Economic ideology

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An economic ideology is a set of views forming the basis of an ideology on how the economy should run. It differentiates itself from economic theory in being normative rather than just explanatory in its approach, whereas the aim of economic theories is to create accurate explanatory models to describe how an economy currently functions. However, the two are closely interrelated, as underlying economic ideology influences the methodology and theory employed in analysis. The diverse ideology and methodology of the 74 Nobel laureates in economics speaks to such interrelation. [1]

Contents

A good way of discerning whether an ideology can be classified an economic ideology is to ask if it inherently takes a specific and detailed economic standpoint.

Furthermore, economic ideology is distinct from an economic system that it supports, such as capitalism, to the extent that explaining an economic system (positive economics) is distinct from advocating it (normative economics). [2] The theory of economic ideology explains its occurrence, evolution, and relation to an economy. [3] [4]

Examples

Islamic economics

Islamic economics refers to the knowledge of economics or economic activities and processes in terms of Islamic principles and teachings. [5] The religion of Islam has a set of special moral norms and values about individual and social economic behavior. Therefore, it has its own economic system, which is based on its philosophical views and is compatible with the Islamic organization of other aspects of human behavior: social and political systems. [6]

It is a term used to refer to Islamic commercial jurisprudence ( fiqh al-mu'āmalāt ), and also to an ideology of economics based on the teachings of Islam that is mostly similar to the labour theory of value, which is "labour-based exchange and exchange-based labour". [7] [8]

Islamic commercial jurisprudence entails the rules of transacting finance or other economic activity in a Shari'a compliant manner, [9] i.e., a manner conforming to Islamic scripture (Quran and sunnah). Islamic jurisprudence ( fiqh ) has traditionally dealt with determining what is required, prohibited, encouraged, discouraged, or just permissible, [10] according to the revealed word of God (Quran) and the religious practices established by Muhammad (sunnah). This applied to issues like property, money, employment, taxes, loans, along with everything else. The social science of economics, [10] on the other hand, works to describe, analyse and understand production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services, [11] and studied how to best achieve policy goals, such as full employment, price stability, economic equity and productivity growth. [12]

Early forms of mercantilism and capitalism are thought to have been developed in the Islamic Golden Age [13] [14] [15] from the 9th century and later became dominant in European Muslim territories like Al-Andalus and the Emirate of Sicily. [16] [17]

The Islamic economic concepts taken and applied by the gunpowder empires and various Islamic kingdoms and sultanates led to systemic changes in their economy. Particularly in the Mughal India, [18] its wealthiest region of Bengal, a major trading nation of the medieval world, signaled the period of proto-industrialization, [19] [20] [21] making direct contribution to the world's first Industrial Revolution after the British conquests. [22] [23] [24]

In the mid-twentieth century, campaigns began promoting the idea of specifically Islamic patterns of economic thought and behavior. [25] By the 1970s, "Islamic economics" was introduced as an academic discipline in a number of institutions of higher learning throughout the Muslim world and in the West. [9] The central features of an Islamic economy are often summarized as: (1) the "behavioral norms and moral foundations" derived from the Quran and Sunnah; (2) collection of zakat and other Islamic taxes, (3) prohibition of interest ( riba ) charged on loans. [26] [27] [28] [29]

Advocates of Islamic economics generally describe it as neither socialist nor capitalist, but as a "third way", an ideal mean with none of the drawbacks of the other two systems. [30] [31] [32] Among the claims made for an Islamic economic system by Islamic activists and revivalists are that the gap between the rich and the poor will be reduced and prosperity enhanced [33] [34] by such means as the discouraging of the hoarding of wealth, [35] [36] taxing wealth (through zakat ) but not trade, exposing lenders to risk through profit sharing and venture capital, [37] [38] [39] discouraging of hoarding of food for speculation, [40] [41] [42] and other activities that Islam regards as sinful such as unlawful confiscation of land. [43] [44] However, critics like Timur Kuran have described it as primarily a "vehicle for asserting the primacy of Islam", with economic reform being a secondary motive. [45] [46]

Recently and as a complement to Islamic economics, the field of Islamic entrepreneurship or entrepreneurship from an Islamic perspective has gained traction. Islamic entrepreneurship studies the Muslim entrepreneur, entrepreneurial ventures, and contextual factors impacting entrepreneurship at the intersection of the Islamic faith and entrepreneurial activities. [47] [48]

Capitalism

Capitalism is a broad economic system where the means of production are largely or entirely privately owned and operated for profit, where the allocation of capital goods is determined by capital markets and financial markets. [49]

There are several implementations of capitalism that are loosely based around how much government involvement or public enterprise exists. The main ones that exist today are mixed economies, where the state intervenes in market activity and provides some services; [50] laissez faire, where the state only supplies a court, a military, and police; and state capitalism, where the state engages in commercial business activity itself.

Laissez-faire

Laissez-faire, or free market capitalism, is an ideology that prescribes minimal public enterprise and government regulation in a capitalist economy. [51] This ideology advocates for a type of capitalism based on open competition to determine the price, production and consumption of goods through the invisible hand of supply and demand reaching efficient market equilibrium. In such a system, capital, property and enterprise are entirely privately owned and new enterprises may freely gain market entry without restriction. Employment and wages are determined by a labour market that will result in some unemployment. Government and judicial intervention are employed at times to change the economic incentives for people for various reasons. The capitalist economy will likely follow economic growth along with a steady business cycle.

Social market

The social market economy (also known as Rhine capitalism) is advocated by the ideology of ordoliberalism and social liberalism. This ideology supports a free-market economy where supply and demand determine the price of goods and services, and where markets are free from regulation. However, this economic calls for state action in the form of social policy favoring social insurance, unemployment benefits and recognition of labor rights.

Social democracy

Social Democracy is an ideology that prescribes high public enterprise and government regulation in a capitalist economy. It espouses state regulation (rather than state ownership of the means of production) and extensive social welfare programs. [52] Social democracy became associated with Keynesianism, the Nordic model, the social liberal paradigm and welfare states within political circles in the late 20th century. [53]

Casino capitalism

Casino capitalism is the high risk-taking and financial instability associated with financial institutions becoming very large and mostly self-regulated, while also taking on high-risk financial investment dealings. [54] This has been a driving motive by investors in the quest for profits without production; it provides a speculation aspect that offers prospects for a quicker and more speculator returns for people, wealth, and inside assumptions of the factors likely to affect asset price movements. [55] Typically, this does not add to the collective wealth of an economy, as it can instead create economic instability. [55] Casino capitalism falls alongside the idea of a speculation-based economy where entrepreneurial activities turn to more paper games of speculative trading than actually producing economic goods and services.

It is believed by people such as economists Frank Stilwell that casino capitalism was one of the leading causes of the 2007–2008 financial crisis. Investors sought out a get-rich-quick motive they found through speculative activities that offered a particular individual gain or loss depending on the assets’ future movements. [56] Other economists like Hans-Werner Sinn, have written books on casino capitalism with commentary outside the Anglo-Saxon bubble. [57]

Neo-capitalism

Neo-capitalism is an economic ideology that blends elements of capitalism with other systems and emphasizes government intervention in the economy to save and reconstruct companies that are deemed a risk to the nation. The ideology's prime years are considered by some economists to be the ten years leading up to 1964 after the Great Depression and World War II. After World War II, countries were destroyed and needed to rebuild and since capitalism thrives in industrializing countries. These countries most affected by the war saw a growth in capitalism. Neo-capitalism differs from regular capitalism in that while capitalism highlights private owners, neo-capitalism emphasizes the role of the state in sustaining the country as a provider and a producer and condemns private companies for lacking in their role as a provider and producer for their country. [58]

Critics of neo-capitalism claim that it tends to suppress the reserve army of labor, which may lead to full employment, as this can undermine one of the main basics that make capitalism work. Other critics state that if neo-capitalism was put into place, it would become immediately corrupt. [58]

Fascism

Fascism as an economic system promotes the pursuit of individual profit while promoting corporations through government subsidies as the primary tool of economic progress as long as their activities are in line with the goals of the state. [59] In fascist economies, profits or gains are individualized while losses are socialized. These economies are often compared to the third way due to being heavily corporatized. Fascist economies of the mid 20th century such as Italy and Germany often used bilateral trade agreements, with heavy tariffs on imports and government subsidized exports to developing nations around the world. [60] While economically fascism is oriented towards self-sufficiency, politically fascist countries of the mid-20th century were oriented to war and expansion; two seemingly contradictory motives. The goals of fascist nations was to create a closed economic system which is self-reliant, but is also ready and prepared to engage in war and territorial expansion. Fascist economies can then be seen as state capitalist.

Socialism

Socialism is any of the various ideologies of economic organization based on some form of social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the allocation of resources. [61] Socialist systems can be distinguished by the dominant coordination mechanism employed (economic planning or markets) and by the type of ownership employed (Public ownership or cooperatives).

In some models of socialism (often called market socialism), the state approves of the prices and products produced in the economy, subjecting the market system to direct external regulations. Alternatively, the state may produce the goods but then sell them in competitive markets. [62]

Democratic socialism

Democratic socialism (sometimes referred to as economic democracy) is an economic ideology that calls for democratic institutions in the economy. These may take the form of cooperatives, workplace democracy or ad hoc approach to the management and ownership of the means of production. Democratic Socialism is a blending of socialistic and democratic ideas to create a political and economic Structure. [63]

Marxism–Leninism

Marxism–Leninism is a political ideology that calls for centralized planning of the economy. This ideology formed the economic basis of all existing Socialist states.

Socialist doctrines essentially promote the collectivist idea that an economy's resources should be used in the interest of all participants, and not simply for private gain. This ideology historically opposed the market economy, and tended to favor central planning. [64]

Communism

As Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels described it (in Manifesto of the Communist Party ), communism is the evolved result of socialism so that the central role of the state has 'withered away' and is no longer necessary for the functioning of a planned economy. All means of production are collectively owned and managed in a communal, classless society. Currency is no longer needed, and all economic activity, enterprise, labour, production and consumption is freely exchanged, "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs".

Communism is also a political system as much as an economic one—with various models in how it is implemented—the well known being the Marxist Leninist model, which argues for the use of a vanguard party to bring about a workers state to be used as a transitional tool to bring about stateless communism, the economic arrangement described above. Other models to bring about communism include anarcho-communism, which argues similarly to Marxist schools for a revolutionary transformation to the above economic arrangement, but does not use a transitional period or vanguard party.

Anarcho-primitivism

Anarcho-primitivism strives to return humans to a pre-industrialized and pre-civilization state. From an economic standpoint, advocates of this model argue the non-necessity of economic systems for human existence. Proponents of this ideology believe that the entire history of human civilization took a wrong turn from hunter-gatherer systems into an agricultural system and has led to human dependence on technology to support increasing populations, government control, and culture. Population growth and the institutions created to support and control it are exploitative of not only humans but also the environment. They argue that the more people live in a society, the more resources they will need. These resources must be taken from the Earth and therefore lead to environmental exploitation. However, they claim that materialist exploitation can be seen throughout almost every society in the world today. This materialism creates inequalities and exploitation such as class structure, the exploitation of humans in the name of labor and profit, and most importantly environmental destruction and deterioration. This exploitation has led to the increase in human population growth, activity, and development which they argue is destroying the Earth's ecosystems. They emphasize coexisting with the natural world instead of destroying it, "a world order on our planet where human civilization is brought into harmony with nature". [65]

Anarcho-primitivists differ from other anarchist and green ideologies by opposing technological and industrial advancement as it further propagates the exploitation of humans. [66] "Technology is not a simple tool which can be used in any way we like. It is a form of social organization, a set of social relations. It has its own laws. If we are to engage in its use, we must accept its authority. The enormous size, complex interconnections and stratification of tasks which make up modern technological systems make authoritarian command necessary and independent, individual decision-making impossible." [67] Anarcho-primitivists seek to revert the economic and government institutions of civilization which they argue are authoritarian, exploitative, and abstract and return humanity to a way of living which is harmonious with the natural world in which technology used mostly individually to create tools for survival much like in primitive cultures and tribes where they argue there is little need for abstract things such as an economy or government.[ citation needed ]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Ideological Profiles of the Economic Laureates". Econ Journal Watch. 10 (3): 255–682. 2013.
  2. ↑ Klappholz, Kurt (1987). "ideology". The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics. 2: 716.
  3. ↑ Roland Bénabou, 2008. "Ideology," Journal of the European Economic Association, 6(2–3), pp. 321–52 Archived 2010-06-12 at the Wayback Machine .
  4. ↑ Joseph P. Kalt and Mark A. Zupan, 1984. "Capture and Ideology in the Economic Theory of Politics," American Economic Review, 74(3), pp. 279–300. Reprinted in C. Grafton and A. Permaloff, ed., 2005 The Behavioral Study of Political Ideology and Public Policy Formation, ch. 4, pp. 65–104.
  5. ↑ صدر، اقتصادنا، ۱۴۲۴ق، ص۴۲۱.
  6. ↑ Monzer, Al Iqtisad al Islami [The Islamic Economy]. 1981. p. 90-28.
  7. ↑ Roy 1994 , p.  133.
  8. ↑ Philipp, Thomas (1990). "The Idea of Islamic Economics". Die Welt des Islams. 30 (1/4): 117–139. doi:10.2307/1571048. JSTOR   1571048.
  9. 1 2 Mat, Ismail; Ismail, Yusof. "A Review of Fiqh al-Mua'malat Subjects in Economics and Related Programs at International Islamic University Malaysia and University of Brunei Darussalam" (PDF). kantakji.com. p. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 January 2015. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
  10. 1 2 Saleem, Muhammad Yusuf (n.d.). "Methods and Methodologies in Fiqh and Islamic Economics" (PDF). kantakji.com. p. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 January 2015. Retrieved 22 January 2015. The paper argues that the methods used in Fiqh are mainly designed to find out whether or not a certain act is permissible or prohibited. Islamic economics, on the other hand, is a social science. Like any other social science its proper unit of analysis is the society itself.
  11. ↑ "Definition of ECONOMICS". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  12. ↑ "ECONOMIC GOALS". amosweb.com/. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
  13. ↑ Banaji, Jairus (2007). "Islam, the Mediterranean and the Rise of Capitalism" (PDF). Historical Materialism. 15 (1): 47–74. doi:10.1163/156920607X171591.
  14. ↑ Maya Shatzmiller (1994), Labor in the Medieval Islamic World, pp. 402–03, Brill Publishers, ISBN   90-04-09896-8.
  15. ↑ Labib, Subhi Y. (1969). "Capitalism in Medieval Islam". The Journal of Economic History. 29 (1): 79–96. doi:10.1017/S0022050700097837. S2CID   153962294.
  16. ↑ Arrighi, Giovanni (2010). The Long Twentieth Century. Verso. p. 120. ISBN   978-1-84467-304-9.
  17. ↑ Ruggles, D. Fairchild (2008). Islamic Gardens and Landscapes . University of Pennsylvania Press. pp.  15–36. ISBN   978-0812240252.
  18. ↑ Chapra, M. Umar (2014). Morality and Justice in Islamic Economics and Finance. Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 62–63. ISBN   9781783475728.
  19. ↑ Sanjay Subrahmanyam (1998). Money and the Market in India, 1100–1700. Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780521257589.
  20. ↑ Giorgio Riello, Tirthankar Roy (2009). How India Clothed the World: The World of South Asian Textiles, 1500-1850. Brill Publishers. p. 174. ISBN   9789047429975.
  21. ↑ Abhay Kumar Singh (2006). Modern World System and Indian Proto-industrialization: Bengal 1650-1800, (Volume 1). Northern Book Centre. ISBN   9788172112011.
  22. ↑ Junie T. Tong (2016). Finance and Society in 21st Century China: Chinese Culture Versus Western Markets. CRC Press. p. 151. ISBN   978-1-317-13522-7.
  23. ↑ John L. Esposito, ed. (2004). The Islamic World: Past and Present. Volume 1: Abba - Hist. Oxford University Press. p. 174. ISBN   978-0-19-516520-3.
  24. ↑ Indrajit Ray (2011). Bengal Industries and the British Industrial Revolution (1757-1857). Routledge. pp. 7–10. ISBN   978-1-136-82552-1.
  25. ↑ Kuran 2004, p. x.
  26. ↑ Kuran, Timur (1986). "The Economic System in Contemporary Islamic Thought: Interpretation and Assessment". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 18 (2): 135–164. doi:10.1017/S0020743800029767. hdl: 10161/2561 . S2CID   162278555.
  27. ↑ Quran (Al-Baqarah 2:275), (Al-Baqarah 2:276–80), (Al-'Imran 3:130), (Al-Nisa 4:161), (Ar-Rum 30:39)
  28. ↑ Karim, Shafiel A. (2010). The Islamic Moral Economy: A Study of Islamic Money and Financial Instruments. Boca Raton, FL: Brown Walker Press. ISBN   978-1-59942-539-9.
  29. ↑ Financial Regulation in Crisis?: The Role of Law and the Failure of Northern Rock By Joanna Gray, Orkun Akseli p. 97
  30. ↑ Islam and Economic Justice: A 'Third Way' Between Capitalism and Socialism? Archived January 7, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  31. ↑ How Do We Know Islam Will Solve the Problems of Poverty and Inequality? Archived May 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  32. ↑ Ishaque, Khalid M. (1983). "Islamic Approach to Economic Development" . In Esposito, John L. (ed.). Voices of Resurgent Islam. New York : Oxford University Press. pp.  268–276. the two models projected by the First and the Second Worlds. Both are basically materialistic, have priorities ... which permit wholesale exploitation. In the West it is the big corporations and cartels and in the Socialist countries it is state capitalism and bureaucracy.
  33. ↑ Quran   4:29
  34. ↑ International Business Success in a Strange Cultural Environment By Mamarinta P. Mababaya p. 203
  35. ↑ Quran   9:35
  36. ↑ Al-Bukhari Vol 2 Hadith 514
  37. ↑ Ibn Majah Vol 3 Hadith 2289
  38. ↑ International Business Success in a Strange Cultural Environment By Mamarinta P. Mababaya p. 202
  39. ↑ Islamic Capital Markets: Theory and Practice By Noureddine Krichene p. 119
  40. ↑ Abu Daud Hadith 2015
  41. ↑ Ibn Majah Vold 3 Hadith 2154
  42. ↑ The Stability of Islamic Finance: Creating a Resilient Financial Environment By Zamir Iqbal, Abbas Mirakhor, Noureddine Krichenne, Hossein Askari p. 75
  43. ↑ Al-Bukhari Vol 3 Hadith 632; Vol 4 Hadith 419
  44. ↑ Al-Bukhari Vol 3 Hadith 634; Vol 4 Hadith 418
  45. ↑ El-Gamal, Islam and Mammon, 2004: p.5
  46. ↑ Khan 2015, p. 88.
  47. ↑ Gümüsay, Ali Aslan (2015-08-01). "Entrepreneurship from an Islamic Perspective". Journal of Business Ethics. 130 (1): 199–208. doi:10.1007/s10551-014-2223-7. ISSN   1573-0697. S2CID   140869670.
  48. ↑ Ramadani, Veland; Dana, Léo-Paul; Gërguri-Rashiti, Shqipe; Ratten, Vanessa, eds. (2017). Entrepreneurship and Management in an Islamic Context. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-39679-8. ISBN   978-3-319-39677-4.
  49. ↑ "Definition of Capitalism". merriam-webster. 6 Nov 2017. Retrieved 13 Nov 2017.
  50. ↑ Pettinger, Tejvan (27 July 2017). "Mixed Economy". economicshelp. Retrieved 14 Nov 2017.
  51. ↑ "Laissez-Faire". Investopedia. 2003-11-23. Retrieved 14 Nov 2017.
  52. ↑ "Social democracy". Encyclopaedia Britannica. 8 June 2023.
  53. ↑ Gombert 2009, p. 8; Sejersted 2011.
  54. ↑ "Casino Capitalism Definition". financepractitioner.com. 2009. Archived from the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
  55. 1 2 Stilwell, Frank (1 December 2011). Political Economy: The Contest of Economic Ideas (3rd ed.). New York, NY.: Oxford University Press. p. 30. ISBN   978-0195575019.
  56. ↑ Stilwell, Frank (1 December 2011). Political Economy: The Contest of Economic Ideas (3rd ed.). New York, NY.: Oxford University Press. p. 29. ISBN   978-0195575019.
  57. ↑ Sinn, Hans- Werner (2012). Casino Capitalism: How the Financial Crisis Came About and What Needs to be Done Now. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0199659883.
  58. 1 2 Mandel, Ernest (1964). "The Economics of Neo-Capitalism". Socialist Register. 1: 56–67.
  59. ↑ Röpke, Wilhelm (1935). "Fascist Economics". Economica. 2 (5): 85–100. doi:10.2307/2549110. JSTOR   2549110.
  60. ↑ Baker, David (2006). "The political economy of fascism: Myth or reality, or myth and reality?". New Political Economy. 11 (2): 227–250. doi:10.1080/13563460600655581. S2CID   155046186.
  61. ↑ Ehrenfreund, Max (2015-10-14). "8 questions about democratic socialism and Bernie Sanders's vision for the United States". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2017-12-04.
  62. ↑ Schleifer, Andrei; Vishny, Robert W. (1994). "The Politics of Market Socialism" (PDF). Journal of Economic Perspectives. 8 (2): 165–76. doi:10.1257/jep.8.2.165. S2CID   152437398.
  63. ↑ "Democratic Socialism: Definition, Nature, Methods and Tenets". Political Science Notes. 2015-05-08. Retrieved 2017-12-04.
  64. ↑ "Socialism." A Dictionary of Economics (3 ed.). Oxford Reference, 2009. Web
  65. ↑ Becker, Michael, Anarcho-Primitivism: The Green Scare in Green Political Theory (April 1, 2010). Western Political Science Association 2010 Annual Meeting Paper. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1580329
  66. ↑ Gordon, Uri (2009). "Anarchism and the Politics of Technology". WorkingUSA. 12 (3): 489–503. doi:10.1111/j.1743-4580.2009.00250.x. S2CID   145449806.
  67. ↑ Moore, John (12 Feb 2009). "A Primitivist Primer". theanarchistlibrary. Retrieved 10 Oct 2017.

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The nature of capitalism is criticized by left-wing anarchists, who reject hierarchy and advocate stateless societies based on non-hierarchical voluntary associations. Anarchism is generally defined as the libertarian philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary and harmful as well as opposing authoritarianism, illegitimate authority and hierarchical organization in the conduct of human relations. Capitalism is generally considered by scholars to be an economic system that includes private ownership of the means of production, creation of goods or services for profit or income, the accumulation of capital, competitive markets, voluntary exchange and wage labor, which have generally been opposed by most anarchists historically. Since capitalism is variously defined by sources and there is no general consensus among scholars on the definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category, the designation is applied to a variety of historical cases, varying in time, geography, politics and culture.

Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist and democratic approach toward achieving socialism. In modern practice, social democracy has taken the form of predominantly capitalist economies, with the state regulating the economy in the form of welfare capitalism, economic interventionism, partial public ownership, a robust welfare state, policies promoting social equality, and a more equitable distribution of income.

Democratic socialism is a left-wing economic and political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-management within a market socialist, decentralised planned, or democratic centrally planned socialist economy. Democratic socialists argue that capitalism is inherently incompatible with the values of freedom, equality, and solidarity and that these ideals can only be achieved through the realisation of a socialist society. Although most democratic socialists seek a gradual transition to socialism, democratic socialism can support revolutionary or reformist politics to establish socialism. Democratic socialism was popularised by socialists who opposed the backsliding towards a one-party state in the Soviet Union and other countries during the 20th century.

Types of socialism include a range of economic and social systems characterised by social ownership and democratic control of the means of production and organizational self-management of enterprises as well as the political theories and movements associated with socialism. Social ownership may refer to forms of public, collective or cooperative ownership, or to citizen ownership of equity in which surplus value goes to the working class and hence society as a whole. There are many varieties of socialism and no single definition encapsulates all of them, but social ownership is a common element shared by its various forms. Socialists disagree about the degree to which social control or regulation of the economy is necessary, how far society should intervene, and whether government, particularly existing government, is the correct vehicle for change.

Social ownership is a type of property where an asset is recognized to be in the possession of society as a whole rather than individual members or groups within it. Social ownership of the means of production is the defining characteristic of a socialist economy, and can take the form of community ownership, state ownership, common ownership, employee ownership, cooperative ownership, and citizen ownership of equity. Within the context of socialist economics it refers particularly to the appropriation of the surplus product produced by the means of production to society at large or the workers themselves. Traditionally, social ownership implied that capital and factor markets would cease to exist under the assumption that market exchanges within the production process would be made redundant if capital goods were owned and integrated by a single entity or network of entities representing society. However, the articulation of models of market socialism where factor markets are utilized for allocating capital goods between socially owned enterprises broadened the definition to include autonomous entities within a market economy.

Socialist economics comprises the economic theories, practices and norms of hypothetical and existing socialist economic systems. A socialist economic system is characterized by social ownership and operation of the means of production that may take the form of autonomous cooperatives or direct public ownership wherein production is carried out directly for use rather than for profit. Socialist systems that utilize markets for allocating capital goods and factors of production among economic units are designated market socialism. When planning is utilized, the economic system is designated as a socialist planned economy. Non-market forms of socialism usually include a system of accounting based on calculation-in-kind to value resources and goods.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to socialism:

References

"capitalism" by Robert L. Heilbroner. Abstract.
"contemporary capitalism" by William Lazonick. Abstract.
"Maoist economics" by Wei Li. Abstract.
"social democracy" by Ben Jackson. Abstract.
"welfare state" by Assar Lindbeck. Abstract.
"American exceptionalism" by Louise C. Keely.Abstract.
"laissez-faire, economists and" by Roger E. Backhouse and Steven G. Medema. Abstract.
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