Socialism

Liberalism tells you that you are free to open that five-star hotel; socialism asks who owns the land, the capital and the banks that decide whether 'freedom' to try is worth anything at all. This topic introduces the ideology that made economic structure, not just legal rights, the central question of politics.

In two minutes

Socialism is the political ideology holding that the means of production should be owned or controlled collectively, or at least regulated heavily in the public interest, rather than left to private ownership, on the ground that private ownership of the means of production produces deep and unjust inequality.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Political Science – II: Foundations of Political Obligation on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.