Steve Kangas short FAQ: How does liberalism differ from socialism?

John Locke, philosopher

There are important and fundamental differences between socialism and liberalism. 


When critics attempt to slander liberals by calling them "socialists," liberals should immediately challenge them to define the difference between liberalism and socialism. If they cannot, or continue to claim that they are the same, liberals should then chide them for being novices in political science, unable to define even the most basic terms of the debate. 

Socialism means that workers, not private owners, would own and control the means of production: factories, farmland, machinery, and so on. In democratic elections, workers would vote for 1) their supervisors, 2) their representatives to a local and national council of their industry or service, and 3) their representatives to a central congress representing all the industries and services. 

Socialism has been proposed in many forms, ranging from republics to direct democracies, from centralized state bureaucracies to free market anarchy. Political scientists do not view the "socialism" nominally practiced by the Soviet Union as true socialism -- this was, essentially, a dictatorship over workers by a ruling elite.

By comparison, liberals believe that private owners should own and control the means of production, formulate company policy, and have the right to select their own management team. 

Liberals would prevent them from abusing their powers through checks and balances like strong labor unions and democratic government. Liberalism has been around for many centuries unlike socialism. Liberal thought is older than conservative thought.

Liberalism first became a powerful force in the Age of Enlightenment, rejecting several assumptions that dominated most earlier theories of government which included hereditary status, established religion, absolute monarchy, and the Divine Right of Kings.

The early liberal thinker John Locke is often credited for the creation of liberalism as a distinct philosophical tradition.

He advocated natural rights and the social contract to argue that the rule of law should replace absolutism in government,

Locke said that that rulers were subject to the consent of the governed, and that private individuals had a fundamental right to life, liberty, and property.

Sound familiar?

One of the first liberal elites were the Founders. Neo-conservatism has been called a form of liberal thought.

sources: 


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/ShortFAQ.htm#liberalism


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