Decoding Marxism: Synopsis on Capitalism, Socialism & Communism
- Tosin. A
- Jan 22
- 1 min read
Written By: Tosin Ajogbeje/Date: 2026/01/22
Let’s chat about the class struggle. Research claims that Karl Marx believed society is shaped by a constant conflict between classes. Karl Marx is known for his revolutionary writings favoring socialism and a communist revolution. Marxism is a theory about how societies change through class struggle.
That struggle is between the wealthy owners of production—the bourgeoisie—and the working class, or proletariat. So, Marx’s argument is that the exploitation of workers will inevitably lead to a revolution and a classless society where workers own the means of production.
Socialism is the fair distribution of wealth and resources through collective ownership and planning, which can be managed by workers, the state, or cooperatives, while allowing limited private property and small businesses. While most countries only partially practice socialism, mixing it with capitalism, its goal is to reduce exploitation and ensure all benefit fairly, but it faces criticism for limited innovation and possible inefficiency.
Communism is a system aiming for a stateless and classless society by eliminating private ownership and social classes in favor of complete collective control. Ideally, all resources are owned by the community, however, in history, communism has led to strong government control, partly due to corruption and is criticized for being unrealistic and limiting freedom, and so in this case, the ideals of socialism and communism have never been fully realized.
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