SCIENTIFIC SOCIALISM: ORIGIN, CHARACTERISTICS, REPRESENTATIVES - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The scientific socialism, Marxism also called, is a current within the socialist ideology whose principles were developed by Karl Marx and Engels Friedreich. The work in which both authors made their ideas public was the Communist Manifesto, published in 1848.

The antecedent of this current was utopian socialism. This ideology was the response to the Industrial Revolution and to the poor working and living conditions of the workers at the time. Ultimately, it was an attempt to end the exploitation of man by man.

Friedrich Engels - Source; under the Creative Commons license CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication

Marx and Engels studied the theory elaborated by the supporters of utopian socialism, analyzed in depth the social reality of the time and looked at the revolutionary movements that took place during the Paris Commune in 1848.

Two of the most important theoretical elements of scientific socialism are Historical Materialism and Dialectical Materialism. The aim of Marx, Engels and their followers was to create a classless society, in which there were neither exploiters nor exploited. For this, the means of production had to remain in the hands of the state.

Origin

Marx and Engeles

The Industrial Revolution meant an absolute transformation in labor and social relations. These changes occurred first in England, at the end of the 18th century, and then spread throughout the rest of Europe.

The emergence of the industrial proletariat, the workers who began to work in the new factories, led to the promulgation of new social theories. Authors such as Charle Fourier, Joseph Proudhon or Robert Owen, among others, wrote about how to improve the conditions of workers. Thus was born the so-called utopian socialism.

Socialism

Socialism, both utopian and scientific, had as its germ industrialization and the labor and social conditions of its workers.

The workers had hardly any labor rights and their wages were miserable. The hours were endless and the security minimal. Employers were only concerned with increasing profits.

For the socialists, the misery of the workers was caused by the bad distribution of wealth. The capitalists enriched themselves at the expense of the workers' work, without them being able to achieve a decent standard of living.

His solution was social revolution and reorganizing the state to end inequality and exploitation.

Marx and Engels

Carl Marx and Friedrich Engels conducted a historical study on the transition from one type of society to another. In this essay, the two authors analyzed capitalist society and pointed out its contradictions.

His works resulted in a different socialism. His intention was to leave behind the supposedly unrealizable and purely idealistic theories of utopian socialism.

Another aspect that influenced the formulation of this new socialist current was the outbreak of several revolutions in 1848.

Scientific socialism became from that moment on the main branch of the labor movement, especially after the publication of the Communist Manifesto, also in 1848.

Marx and Engels based their conception of socialism on an internal law of historical development. In it, the proletariat became the subject of the revolution that was to star in a new historical stage.

Characteristics of scientific socialism

The main idea of ​​scientific socialism is that the development of society does not depend on the simple will of individuals, but on objective laws that regulate the progress of production.

Historical Materialism and Dialectical Materialism

Historical materialism was one of the theoretical bases that Marx and Engels used to develop their philosophy. According to this concept, all social and political movements are determined by the way in which goods are produced.

Similarly, the mode of production also plays an important role in the value system, both that of society as a whole and that of each individual.

For its part, dialectical materialism is a term that refers to the constant changes that occur in the world. These transformations consist of three phases: thesis, antithesis and synthesis.

Class struggle

For scientific socialism, the engine of history is the class struggle. Society has been divided into different classes depending on their position in the economy: exploiters (oligarchy) and exploited (workers). The conflict between the two groups explains all the changes that occur.

This fight, moreover, does not only remain in the economic sphere. Over time, the conflict becomes political to try to occupy power.

In this sense, the ideal of scientific socialism in a classless society, in which there are no differences between individuals due to their economic condition.

The proletarian revolution

To achieve their goals, Marx and Engels advocated the rebellion of the exploited against their exploiters. The workers had to take power and, in a first stage, establish what they called the dictatorship of the proletariat. The next phase would be that of socialism proper.

In that socialist society, private ownership of the means of production and distribution must be public or collective.

Theory of surplus value

One of the most important concepts within the theory of scientific socialism is that of surplus value. It is about the added value of the products manufactured by the workers.

The surplus value would therefore be the difference between the payment received by the worker and the true value of the product. In this way, it would be the profit that the employer obtains through the exploitation of his workers.

Role of the State

In a socialist society, the state must run the economy. Among its functions are the planning of all processes, from production to exchange. That state role supposes the non-application of the laws of supply and demand.

Representatives

The first two representatives of scientific socialism were Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. After them appeared other followers who tried to put theory into practice, such as Lenin, or continued to deepen its development, such as Gramsci.

Karl Marx

Karl Marx came to the world in 1810, in the city of Trier. His work was characterized by the detailed analysis of the society of his time, as well as by the dissemination of new concepts related to capital, wealth and work.

His most influential work was the Communist Manifesto, a book commissioned by the Communist League and written in collaboration with Friedrich Engels. From its publication in 1848, scientific socialism replaced the utopian as the ideological basis of labor movements around the planet.

The Communist Manifesto, in which he explained his economic theories, ended with a slogan that became the battle cry of Marxism: Workers of the World, Unite!

Friedrich Engels

Born in Barmen, Rhineland, in 1820, Friedrich Engels played a pivotal role in the emergence of scientific socialism.

In his youth he was close to the most progressive ideas and movements such as the “young Germans”. The study of Hegel's ideas was the next step in his ideological evolution.

Engels met Marx in 1842 when they were both working for the same newspaper. At first, the radical nature of Engels's writings caused some confrontations between the two, since Marx feared that the publication would be closed because of him.

Later, Engels moved to England, where he came into contact with some important labor movements. This contact allowed the German to know the reality of the working class.

His collaboration with Marx began in 1844 and lasted for forty years. Engels had to support his colleague financially for a long time. Together they were the creators of scientific socialism, When Marx succeeded in imposing his theses at the second Congress of the League of Communists, he and Engels set about writing a kind of guide to the movement. Its name was the Communist Manifesto, published in 1848.

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Without Marx and Engels were the creators of the theory that gave rise to scientific socialism, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was the one who tried to make it come true.

With the triumph of the October Revolution, Lenin became the first leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the first officially communist state in the world.

Similarly, Lenin was also the author of several books in which he established his own version of scientific socialism: Marxism-Leninism.

References

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