What is the difference between Socialism and Comminism ?
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The primary difference between communism and socialism is that communism is a political system and socialism is chiefly an economic system.
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What are the differences between socialism and communism?
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Justin Reddington, BS Civil Engineering & Psychology, Northeastern University (2017)
Answered Nov 3, 2017 · Author has 562 answers and 256.6k answer views
Originally Answered: What is the primary difference between Socialism and Communism?
There is a world of difference between them:
According to Marxist theory, there is one defining role of the State, or government, which is as a monopoly on violence. Typically, when another internal party tries to execute some kind of violence, they are met with opposition by the State.
In Capitalism, the power of the State is held by the bourgeoisie, the billionaire class; want to protest the construction of a pipeline by occupying the construction site? The State sends in the troops to back up the bourgeoisie’s claim to the land. Want a $50 pair of shoes and can’t afford it? The State has the power to forcibly arrest you and punish you for theft in order to maintain the power hierarchy where the company selling shoes has more right to all those shoes than you do
In Socialism, this power hierarchy gets switched. The State still exists, but its power is held by the working class. The employees of the energy companies decide where to build, what to design (helped by natural systems of supply and demand). The State’s purpose, then, is the same as before, maintaining that power structure, except in this case, there would be a support network available to people who can’t afford shoes, and no theft would be necessary for a struggling individual to have what they need. The State would be called upon then, in instances where somebody tried to claim total ownership over a shared enterprise (e.g. somebody single handedly collecting all the profits from the shoe vendors without distributing it to other employees with equal stakes in the company’s future).
In Communism, The State ceases to exist (remember, the defining attribute of the State is as a monopoly on violence; having no State is not equivalent to having no government, and to be clear, administrative aspects of the government would still be operating and functioning as such). If you need a pair of shoes, you head over to the shoe store, and you pick a pair out; you’re probably allotted a certain number of pairs of shoes each year to have, and can choose any style you want, so long as you haven’t been going there every day. There is no theft, because you have an equal right to own shoes as everyone else, and the people who make the shoes are compensated appropriately by having access to the same commodities as you, even though they make and sell shoes rather than perform data analysis.
Soooo, the main difference between Socialism and Communism? Socialism still needs to have a militarized State in order to prevent people from stealing profits from everyone else, while Communism has no need for such an entity because everyone has systematic access to everything that exists.
Neither has really ever existed. The USSR tried to be Communist for about 2–3 years, but then Stalin opted to take power, and it became, in essence, another feudal dictatorship.
The rich and influential people of our world have always tried to take power for themselves by seeping into the government, and because of this, the State, whether that be in the US, the USSR, Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania, North or South America, has always protected the interests of the wealthiest individuals among society.
Neither Socialism or Communism has dictators. In fact, the second a government is led by a dictator, it cannot be socialist or communist by definition.
We have nothing to lose but our chains
Still have a question? Ask your own!
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72 ANSWERS

Justin Reddington, BS Civil Engineering & Psychology, Northeastern University (2017)
Answered Nov 3, 2017 · Author has 562 answers and 256.6k answer views
Originally Answered: What is the primary difference between Socialism and Communism?
There is a world of difference between them:
According to Marxist theory, there is one defining role of the State, or government, which is as a monopoly on violence. Typically, when another internal party tries to execute some kind of violence, they are met with opposition by the State.
In Capitalism, the power of the State is held by the bourgeoisie, the billionaire class; want to protest the construction of a pipeline by occupying the construction site? The State sends in the troops to back up the bourgeoisie’s claim to the land. Want a $50 pair of shoes and can’t afford it? The State has the power to forcibly arrest you and punish you for theft in order to maintain the power hierarchy where the company selling shoes has more right to all those shoes than you do
In Socialism, this power hierarchy gets switched. The State still exists, but its power is held by the working class. The employees of the energy companies decide where to build, what to design (helped by natural systems of supply and demand). The State’s purpose, then, is the same as before, maintaining that power structure, except in this case, there would be a support network available to people who can’t afford shoes, and no theft would be necessary for a struggling individual to have what they need. The State would be called upon then, in instances where somebody tried to claim total ownership over a shared enterprise (e.g. somebody single handedly collecting all the profits from the shoe vendors without distributing it to other employees with equal stakes in the company’s future).
In Communism, The State ceases to exist (remember, the defining attribute of the State is as a monopoly on violence; having no State is not equivalent to having no government, and to be clear, administrative aspects of the government would still be operating and functioning as such). If you need a pair of shoes, you head over to the shoe store, and you pick a pair out; you’re probably allotted a certain number of pairs of shoes each year to have, and can choose any style you want, so long as you haven’t been going there every day. There is no theft, because you have an equal right to own shoes as everyone else, and the people who make the shoes are compensated appropriately by having access to the same commodities as you, even though they make and sell shoes rather than perform data analysis.
Soooo, the main difference between Socialism and Communism? Socialism still needs to have a militarized State in order to prevent people from stealing profits from everyone else, while Communism has no need for such an entity because everyone has systematic access to everything that exists.
Neither has really ever existed. The USSR tried to be Communist for about 2–3 years, but then Stalin opted to take power, and it became, in essence, another feudal dictatorship.
The rich and influential people of our world have always tried to take power for themselves by seeping into the government, and because of this, the State, whether that be in the US, the USSR, Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania, North or South America, has always protected the interests of the wealthiest individuals among society.
Neither Socialism or Communism has dictators. In fact, the second a government is led by a dictator, it cannot be socialist or communist by definition.
We have nothing to lose but our chains
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