What are the similarities and differences between the capitalist and the socialist pattern of industrialization?

Capitalism is a mode of production in which capital in its various forms is the principal means of production. Socialism is a mode of production in society in its various forms in the principal means of production. Capitalism is the first stage in the history of the world to coincide with the phenomenon of industrialization in its full brown form together, the new economic institutions and the new technology transformed the world. Technical progress is the most essential characteristic of capitalist advance. But it is very hard to quantify or explain its growth. Some scholars regard the application of science to industry as the distinguishing characteristic of modern society. As early as the seventeenth century the methods of science in particular, observation and experiment, were being applied for utilitarian purposes. One of the most remarkable features of technical advance in the eighteen and early nineteenth centuries was the large proportion of major inventions made by ingenious thinkers, self taught mechanics and engineers and other autodidacts. The most significant improvements in technology involved the use of machinery and mechanical power to transform tasks that had been far more slowly and laboriously by human or animal power. During the eighteen century, a notable increase in the use of water-power occurred in industries such as grain milling, textiles and metallurgy. The most important developments are application of energy in the early stages of industrialization. It involved the substitution of coal for wood and charcoal as fuel, and the introduction of the stream engine for use in mining, manufacturing and transportation. The use of coal and coke in the smelting process greatly reduced the cost of metals and multiplied their uses. Though the term industrialization is absent from the work of Marx and Engel’s, the concept is clearly present. Marx distinguishes modern industry or the factory system or the machinery system from earlier forms of capitalist production, co-operation and manufacture. Modern industry is distinguished from manufacture by the central role of machinery. As soon as tools have converted from manual implements of man into implements of a mechanical apparatus, the motive mechanism also acquired an independent form. In parallel with manufacture, Marx distinguishes two stages in the development of the machinery system. The conversion of tools reduces the workers to a ‘mere’ source of motive power. The socialist critique of capitalism was varied in Europe. Socialism means different forms of practice before the October Revolution in Russia. It implied activity to strengthen trades unions, friendly societies and labor syndicates with or without the assistance of political parties. Socialist pattern of industrialization emphasizes of co-operative enterprise and various forms of community enterprise that would benefit the public as a whole. As a result initiatives were taken associated with municipal socialism or municipal trading. It means the running of urban facilities for fuel, water and lighting. Most socialists had an abiding fear of the state and state control as a possible source of intensification of exploitation rather than a solution to it. Prior to First World War, in fact, nationalization was looked upon as a way of constituting an area of activity where the proletariat had no say. Before 1914 there was no model of a socialist economy.  After the October revolution the first major large scale experiment with socialism in Europe was done. Governments evolved with state control of the economy. These governments used public welfare as their reference point. The economy was regularly mapped to trace out the areas where state investment is necessary. Hence the economy as it matured was called a planned economy. The system of planning was highly innovative. The soviet planned economy was considered the archetype of socialist experiment. The Bolsheviks set out to provide the benefits of industrial development. A line of argument also runs that soviet industrialization was not socialist since socialism could not be constructed in an undeveloped country like Russia where industrial capitalism had been weak. The anti-soviet economist has recently advanced the notion that soviet production was no incompetent that it does not deserve serious attention as growth. Anders Aslund’s views on the post soviet economy of the Russian federation have been criticized. In argument he said that so much worthless production took place in the soviet economy and shortages were so great that this fact cannot be ignored at all. State capitalism meant the operation of industry, trade and finance with the collaboration of the old entrepreneurial class, but with rigorous supervision by and participation from the state. Spontaneous nationalization of industry by workers and distribution of agricultural land was done. 

Yellow Journalism.

The emergence e of modern mass media has generated a great enthusiasm among intellectuals and general people as well, in the earlier of this century. The Mass circulated news papers appear in all the countries as educators, jurists as ideal mentor to the public. The basic function of mass media to influence the public opinion has started getting momentum. But more concentration on entertainment and circulation of the news papers bring a diversion from ethical practice in this noble field of journalism. It has caused great anxiety about Media’s alleged baneful influence on individual’s moral outlook and behavior. Not only the newspaper, but all the media including electronic media are indulging such practice of neglecting any ethical value. Yellow journalism, at its worst, is the new journalism without any objective. Trumpeting the concern for the people the media practitioners of both print and electronic media infiltrate the yellow journalism to affect common people using several news channels. Yellow journalism is a kind of sensational, gaudy and irresistible devil in journalism. It turns the high drama of life into a cheap melodrama twisting the information in their best suited way to make a howling newstay. Yellow journalism offers a palliative of sin, sex and violence to the readers.

The origin of the term ‘Yellow Journalism’ dates back to the later half of the 19^th century (1894). When an U.S Publisher, Joseph Politzer paper, introduces comic strip entitled ‘Shanty Town’ with a cartoon character of a child with a yellow dress which becomes known as the yellow kid. The man who more than anyone else brought about the era of yellow journalism is William Randolph Hearst. As a very controversial journalist Hearst was well known for his practical jokes. He started such a stylist joke strip ‘yellow kid’ in his paper New York Journal.’ yellow kid’ made a breezy headway with sensational journalism. as a symbol the term yellow journalism is coined from this column. Yellow kid with end of previous century the trend of sensationalism gets wide popularity and the newspapers from Europe adopt the technique of news presentation from the United States.

Yellow journalism replaces serious journalism in many cases irrespective of countries, media or situation. Especially the tabloid newspapers are totally banking on such sensationalism. They are quickly read and forgotten. Yellow journalism born in the atmosphere of society after rapid industrialization and cultural degradation. This creates unnecessary tension and abnormal state of mind and brings anarchy among individuals and society.

What do you understand by under-development? Discuss any one society that falls within your identification of under-development.

The world we live in is bipolar in nature. This characteristic can be seen not only in relation to geographical entity but also in relation to our social pattern, on one hand we can see affluent and well to do class and on the other hand we can see deprived and discriminated class. In our world eight hundred and eighty million are malnourished and millions go without schooling. On the other hand, three richest people in the world have assets that would surpass the sum total of the GDP’S of 48 least developed countries. People who are deprived are excluded from full participation in the society in which the live, lack of options, entitlement to resources and lack of social capital are the main reasons behind it. Economic development is a process by which an underdeveloped society can be economically competitive. It is the way in which a traditional society is transformed into a modern, high technology, high income economy. Such a developed economy uses capital, skilled labour and scientific knowledge to produce wide variety of products for the market. Capital goods and human capital plays an important role in such a society. The World Bank has put forward the following development goals: a) Reduction of poverty b)Low mortality rates c) Universal primary education d)Access to reproductive health services e) Gender equality. There are a number of underdeveloped countries which are unable to attain these development goals due to lack of resources. They share wide spread and chronic absolute poverty, high and rising burden of unemployment and underemployment, growing disparities in income distribution, low and stagnant agricultural productivity sizeable gap between urban and rural levels of living. Underdeveloped countries are also suffering from lack of education, health and housing facilities dependence on foreign and often in appropriate technologies and more or less stagnant occupational structure. In many respects underdeveloped countries are common. At the same time there are significant differences also. These differences can be seen in respect of the size of the country, their historical evolution, their natural and human resources and the difference in structure regarding industry, institutions etc. one of the most important problem of an under developed country is the presence of a large section of low income group. Ghana and India with per capita income below $785 are low income countries; china between ($785-3125) is a lower middle income country. Brazil is a country where per capita is between ($3125-9655). It falls in the upper middle income category. Per capita income is an evaluation of average income based on market evaluations. The proper assessment of a country’s economy can be made on the basis of some extra dimensions. They are life expectancy, health facilities, condition of employment, distributing of assets and the social structure. The under developed countries of different continents have certain common features.  These are low standards of living, low level of productivity, high rate of population growth, Greater importance on agricultural production and primary product exports. Dominance and vulnerability in international relations, a low standard of living reflects through in adequate housing, poor health, limited education, high infant mortality. The same can be seen in case of India and Ghana, Lack of distribution of wealth in an even manner. As a result chronic poverty’s can be seen. Slow GDP growth rates and higher under-5 mortality can be seen. Besides these countries have high population pressures on their resources. This is due to high birth rates and maternal fertility rates. Some countries like china and Brazil have succeeded to a large extent in controlling population growth. Under utilization of labour is also an important feature of the underdeveloped. Disguised unemployment has low productivity level. In an underdeveloped economy people is large or primarily dependent on agricultural production. Due to primitive techniques, poor organization, lack of capital etc the output is low. Such underdeveloped economies are not blessed with wide scale industrialization and these resources are also limited. Under developed countries Like India and Ghana have to depend on rich countries or advanced nations in terms of technology, foreign aid and private capital transfers.

Write a detail note on commercial capitalization.

The international encyclopaedia of social sciences refers to capitalism as the economic and political system that in its industrial or full form first developed in England in the late 18^th century.

Dictionary of social sciences explained capitalism as denoting an economic system in which the greater proportion of economic life, particularly ownership of and investment in production goods, is carried on under private(i.c, non-governmental) auspices through the process of economic competition with an avowed incentive of profit.

Marxist historians have identified a series of stages in the evolution of capitalism---for examples, merchant or commercial capitalism, agrarian capitalism, industrial capitalism and state capitalism, and much of the debate on origin and progress Has hinged on differing views of the significance, timing and characteristics of each stage. The first stage, i.e. mercantile or commercial capitalization provided the initial thrust and impetus for capitalization in the sense that merchants started becoming entrepreneurs to cater to market demands by employing wage labourers as well as by exploiting the existing craft guilds. Commercial capitalization metamorphosed into industrial capitalisms, which again, according to Marxist economist, gave way to socialism, because industrial capitalism was inseparably connected with problems of the working class, this invariably gave rise to different currents of socialist thoughts.

 Commercial capitalism and agrarian capitalism were, therefore, two forms of capitalism that overlapped with each other, the difference between them being that one emerged out of commercial surplus while the other out of agricultural surplus. Agrarian capitalism sometimes metamorphosed fully into commercial capitalism i.e. invested the entire surplus accumulated from agriculture into commerce and sometimes transformed directly into industrial capitalism by investing in industrial development alone.

In all this stages of capitalism, identified by the Marxist historians, therefore, the first stage was merchant capitalism or commercial capitalism. Now, what is it? Precisely, capital accumulation out of the profits of merchants to be invested in various economic activities was what is called commercial capitalism. It took different forms in different stages.

In middle age, however, the form assumed by commercial capitalism was entirely different. It was during this time that it developed in the true sense. In England, and even more emphatically in Holland, the birth of capitalism can be dated from the late 16^th and early 17^th centuries. The type of capitalism t5hat was growing up in Europe in the Middle Ages and was well established by 1500 was predominantly of this sort. Here lay the distinction between commercial capitalism, of the ancient and middle ages.                                               

    It can therefore be said that a limited form of ‘early’ or commercial capitalism, already known in the ancient world, had developed in Italy as early as the thirteenth century and later in the Low Countries. This commercial form developed in England in the 16^th century and began to change into industrial capitalism while elements of feudalism and the guild system still existed. In short, therefore, the early stage of capitalism, primarily founded upon commerce is called commercial capitalization, which in course of time metamorphosed into industrial capitalism. Capitalism therefore did exist in ancient world in the form of commerce as well as guild system and merchant dominated putting out system in the medieval world.

Swaraj Party.

Swaraj (Vithalbhai Patel and others, declared that the Non-cooperation Movement had been a failure and, with the detention of Gandhi, had lost its momentum. They proposed an alternative programme of diverting the movement from widespread mass civil disobedience

Vithalbhai Patel and others, declared that the Non-cooperation Movement had been a failure and, with the detention of Gandhi, had lost its momentum. They proposed an alternative programme of diverting the movement from widespread mass civil disobedience programme to a restricted one which would encourage Congress members to enter the Legislative Councils established under the Montford Reforms of 1919 and to use moral pressure to compel authority concede the popular demand for self-government. Remarkable seats in 1924-elections were achieved by the members but their triumph had been short-lived.