homosexuality are becoming more and more serious. In international relations, capitalist powers are pursuing hegemonism and power politics in politics under the guise of "human rights"; Economically, relying on its abundant capital and advanced technology, using the process of "globalization" to expand the exploitation of developing countries; In international military action, its "national interests" can be seen everywhere, which fully exposes the essence of capitalist extreme egoism. /GB/PLA daily/2002/03/20/20020320001088 _ gdyl.htmlSimilarities and differences between socialism and capitalism I. Basic definitions Capitalism and socialism are political concepts that people cannot get rid of. Philosophers once had a strict definition of what capitalism and socialism are, that is, capitalism and socialism are two fundamentally opposite social systems, capitalist society = private ownership of means of production+market regulation+bourgeois regime, and socialist society = public ownership of means of production+planned regulation+proletarian regime. Second, the fundamental purpose The fundamental purpose of capitalist society is to continuously meet the capital interests by safeguarding people's material and cultural needs. The fundamental purpose of socialist society is to continuously meet people's material and cultural needs by safeguarding capital interests. 3. Basic Contradictions The contradiction between private capitalists and laborers, that is, the contradiction between labor and capital, is not only the basic contradiction in capitalist society, but also the basic contradiction in socialist society. What about the basic contradictions in socialist society? This is determined by the serious defects of public capital. Public capital has at least the following three serious defects. First, the managers of public capital are not natural owners of public capital, so the profit and loss of public capital cannot be directly and equally linked to the immediate interests of their managers. Second, for public capital, there must be a standardized management team, which requires public capital to have a certain scale, otherwise public capital can not afford the corresponding variable costs in management. Third, when the market supply and demand situation changes, the managers of public capital often can't adjust their business strategies in time, which will inevitably make capital interests suffer unnecessary losses. Four. Solve the contradiction between labor and capital 1. Solve the contradiction between labor and capital in capitalist society. First, a political solution. That is, the consortium party political system and universal suffrage system that implement multi-party rotation system. Second, technical resolution. That is to increase the absolute income of workers through technical means, thus reducing the pressure of their survival and development. The main way is to make the cake of the national economy bigger. As the cake gets bigger, the number of cakes that workers can share is also increasing. 2. One of the ways to solve the contradiction between labor and capital in socialist society is political settlement. That is, the contradiction between labor and capital is forcibly resolved through state power. Including fair wages and social welfare. Second, technical resolution. That is, to increase the absolute profit or relative profit of private capital by reducing the cost, so as to solve the contradiction between labor and capital. V. National Happiness People in developed capitalist countries generally feel happy, people in underdeveloped capitalist countries basically have no happiness, and people in socialist countries generally feel happy. 6. Socialism is superior to capitalism because capitalism should give priority to protecting the interests of private capital and socialism should promote equal and fair social distribution; Capitalism practices consortium party politics, while socialist society practices state party politics. Seven, the socialist society does not need to go through the transition of capitalist society. The reason is that socialist countries can develop their national economy rapidly by means of planning. When the national economy develops to ensure national security, basically has the industrial base needed for socialized mass production, and basically ensures the food and clothing needs of all citizens, we can enter the modern socialist society through political and economic system reform. 8. Capitalism is not suitable for China. First, the supply and demand of labor has a great alleviation or aggravation on capital exploitation. Second, social employment is fundamentally not subject to the decline of social consumption demand or social investment demand, but to the amount of resources. Third, China's basic national conditions are a large population and a shortage of resources per capita. Capitalism and socialism are sworn enemies, and the capitalist society needs socialist transformation. Although socialism is superior to capitalism, it is not the best choice for all countries. Whether a country should practice socialism or capitalism depends on its specific situation. /Doc/show.asp？ id=23453。 page 2