Economic “-ism” Introduction

A Crash Course

Feudalism

• Relationships between the landowner and the serfs– Serfs bound to the land

• Landowner gives protection in exchange for work on the land

• No social movement• Notable examples: Medieval Europe

Mercantilism

• Government controls foreign trade– Ensures prosperity and security of a state

• Drove colonial expansion• No export of specie (gold, silver, etc.)• Notable examples: Imperialist Western

Europe, i.e. France, Great Britain, Portugal, Spain

Capitalism

• First theorist, Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

• Free market (laissez-faire) economies are more beneficial and productive for societies

• Means of production are privately owned and operated for profit

• Notable Examples: United States, Great Britain, Japan, Republic of Korea (each with elements of socialism)

Communism

• First theorists, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto

• Aims for a classless and stateless society• Communal ownership of the means of production

– Free access to all • No wage labor and no private property• Proletariat (working class) will rise up and overthrow the

bourgeoisie (middle and aristocratic class) • Notable examples: Union of Soviet Socialist Republic,

People’s Republic of China (officially), Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (founding ideology, rejected now)

Socialism• Means of production can be state owned or commonly owned,

controlled cooperatively• Production for use, economic inputs for economic demands and

human needs• Goods sold through markets• Income distributed through individual merit/individual contribution • Centrally planned economies directed by a single-party state that

owns the means of production • Some experiments with state ownership models and free market

exchange and free price system (China in the late 70s to the present)• Notable examples: Scandinavian countries, many western European

countries

Two Cows

• Socialism: You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.

• Communism: You have two cows. You give them to the government, and the government gives you milk.

• Capitalism: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.

• Naziism: You have two cows. The government shoots you and takes the cows.