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PROJECT REPORT ON:

SOCIALIST PATTERN OF SOCIETY

TABLE OF CONTENTS


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .......3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY....4
OBJECT.5
INTRODUCTION.........................................................6
SOCIALISM: KARL MARX AND FRIEDRICH ENGELS.7
ORIGIN OF SOCIALISM9
MAIN FEATURES OF THE SOCIALIST PATTERN OF SOCIETY..10
MERITS OR ADVANTAGES OF SOCIALIST PATTERN OF SOCIETY12
DEMERITS OR DISADVANTAGES OF SOCIALIST PATTERN OF SOCIETY.13
CONCLUSION....14
BIBLIOGRAPHY..........15



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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The Objective of this project is to examine the Socialist Pattern of Society
This paper is descriptive and analytical in nature. Secondary and Electronic resources have been
largely used to gather information and data about the topic.
Books and other reference as guided by Faculty of Political Science have been primarily helpful
in giving this project a firm structure. Websites, dictionaries and articles have also been referred.
Footnotes have been provided wherever needed to acknowledge the source.













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OBJECT
The object of this compilation is to-
1. Study the Socialist Pattern of Society
2. To study its importance.
3. To study its demerits.
4. To know about its history.
















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INTRODUCTION
Socialist (also known as communist) societies constitute a class of twentieth-century societies
sharing two distinctive features: the political dominance of a revolutionary, usually a Communist
Party, and widespread nationalization of means of production, with consequent preponderance of
state and collective property. This definition excludes societies governed by socialist or social-
democratic parties in multi-party systems.
Socialist societies came into being with the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and the establishment of
the Soviet Union. Others founded later by various means (revolution, conquest, or annexation)
all reflected the influence, both negative and positive, of the Soviet model created under Lenin
and Stalin. All employed extensive coercion and central control, yet they increased living
standards, access to housing, employment, education, and medical care. Although they instituted
new hierarchies, they also promoted gender equality and improved life-chances for many
disadvantaged people.
Under Political Science, there are many theories regarding the society or the development and
kinds of State. Socialist pattern of society is one of those theories.
Further in this compilation we will deal as what the socialist patter of society actually is and how
it looks upon the state and its individuals.
Socialist regards the State as a positive good. Therefore, instead of minimum possible State
action, they want the maximum of it. They believe that this is the only way by which social
justice can be made possible for the bulk of mankind. They aim at a cooperative common
wealth controlling all due means of production and regulating distribution according to some
method of joint control. Under socialist state there would be a common ownership of the means
of production and exchange-and wages would be according to needs. Some socialists advocate
equal distribution, others equitable distribution. Accordingly the Socialist State is formed.



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Chapter I
SOCIALISM: KARL MARX AND FRIEDRICH ENGELS
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were the founders of modern socialism and communism.
Together they authored the Communist Manifesto, published in 1848, and collaborated on
Marx's famous work Das Kapital, in which he analyzed economic and social history. Marx and
Engels' ideas came to be known as 'Marxism', which greatly influenced the development of
socialist ideas.
Marx used the words 'bourgeois' and 'proletarian' to describe different classes in society. The
bourgeois referred to the class of capitalists owners of factories and employers of wage
labourers. The proletariat was the class of wage labourers who didn't produce things of their
own, selling their labour in order to live. The term 'socialism' refers to a theory of government
where the state owns and administers all production and distribution of goods. There is no
private property.
Marx believed that state control of production (socialism) was a necessary first step. Workers
would need re-education under socialism to move them away from selfish capitalist ideas, and
this might take many years of state control. But eventually a country could move to true
communism, where the 'state' would disappear. His critics, who wanted to see a communist
society established right away, argued that once there was a centralized state in control, those
rulers would not willingly give up their power. History has proved these critics correct. Both
Marx and Engels believed that the ruling classes would never willingly give up their control of
society to a socialist government, and that revolution would be necessary. They felt that the
following steps would be necessary for the purpose-
1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital
and an exclusive monopoly.
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6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into
cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a
common plan.
8. Equal obligation of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction
between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its
present form. Combination of education with industrial production.
These ideas brought a lot of changes in the society and gave rise to a totally new concept of state
from the one prevalent at that time. It focused on development of society as whole rather than
development of individual. Hence the theory contains a great importance.
Two Schools of Thoughts
After the death of Karl Marx in 1883, Marxism underwent qualitative changes and his followers
were divided into two groups- the orthodox or revolutionary socialists and the revisionists were
evolutionary socialists who propounded the cause of evolutionary socialism. The orthodox or
revolutionary socialists claimed to be the true socialists and inheritors or Marxism. On the other
hand the Revisionists or the evolutionary socialists also pointed out the shortcomings of the
original philosophy. They accept Marx as their source the inspiration but interpreted the Marxian
theory in a manner that Marxian lost all its revolutionary zeal, favour and character.
1







1
Urmila Sharma, S.K. Sharma, Principles and Theory of Political Science, Atlantic Publishers and Distributers (P)ltd,
p. 493, 2000
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Chapter II
ORIGIN OF SOCIALISM
Socialism literally sprang from observing the success of capitalism, while believing that
conditions for workers could be improved if the control of production were moved from
capitalists to the state. A top-down control system, such as that used in large business, was the
model for socialist society. Yet the true engine of capitalism, the free market, was overlooked
and left out of the plan. Social reformers, from the early Utopian Socialists to the Marxists, were
literally awed by the tremendous success of capitalistic industrial production. In The Communist
Manifesto Karl Marx stated:
The bourgeoisie, during its rule of scarce one hundred years, has created more massive and
more colossal productive forces than have all preceding generations together. Subjection of
Nature's forces to man, machinery, application of chemistry to industry and agriculture, steam-
navigation, railways, electric telegraphs, clearing of whole continents for cultivation,
canalization of rivers, whole populations conjured out of the ground, what earlier century had
even a presentiment that such productive forces slumbered in the lap of social labor.
2

The socialists did not want to disrupt this technological miracle, but merely to distribute the
profits of it more fairly. They observed the workers earning profits for the wealthy business
owners and maintained they were being unfairly exploited. Believing the strength of the system
was in its structure, they didn't want to eliminate businesses, but merely to replace the wealthy
business owners with the state. As early as 1791 Talleyrand, in France, compared the ideal
society to a National Workshop. In the 1820s Henri de Saint-Simon envisioned the ideal society
as one large factory.
3
After his death, his followers, calling themselves the Saint-Simonians,
devised a system in which all of society would be organized like a single factory and socialism
was the word they chose to represent it.
4
This was the origin of socialism.


2
Marx , Karl; and Engels, Friedrich, The Communist Manifesto, Penguin Books Ltd., Middlesex, England, p. 85, 1986
3
Manuel, Frank E., The New World of Henri Saint-Simon, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, p.
308-309, 367 1956
4
Hayek, Friedrich A., Individualism and Economic Order, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, P. 3, 1948
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Chapter III
MAIN FEATURES OF THE SOCIALIST PATTERN OF SOCIETY
1. Eliminates Capitalism
Socialist State wants to eliminate capitalism which led to unequal distribution of wealth. It
divided the society into two classes - rich and poor, haves and have-nots and the exploiter
and exploited and created wide gulf between the two. Socialist state seeks to cure all the evils of
the capitalism such as injustice, inequality, class war etc by abolishing it.
2. Opposes Competition
Socialist State tries to eliminate all forms of competition. It wants to have cooperation instead of
competition between the employers and workers. It tries to substitute cooperation for
competition.
3. Economic Equality for all
Socialist State tries to secure economic equality for all by abolishing the wide gaps between
different sections of the society. It stands for the principle of economic equality. It opposes the
concentration of wealth in the hands of a few people. It aims to bridge the gap between the rich
and poor so that opportunities are enjoyed by all equally. It desires to have a society in which
there is no inequality in the distribution of property. According to Laveleys: Socialist state is an
equalizer and leveler
5
.
4. Opposes private property
Socialist State tries to abolish the institution of private property. It regards private property as
theft and source of all evils in the society. It declares that land and capital should belong to all
and not to a privileged few.
5. Social control of means of production

5
Urmila Sharma, S.K. Sharma, Principles and Theory of Political Science, Atlantic Publishers and Distributers (P)ltd,
p. 495, 2000
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Socialist State stands for public control of the means of production. It wants to abolish private
enterprise. It wants to nationalize all the factors of production. Factors of production should be
used by the people for the people. In other words, it aims at introducing state enterprise in the
field of production and distribution for common good. It wants the state to be the producer and
distributor in order to do justice to the people.
6. Emphasis on society
Socialist State lays more emphasis on society than the individual welfare to social welfare. It
gives importance to the larger interests of the society as against the narrow and selfish interests
of the individual. Social welfare is the main consideration of production. It means, under
socialist state only those things will be produced which are needed by the society.
7. Rewards the worker on the basis of needs
Socialist State believes in rewarding the worker in proportion to the value of his labour. Its
slogan is: From each according to his ability to each according to his needs.
6

8. Methods
Socialist State believes in democratic and evolutionary methods. It tries to bring about the
necessary changes in the present economic and political structure peacefully and gradually. It
believes in constitutional and peaceful methods in reconstructing society.








6
Deniel Bell, The coming of Post-Industrial Society, Basic Books; Reissue edition, p 444, 1976
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Chapter IV
MERITS OR ADVANTAGES OF SOCIALIST PATTERN OF SOCIETY
Socialist State has become very popular and powerful movement in modern states. It has
exercised deep influence on the policies of every state. Today it is seen in different parts of the
world in one form or the other. Everywhere the state is interfering in economic and industrial
affairs where public welfare is involved. It is owning, controlling and managing industries and
public services which are of national importance. The trend of every state today is, thus, towards
socialist state
7
. Its merits are:
1. It puts society above the individual and considers the good of all as something superior to the
mere good of the individual. It regards social welfare as the basis of production.
2. It rightly depicted the evils existing in the present day society. It desires to put an end to the
evils of capitalism like economic inequalities, wastage of resources lack of proper planning
wasteful production etc.
3. It wants to destroy the institution of private property, reduce the present economic inequalities,
put an end to all types of exploitation and create a better society.
4. Its principle of production is social benefit but not personal profit. It manages and regulates
industries not with profit motive but with social needs.
5. It secures better conditions of work for the workers. It raises their status and importance in the
society.
6. It favours gradual changes based on peaceful and constitutional methods. It is evolutionary in
nature. So it paved the way for the success of democracy.
7. Finally, it will free the individual from want and starvation and will thereby provide him with
greater opportunities for political and economic activities.



7
Dr. S. Subramaniyam, Political Science, Tamil Nadu textbook corporation, Ed. 1, p. 15, 2000
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Chapter V
DEMERITS OR DISADVANTAGES OF SOCIALIST PATTERN OF
SOCIETY
In spite of the above advantages, socialist state has been subjected to severe criticism on the
following grounds:
1. It leads to authoritarianism as it puts too many powers in the hands of government. It results in
the restriction of individual liberty as the state interferes in every sphere of individual activity.
State becomes the master and the individual becomes its servant.
2. It kills individual initiative and enterprise because it does not allow private property. In the
absence of private property, men may not like to do maximum work.
3. It advocates socialisation of means of production. It is difficult for the state to manage all
industries, control the means of production and distribution. Complete management of all
industries by the state will result in inefficiency, redtapism, corruption and nepotism. Industries
may not be run on sound and economical lines.
8

4. It ignores and neglects completely the interests of the consumers. It does not provide to the
consumer any choice in respect of consumption. The consumer has to adjust his needs to
production which is controlled by the state.
5. It is argued by the critics that practical instances show that countries with a socialist system
like China has made less progress compared to those having laissez faire system as United
States.






8
Dr. S. Subramaniyam, Political Science, Tamil Nadu textbook corporation, Ed. 1, p. 16, 2000
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CONCLUSION
The theory of Socialist state or the Socialist Patter of Society is like a storehouse of confusion.
One fails to understand as to what it really aims at. Despite these weaknesses, the theory of
Socialist state has now become a matter of universal appreciation. All thinkers ranging from the
advocates of Liberalism to that of Communism express their unflinching faith in the doctrine of
Socialist state.
The days of a hundred percent Individualism are gone forever. Today all states are moving
towards Socialist state. People everywhere expect that the state will actively promote their
welfare and that it should play a positive role in their life. It would be best to conclude with the
words of J.C.Johari who says:
None can deny the fact that the movement of socialist state has brought about numerous
reforms. The rise of wages, reduction in the hours of work improvement of working conditions,
curbs on the prevalence of destructive competition, decrease in the degree of exploitation and the
like are some of the leading achievements of socialist state.










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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books-
1. Urmila Sharma, S.K. Sharma, Principles and Theory of Political Science, Atlantic Publishers
and Distributers (P)ltd, 2000
2. Marx , Karl; and Engels, Friedrich, The Communist Manifesto, Penguin Books Ltd.,
Middlesex, England, 1986
3. Manuel, Frank E., The New World of Henri Saint-Simon, Harvard University Press,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1956
4. Hayek, Friedrich A., Individualism and Economic Order, The University of Chicago Press,
Chicago, 1948
5. Dr. S. Subramaniyam, Political Science, Tamil Nadu textbook corporation, Ed. 1, 2000
6. Deniel Bell, The coming of Post-Industrial Society, Basic Books; Reissue edition, 1976

Websites-

1. http://books.google.co.in