Industrial revolution
Industrial revolution took place from mid 18th century to mid 19th century. It was marked with revolutionized modes of life and approach to things. It marked great change in economic, political and social spheres of life thus can be loosely termed as the period of enlightenment around the world. It began in Britain but spread out to other parts of Europe and United states (Ashton, 1948).
This age of enlightenment had one of the greatest impacts on social sphere where the mode of social organization changed. One of these outcomes was the idea of communism and Marxism. These two ideas had impacts on both social and political spheres. The reason why I choose these two impacts of industrial revolution is their existence till today and the content of the two concepts. Communism calls for communal ownership of property and equal rights to property. This concept interpreted in social sphere called for cohesive coexistence without jealousy. The Marxism idea has most influence in economic sphere though it still had influence in social organization. The people were enlightened on how to exist in a society freely while maintaining good economic status (Ashton, 1948).
Critics to capitalism worked on the weaknesses of capitalism and came up with another idea that was opposed to capitalism known as communism. This concept had called for communal ownership instead of private ownership of property. This concept was accepted mostly Asian continent but America and Europe remained capitalistic (Ashton, 1948).
The radical differences between capitalism and communism were on property ownership and social organization. On property ownership, capitalism calls for private and personal ownership while communism calls for public ownership (property is owned by the community). The other difference is communal operation in any activities (social, political and economic) thus no competition or idea of survival for the fittest under communism while capitalism calls for stiff competition for one to have the greatest wealth.
References
Ashton S. 1948. The Industrial Revolution (1760-1830). Oxford: Oxford University Press
