Socialism

Question 0

Utopianism

Answer 0

A belief in the unlimited possibilities of human development, typically embodied in the vision of a perfect or ideal society, a utopia

Question 1

Capitalism

Answer 1

An economic system in which wealth is owned by private individuals or businesses and goods are produced for exchange, according to the dictates of the market

Question 2

Communism

Answer 2

The principle of the common ownership of wealth, or a system of comprehensive collectivisation; communism is often viewed as ‘Marxism in practice’

Question 3

Social democracy

Answer 3

A moderate and reformist brand of socialism that favours a balance between the market and the state, rather than the abolition of capitalism

Question 4

Labourism

Answer 4

A tendency exhibited by socialist parties to serve the interests of the organised labour movement rather than pursue broader ideological goals

Question 5

Fraternity

Answer 5

Literally, brotherhood; bonds of sympathy and comradeship between and amongst human beings

Question 6

Cooporation

Answer 6

Working together: collective effort intended to achieve mutual benefit

Question 7

Egalitarianism

Answer 7

A theory or practice based on the desire to promote equality; egalitarianism is sometimes seen as the belief that equality is the primary political value

Question 8

Collectivization

Answer 8

The abolition of private property and the establishment of a comprehensive system of common or public ownership, usually through the mechanisms of the state

Question 9

Progressive taxation

Answer 9

A system of taxation in which the rich pay a higher proportion of their income in tax than the poor

Question 10

Social class

Answer 10

A social division based on economic or social factors; a social class is a group of people who share a similar socio-economic position

Question 11

Bourgeoisie

Answer 11

A Marxist term donating the ruling class of a capitalist society, the owners of productive wealth

Question 12

Proletariat

Answer 12

A Marxist term donating a class that subsists through the sale of its labour power; strictly speaking, the proletariat is not equivalent to the manual working class

Question 13

Fundamentalist socialism

Answer 13

A form of socialism that seeks to abolish capitalism and replace it with a qualitatively different kind of society

Question 14

Nationalization

Answer 14

The extension of state or public ownership over private assets industries, either individual enterprises or the entire economy (often called collectivisation)

Question 15

State socialism

Answer 15

A form of socialism in which the state controls and directs economic life, acting, in theory, in the interests of the people

Question 16

Mixed economy

Answer 16

An economy in which there is a mixture of publicly owned and privately owned industries

Question 17

Revolutionist socialism

Answer 17

A form of socialism that has revised its critique of capitalism and seeks to reconcile greater social justice with surviving capitalist forms

Question 18

Revolution

Answer 18

Fundamental and irreversible change, often a brief but dramatic period of upheaval; systematics change

Question 19

Bourgeois state

Answer 19

A Marxist term donating a state that is bound to the interests of the bourgeoisie, and so perpetuates a system of an equal class power

Question 20

Gradualism

Answer 20

Progress brought about by gradual, piecemeal improvements, rather than dramatic upheaval; change through legal and peaceful reform

Question 21

Eurocommunist

Answer 21

A form of deradicalised communism, most influential in the 1970s, which attempted to blend Marxism with liberal democratic principles

Question 22

Underclass

Answer 22

A classification of people who suffer from multiple forms of deprivation, and so are socially, politically and culturally marginalised

Question 23

Bourgeois ideology

Answer 23

A Marxist term donating ideas and theories that serve the interests of the bourgeoisie by disguising the contradictions of the capitalist society

Question 24

Class consciousness

Answer 24

In Marxist term donating an accurate awareness of class interests and a willingness to pursue them; a class-conscious class is a class-for-itself

Question 25

Dialectical materialism

Answer 25

The crude and deterministic form of Marxism that dominated intellectual life in orthodox Communist states

Question 26

Historical materialism

Answer 26

A Marxist theory that holds that material or economic conditions ultimately secure law, politics, cultural and other aspects of social existence

Question 27

Dialectic

Answer 27

A Process of development in which interaction between two opposing forces leads to a further or higher stage; historical change resulting from internal contradictions within a society

Question 28

Alienation

Answer 28

To be separated from one’s genuine or essential nature; used by Marxists to describe the process whereby, under capitalism, labour is reduced to being a mere commodity

Question 29

Ruling class

Answer 29

The Marxist term donating the class that owns the means of production, and so wields economic and political power

Question 30

Surplus value

Answer 30

In Marxist term denoting the value that is extracted from the labour of the proletariat by the mechanism of capitalist exploitation

Question 31

Social Revolution

Answer 31

A qualitative change in the structure of society; for Marxists a social revolution involves a change in the mode of production and the system of ownership

Question 32

Dictatorship of the proletariat

Answer 32

A Marxist term donating the transitionary phase between the collapse of capitalism and the establishment of full communism, characterised by the establishment proletarian State

Question 33

Leninism

Answer 33

Lenin’s theoretical contributions to Marxism, notably his belief in the need for a revolutionary or vanguard party to raise the proletariat to class consciousness

Question 34

Democratic centralism

Answer 34

The Leninist principle of party organisation, based on a supposed balance between freedom of discussion and strict unity of action

Question 35

Stalinism

Answer 35

A centrally planned economy supported by systematic and brutal political oppression based on the structures of Stalin’s Russia

Question 36

Neo-Marxism

Answer 36

An updated and revised form of Marxism that rejects determinism the primacy of economic’s and the privileged status of the proletariat

Question 37

New left

Answer 37

An ideological movement that sought to revitalise socialist thought by developing a radical critique of advanced industrial society, stressing the need for decentralisation, participation and personal liberation

Question 38

Humanism

Answer 38

A philosophy that gives moral priority to the satisfaction of human needs and aspirations

Question 39

Social justice

Answer 39

A morally justifiable distribution of wealth, usually implying a commitment to greater equality

Question 40

Revisionism

Answer 40

The revision or reworking of a political theory that departs from earlier in interpretation in an attempt to present a ‘corrected’ view

Question 41

Managerialism

Answer 41

The theory that a governing class of managers, technocrats and state officials – those who possess technical and administrative skills – dominates both capitalist and communist societies

Question 42

Third way

Answer 42

The notion of an alternative form of economics to both state socialism and free-market capitalism, sought at different times by Conservatives, socialists and fascists

Question 43

Knowledge economy

Answer 43

An economy in which knowledge is supposedly the key source of competitiveness and productivity, especially in the form of information and communication technology

Question 44

Social inclusion

Answer 44

The acquisition of rights, skills and opportunities that enable citizens to participate fully in their society

Question 45

Competition state

Answer 45

A state whose principal role is to pursue strategies for national prosperity in conditions of intensifying global competition