Who owns the major industries in socialism?

Answer 1

Socialism (or Communism) would be a world-wide society in which the means of production are held in common. It would be charcterised by free access to all goods and services, and therefore by an absence of those defining featues of capitalist society, such as money, wages, and profits. Governments, as such, would not exist. Hence, production would be organised along democratic lines by genuine co-operatives, with everyone working within a given productive unit doing so on a purely voluntary basis, and having a say in it's operation. Wider society, again via democratic means, would exercise control over many of the parameters of production. For example, if a productive unit needed to expand, planning permission would probably need to be sought from the local community. Depending on the issue in question, resolution of differences might be constitutionally deemed to be appropriately undertaken at a particular level: World, regional or local (or something in between). Co-ordinating agencies, once again answerable to democratic bodies, would have an important liaison role; for example in organising the transfer of raw materials or finished products from one part of the world to another. Without the vagaries of a market system, however, it is likely that a lot of this would proceed on a fairly routine manner. Sophisticated stock control measures could automatically flag up shortages, and set in train processes to correct the deficit. Given that such wasteful features of capitalist production - such as the boom-slump cycle, built-in obsolescence, the vast amount of essentially unproductive economic activity (eg in the financial sector), the wastefulness in having numerous firms compete against each other etc - would not exist, the business of regulating production would be greatly simplified in the absence of the cash nexus. It goes without saying that Socialism (or Communism) have never been tried out anywhere. For more on this subject, go to http://andycox1953.webs.com/

Answer 2

The exact institution and process that controls decisions regarding production in a socialist economy varies depending on the specific model of socialism in question.

These might include worker's cooperatives, elected boards of planners, central planners appointed by the state, councils at the workplace-level, consumer-cooperatives, a cybernetic computer network, or markets (to determine what exactly is to be produced). In some forms, decisions regarding production is separated from the organizations that actually engage in the technical process of production (specifically in the case of planned economies).

If we take the economy of the former Soviet Union as an example, a planning agency consisting of engineers and economists called Gosplan formulated economy-wide plans for investment and production. Gosplan was informed by statistics on consumer tastes, reports from lower-level enterprises and ministries and workers in those industries to shape and provide information for the formation of the plan. These were called "plan-indices".

Because the former Soviet Union was a centrally-planned economy, this system does not apply to other forms of socialism like market socialism.

In models of market socialism, production would be undertaken in much the same way as it is under modern-day capitalism with a few differences: the institutions performing production would be publicly-owned or owned by their workers, and their management structure would be organized on a co-operative basis.

Socialism (or Communism) would be a world-wide society in which the means of production are held in common. It would be characterized by free access to all goods and services, and therefore by an absence of those defining features of capitalist society, such as money, wages, and profits. Governments, as such, would not exist. Hence, production would be organized along democratic lines by genuine co-operatives, with everyone working within a given productive unit doing so on a purely voluntary basis, and having a say in it's operation.

Answer 3

Society, or the working class as a whole, owns the means of production and industry in socialism. The exact way this is done varies in different models of socialism.

In the former Soviet Union, the state owned and operated all the major industries on behalf of society and the working class. The state was seen as the agent of the public interest.

In the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the major industries were owned by cooperatives, which were owned by their workers. In Yugoslavia, this was seen as a more direct form of "social ownership" than the indirect form of "state ownership".

Answer 4

In a Socialist society, the means of production are owned and controlled by the whole people. And there is no government.

Answer 5

The working class.

Answer 6

Government