In that event - describe socialism and how it is differentiated from communism.
The reality is that communism has never really been implemented in any nation state - certainly not in the former 'communist bloc' states!
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Its important to recognize governments dont exist in pure forms. There are no capitalist, socialist, or communist countries wholly, the reality is always a bit more nuanced.
That said, socialism is any system which advocates for the means of production (factories, resources, companies) to be community owned by those the services serve.
Communism is a type of socialism which also advocates socialized consumption (who can consume what is publicly shared, rather than based on money)
In short, Socialism is making public/socializing the means of production and communism is socializing both the means to production and consumption.
Communism, socialism, capitalism, etc has never been implemented, because pure forms of idealistic government never will and never should exist... That said these properties have been well established in countless countries.
Socialism is any system in which
@freemo
If that's your definition of socialism, the UK in the 1960s and 70s went a long way down the socialist path. Much of British industry was publicly owned - the railways, British Airways, steel making, mining, much of the automobile industry, British Telecom, The Post Office, some banks, ICL (mainframe computers) and much more!
It was a catastrophe - the nationalised industries were woefully inefficient massively overstaffed and offered nearly zero in customer service!
In the 1970s, I moved to France which had/has just as many nationalised industries but they were a paragon of efficiency - well run, profitable for the government and a delight to deal with.
I have often pondered what could be the difference between Britain and France that made Britain's nationalised industries so utterly dire and the French ones so damned good! I have concluded that it is the quality of the management.
@Paulos_the_fog It isnt “my definition” … I took those definitions from wikipedia/dictionaries and summarized.
If that’s your definition of socialism, the UK in the 1960s and 70s went a long way down the socialist path. Much of British industry was publicly owned - the railways, British Airways, steel making, mining, much of the automobile industry, British Telecom, The Post Office, some banks, ICL (mainframe computers) and much more!
Of course! As I said there are no examples of pure socialism, communism, or capitalism, because governments dont exist in ideaologically pure forms.. Yes you can find elements of all types of governments.. There is some socialism, some capitalism, and some communism in every government, and you will find plenty examples in any of them.
@freemo
Important to whom?
@Paulos_the_fog replied to the wrong comment maybe?
@freemo
Oh I think socialism has been successfully implemented - for example by most native American cultures and indeed by tribal cultures throughout the world. No such cultures would even consider allowing members of their own tribal group to starve to death or to otherwise suffer from the want of some commodity that the group has in sufficient abundance to provide them with it!
The problem in our society in the west is that a small number of people hoard all the necessities they can get their hands on to the detriment of the whole of society; not only so but they attract enormous undeserved admiration for doing so!
We live in a hideously distorted society but because we were all raised with it, we assume is right and proper that it be so.
We arent talking about "successfully implemented"... there is no "socialism" by itself.. it is one among many properties that can be adopted to varying degrees and in different ways.. there is no "This is a a socialism".
For example you have certain countries which are highly socialistic, but they are still capitalists too, and even a little communist.. it will always be a mix because you simply dont have "pure" things in the real world
@Paulos_the_fog No thats not socialism. Thats capitalism with social-welfare.. often erroneously described as socialism... stems mostly from the error americans make trying describe europe as socialist, which they are not.