What do Scandinavia, Bernie Sanders, and the Soviet Union have in common? Each of them uses socialism as a political anchor of their ideal societies. This word is going around in popular culture and political discourse as both a pejorative and a compliment. However, how can the same system be behind both the Nazi party and Finland’s world-class education system? What exactly is socialism?

Socialism Simple Definition:

Well in its most simple form, socialism is when a population collectively owns and controls the means of production and distributes the end result proportionally. In practice, however, control is usually delegated to the state while the distribution usually comes in the form of underlying social welfare to satisfy everyone’s basic needs such as housing, education, and Healthcare. The end of all-purpose is to guarantee a Level Playing Field for all members of society. Thereby removing class distinctions based on ownership.

Socialism vs Capitalism:

An example of the distinction between the popular economic theory to date is Capitalism. In a capitalistic society such as the US, high-quality education is expensive. Only those who can afford high-quality education are generally given better opportunities. While those who can’t, are forced to compete at a material disadvantage. This leads to class inequality not on the basis of Talent OR Merit but on generational wealth. By comparison, there are countries like Finland, where high-quality education is free for everyone. Everyone is given the same opportunity to succeed or fail regardless of their financial status.

100% Socialism is impossible

It is important to note that 100% socialist countries don’t exist in today’s day and age. There are only countries with differentiated socio-economic systems with socialist undertones for the most essential Goods. Even the Union of Soviet Socialist republics has been called a far cry from real socialism. Even true Nordic countries which employ socialist programs are combined with a capitalist economy. If this is the case why are the Nordic countries doing so well while Russia is still recovering?

Social Democracy vs Marxism/Leninism

Like any political system, socialism has a countless number of variations. The two most dominant are social democracy as practiced by Sweden and Bernie Sanders, and the Marxism-Leninism form of Socialism used by the Soviet Union, China, and Cuba. As social democracy generally prioritizes improving quality of life through equal rights and opportunities by a state-run welfare system on top of a capitalist economy. On the other hand, Marxism-Leninism prioritizes the infallibility of its dictatorship government, the rationale is that any benefit to the state would also be a benefit for the people. However, in practice, this has meant that the ruling party can massively depreciate the population standard of living for the good of the state. Although both strive for similar utopian socialist goals the way they approach them is very different.

Socialism along with its logical extreme communism may be backed by rational Theory, but they also require rational practice. Socialist democracies are the happiest countries in the world, whereas socialist-leaning countries like China and Cuba suffer from terrible human rights abuses like modern slavery and censorship. Maybe the best way is not to trust anyone using the word socialism to describe a radically different political Theory. Just because salad is in the name doesn’t make fruit salad, potato salad, and Caesar salad the same thing!