Identify and explain the distinguishing features of socialism, communism, and capitalism. Are they best understood as points on a single continuum?
What will be an ideal response?
The ideal answer should include:
1. Capitalism is a system in which private economic actors are quite free from state constraints, private property rights are fundamental, and the state engages in few actions that might shift resources among private actors. It is founded on the philosophy of laissez-faire economics.
2. Communism has as its centerpiece the socialization of resources-the notion that the state must actively control society's land, labor, and capital to achieve substantial equality for all citizens. Consistent with the command political economy model, the state guides the utilization of all these major means of production with a central plan so that the production and distribution of goods serve the best interests of the entire population.
3. Socialism is in the middle of the three "isms," and, thus, it is not precisely differentiated from the other two. It seeks a complex balance between state involvement and private control of the economy, and a key policy goal is a relatively equitable distribution of benefits to all citizens.
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A. nongovernmental organization B. social movement C. international nongovernmental organization D. intergovernmental organization
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