Socialist mode of production
marxian economy centered around use value, planning and contribution-based distribution
The socialist mode of production, also known as socialism, is a specific historical phase of base and superstructural development and its corresponding set of social relations that emerge from capitalism in the schema of historical materialism within Marxist theory. Communist states that claimed to have established socialist material relations claimed to have established socialist states.
The Marxist definition of socialism is that of production for use-value (i.e., abolition of commodity production, direct satisfaction of human needs, or economic demands), therefore the law of value no longer directs economic activity. Marxist production for use is coordinated through conscious economic planning. According to Marx, distribution of products is based on the principle of "to each according to his needs"; Soviet models often distributed products based on the principle of "to each according to his contribution". Marx characterized the social relations of communism, the first stage of which is now called socialism, by the abolition of class distinctions and the common ownership of the means of production. As classes are abolished, the state withers away. Later self-titled socialist states revised this definition of socialism and used the term more loosely as a rough equivalent to the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The Marxian conception of socialism stands in contrast to other early conceptions of socialism, most notably early forms of market socialism based on classical economics such as mutualism and Ricardian socialism. Unlike the Marxian conception, these conceptions of socialism retained commodity exchange (markets) for labour and the means of production seeking to perfect the market process.
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This entry incorporates text from “Socialist mode of production” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.