GS 1, TLP-UPSC Mains Answer Writing, World History
How have different political philosophies such as communism, capitalism, and socialism influenced the socio-economic and political development of various countries around the world? Analyse with the help of suitable examples.
साम्यवाद, पूंजीवाद और समाजवाद जैसे विभिन्न राजनीतिक दर्शनों ने दुनिया भर के विभिन्न देशों के सामाजिक-आर्थिक और राजनीतिक विकास को कैसे प्रभावित किया है? उपयुक्त उदाहरणों की सहायता से विश्लेषण कीजिए।
Approach –
In this question candidates need to write about how communism socialism and capitalism influenced Socio-economic and political developments in various countries around the world . Analyse these developments with examples .
Introduction –
Political philosophies are the ideals that help us to understand the reasons for the actions taken up by the people in a particular course of time, which impacted the global political setup.
Body –
Political philosophy is concerned with the concepts and arguments involved in political opinion. Many types of political ideologies have taken shape over hundreds out of which we will be discussing three philosophies that have played significant roles in the modern world- communism, socialism, and capitalism.
- These political philosophies have impacted society in major ways and resulted in pertinent historical changes in the world.
Capitalism-
- In a capitalist system, the factories fuel the economy, and a wealthy few own the factories. This created the need for a large number of people to work for the factory owners. In this environment, the wealthy few exploited the labourer s, who had to labour to live.
Effect of capitalism on society-
- Capitalism ensures economic growth as it empowers both manufacturers and consumers and keeps money in rotation.
- It ensures the accessibility of goods and services at a competitive price and helps to improve the standard of living in the country.
- Capitalism paved the wave for LPG reforms in the world and provided opportunities for the labor force to opt for global employment opportunities, which have further shrunk the global boundaries.
- America,England ,Germany are capitalist countries and their system leads to unequal distribution of wealth- rich get richer and poor get poorer.
- In this system exploitation of resources leads to detrimental effect on environment .
- The market system fosters competition that generally produces the most efficient allocation of resources.
- In pure capitalism, also known as laissez-faire capitalism, the government’s role is restricted to providing and enforcing the rules of law by which the economy operates, but it does not interfere with the market. (Laissez-faire means “let it be.”)
- In laissez-faire capitalism, businesses become free to form monopolies or oligopolies, which reduces competition, and thereby reduces the advantages of capitalism. Instead, a plutocracy is created, where the wealthy rule the economy for their own benefit.
- With climate crisis posing a grave threat to our collective future, millions living below the poverty line, the economic and social shocks of the corona virus pandemic and unemployment wave still reverberating, Gen Z and Millennials say they have grown increasingly disillusioned with capitalism.
Socialism-
- Socialism is a political and economic ideology that believes in the public ownership of means of production and distribution based on a plan formulated by a central authority.
Effect of socialism on society-
- Cuba Laos followed Socialistic kind of economy this economy and Creates a welfare society where all the basic needs of people (food, clothes, and shelter) are fulfilled by the State at very affordable prices.
- Providing employment is the State’s responsibility based on capabilities, education, and skills.
- This system leads to good development of health sectors for masses in Cuba and provides health professionals to south America.
- All the profits go to the State, which utilizes them for the well-being of the society by providing them with free education, improving public health amenities, ensuring social security, etc
- Socialists also seek to nationalize monopolies, which greatly enrich their owners at the expense of the people. However, unlike communism, most small or nonessential enterprises would remain privately owned. Also unlike the Communists, most socialists do not advocate violence or force to achieve their economic system.
Communism-
- In layman’s terms, communism is the political system in which the community owns and controls entities like factories, farms, services, etc. intending to treat everyone equally.
- China and north Korea followed this system but later china mould it develop their own kind of communism which suits them.
- Communism is based on the goal of eliminating socioeconomic class struggles by creating a classless and stateless society in which everyone shares the benefits of labour and the community controls all property and wealth.
- In communist nations, the difference between the official claims and societal realities is different. The dictator government controls the information and every sort of communication channel that cut-offs the society from the outer world.
- Although Marx and Engels believed that property should belong to society, they did not really give much thought to how economic decisions would be made. Eg)-Communist countries, particularly Russia and China, decided on a centrally planned economy ( command economy).
- Another major feature of communist economies was their emphasis on the country’s self-reliance, discouraging international trade and investment.
Conclusion-
Communism backs full control of the Government across all standards of production and other resources; Socialism exercises adaptable forms of controlling the State, and Capitalism supports a free market and overall economy without the involvement of the State. All three have an individual effect on society as well as various forms impact the welfare of the society.
