Examine the concepts of socialism and communism.
What will be an ideal response?
Socialism argued for the application of social, economic, and political equality, but took several forms. Utopian socialism did not advocate the elimination of private property, as the first credited socialist, François Babeuf, had stated. Utopian socialists such as Saint-Simon, Fourier, and Robert Owen argued for utilizing industrialization to improve life for all social classes and the creation of a just and equal society. Even among the utopian socialists, however, there was considerable disagreement. Saint-Simon did not support the liberal belief that competition would benefit all in the free market, but instead emphasized social cooperation and planning, led by a dedicated, well-educated elite. Fourier took a different approach, suggesting that the best way to achieve equality was the formation of phalanges, or communal societies of 1,620 people, who would put Fourier's catalogued twelve human passions to their best use in a just and cooperative community; therefore, he reasoned, the need for coercive government, police, armies, and prisons would fall away. Communism also advocated the disintegration of the state, but approached it from the standpoint of universalizing access to the means of production (that is, factory ownership and production of goods) to benefit all in society, not just the owners. When all resources were universal, everyone would have an interest in promoting the efficiency of society, and there would be no need for the state because it was used only to protect the propertied classes. Hence, the state would wither away and die. This position was explained as a revolt against the oppressive and debasing system of capitalism in Marx and Engel's The Communist Manifesto. The Communist Manifesto served as a call to revolution for the working class to strike back against the economic, political, and social oppression by the elite. The emphasis on the need for violent revolution to overthrow the capitalist system separates communism from socialism.
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Which of the following statements is correct?
A. William Harper argued that slaveholding was essentially a matter of property rights. B. Proslavery writers in the 1840s and 1850s asserted that whites were the more intellectual race, and blacks the race more inherently physical and destined for labor. C. Presbyterian minister George Bourne was welcomed in Virginia for his antislavery sermons. D. John C. Calhoun and John Quincy Adams were close allies in the antislavery movement.
The easiest way to move goods in the West following the War of 1812 was by
a. road. b. water. c. rail. d. None were acceptable solutions.
Based on the experiences of Anthony Johnson and Francis Payne, all of the following statements about blacks in the seventeenth-century Chesapeake are true EXCEPT
a. free black men sometimes married white women. b. free black men sometimes obtained substantial property holdings. c. free black men sometimes successfully sued white men in court. d. free black men sometimes held elective office in colonial governments.
In his voyage to negotiate with the Yuezhi, Zhang Qian traveled over what route?
a. down the Yellow River b. along the Indian Ocean c. the Silk Road d. across the Gobi desert e. around the South China Sea