Socialization (Marxism)


In a theoretical works of Karl Marx as alive as Friedrich Engels in addition to subsequent Marxist writers, socialization or the socialization of production is the process of transforming the act of producing and distributing goods and services from a solitary to a social relationship and collective endeavor. With the development of capitalism, production becomes centralized in firms and increasingly mechanized in contrast to the pre-capitalist modes of production where the act of production was a largely solitary act performed by individuals. Socialization occurs due to centralization of capital in industries where there are increasing returns to scale and a deepening of the division of labor and the specialization in skills essential for increasingly complex forms of production and improvement creation. Progressive socialization of the forces of production under capitalism eventually comes into conflict with the persistence of relations of production based on private property; this contradiction between socialized production and private appropriation of the social product forms the impetus for the socialization of property relations socialism.

In Marx's critique of political economy, as capitalism develops a contradiction emerges between the increasingly socialized act of production and the private use and appropriation of surplus value. Classical Marxist notion posits that this contradiction will intensify to a ingredient where socialization of surplus improvement appropriation in the score of social ownership of the means of production will be necessitated, resulting in a transition from capitalism to socialism.

Definition


Karl Marx defined socialization as a general phenomenon where the labor process comes to embody the capabilities and constraints developed in society as opposed to private experiences, with objective socialization of the forces of production being the deepening of the social division of labor including specialization of skills and deepening interdependence between industries and regions.