OED capitalism

The condition of possessing capital; the position of a capitalist; a system which

favours the existence of capitalists.

1854 THACKERAY Newcomes II. 75 The sense of capitalism sobered and dignified Paul de

Florac. 1877 A. DOUAI Better Times (1884) 10 This institution of private capitalism is of a

comparatively recent origin. 1884 Pall Mall G. 11 Sept. 6/1 A loophole for capitalism to creep in

upon the primitive Christian communism.

OED socialism

1. A theory or policy of social organization which aims at or advocates the

ownership and control of the means of production, capital, land, property, etc., by

the community as a whole, and their administration or distribution in the interests

of all.

Freq. with initial capital.

Christian socialism, a doctrine or theory, promulgated about 1850 by F. D. Maurice, C.

Kingsley, T. Hughes, and others, advocating a form of socialism on a Christian basis.

1837 Leeds Times 12 Aug. 5/1 Socialism.Messrs. Fleming and Rigby.On Monday

evening..these two gentlemen attended [sic] an audience..on the topics of the real nature of man.

1839 J. MATHER (title), Socialism Exposed: or ‘The Book of the New Moral World’ Examined.

Ibid. App. 22 To explain and expose what Robert Owen's Socialism is. 1840 Quart. Rev. Dec.

180 The two great demons in morals and politics, Socialism and Chartism. 1850 Daily News 13

Mar. 5/2 The infection of..‘Christian Socialism’ is spreading to Whitehall. 1863 FAWCETT Polit.Econ. II. i. 181 Socialism, as first propounded by Owen and Fourier, proposed that a society living together should share all the wealth produced. 1881 STEVENSON Virg. Puerisque 89, I do not greatly pride myself on having outlived my belief in the fairy tales of Socialism.

2. A state of society in which things are held or used in common.

1879 H. GEORGE Progr. & Pov. VI. i. (1881) 188 We have passed out of the socialism of the

tribal state.

OED Communism

1. a. A theory which advocates a state of society in which there should be no

private ownership, all property being vested in the community and labour organized

for the common benefit of all members; the professed principle being that each

should work according to his capacity, and receive according to his wants.

‘I also conversed [in 1840] with some of the most advanced minds of the French metropolis, and

there, in the company of some disciples of Babeuf, then called Equalitarians, I first pronounced the name of Communism, which has since..acquired that world-wide reputation (GOODWYN BARMBY in The Apostle No. i. 1848).

1843 New Age 20 May 24 Works on Communism, Religious, Political, and Domestic. 1844 The

Movement 25 Sept. 353 The journals..teem with criticisms and reports of Communists and

Communism. 1848 FORSTER Diary 11 May in T. W. Reid Life (1888) I. vii. 237, I learn that the great distinction between communism and socialism is that the latter believes in payment according to work done, and the former does not. 1851 J. M. LUDLOW Chr. Socialism 11 Communism starts from the thing, and is in essential antagonism to absolute property; Socialism starts from the person, and is in essential antagonism to human discord and rivalry. 1890 G. J. HOLYOAKE Labour World No. 11 col. 39 Communism means a self-supporting society distinguished by common labour, common property, and common means of intelligence and recreation.

b. spec. A political doctrine or movement based on Marxism and later developed

by Lenin, seeking the overthrow of capitalism through a proletarian revolution; =

MARXISM-LENINISM. (Freq. with capital initial.)

1850 H. MACFARLANE tr. Marx & Engels's Manifesto of German Communist Party in Red

Republican 23 Nov. 181/3 It is not..the abolition of property generally which distinguishes

Communism; it is the abolition of Bourgeois property... In this sense, indeed, the Communists might

resume their whole Theory in that single expressionThe abolition of private property. 1896 [see

MARXIAN a.]. 1906 Our May Day Manifesto (Communist Working Men's Club) 8 This is our

‘First of May’, the May-Day of those who believe in Anarchism and Communism! 1908 J.

BONHOMME tr. Jaeckh's International 71 In Germany, Liebknecht began to unfurl the red flag of

Communism in the first party which had been formed. 1919 tr. Lenin's State & Revol. v. 99 We

are right in speaking solely of the inevitable withering away of the State, emphasising..its dependence

upon the rapidity of development of the higher phase of Communism. 1921 E. & C. PAUL

Communism 1 Communism to-day signifies an organised attempt to overthrow the existing social

order and to replace it by a better. 1954 J. PLAMENATZ Marxism & Communism xiii. 319 From

1902 until 1926 German Marxism..was gradually transformed into what is nowadays called

Communism.

2. a. Applied to any practice which carries out this theory in whole or part; e.g.

that mentioned in Acts ii. 44 seq., as practised in the church of Jerusalem, or that

prevailing in monastic communities. spec. The communistic social order established

in Russia after the revolution of March 1917, and later in certain associated

countries; = BOLSHEVISM. (Freq. with capital initial.) Also transf.

1857 WOOD Com. Obj. Seashore 75 In these curious creatures communism prevails to its fullest

extent, one for all and all for one. 1874 H. REYNOLDS John Bapt. iii. §2. 177 The communism, the

vows of silence, the ceaseless struggle after a higher life amongst the Essenes. 1882 A. M.

FAIRBAIRN in Contemp. Rev. XLII. 870 Communism seems to the new-born religious society but

the proper social expression of its brotherhood. 1918 Times 24 Jan. 5/3 (heading) Fruits of

Bolshevist Rule ‘Fantastic Communism’. 1935 S. & B. WEBB (title) Soviet Communism: a new

civilisation? 1957 R. N. C. HUNT Communist Jargon i. 1 Wars waged by the Soviet Union for the

purpose of ‘liberating’ oppressed countries and imposing Communism upon them.

b. Co-ownership of land.

1866 ROGERS Agric. & Prices I. xxvii. 652 A village system, which..was a kind of simple

communism. 1875 POSTE Gaius II. (ed. 2) 254 Communism or co-ownership appears to be an

older institution than individual ownership.

3. Community of feeling; the spirit of a community. rare.

1870 Daily News 18 Nov., A tribunal where the natural bias of mercantile communism could not

influence the judgment of those who had to decide the question.

¶Sometimes improperly used for COMMUNALISM, and the spirit of the

COMMUNE of Paris, in 1871.

1871 Graphic III. 563/2 The Hotel de Ville..is now a complete wreck..an everlasting reproach to

Communism and its doctrines.