Socialism, as we see it, is not the final answer to social development—and communism isn't either! Societies, like all processes in the world, undergo continual internal struggle, incremental change, and periodic revolutionary transformation.

Socialism is a transitional stage because there isn't a quick straight line between a society based on exploitation and one based on equality, plenty, and human needs as the ultimate determining factor rather than profits. There are many "hidden" aspects of the economy and other social organization that will have to be changed, a process that will be protracted.

Socialism, in our view, is a precursor to communism. Socialism is a stage of development where society transforms itself into an economic system based on production for use rather than production for profit, where social need plays a much larger role in political and economic decisions, where the "commanding heights of the economy" are socially owned and run on behalf of society, and where people can begin to transform themselves.

In socialist society, the remains of the capitalist class will still exist. Before a communist society can be constructed, the remains of society based on exploitation, racial and social divisions, and where there are still inequalities in pay, distribution of goods, and other social divisions will need to be overcome.

While there have been and are countries where Communist Parties play the leading role in government, there has never yet been a communist society, because such a society will rely on further developments in technology, production, education, and culture.

Why is socialism a transitional stage? Why can't we just stay with endless socialism? Because society never stands still. Because once society and human nature go through the transformative process of socialism, it will develop even more egalitarian social and economic relations.

Socialism still requires a state that has an oppressive apparatus to prevent the former ruling classes internally, and the capitalist classes in other countries, from returning to power and wiping out any and all gains. And under socialism productive capacity will not yet have developed to a level that will provide for all the basic needs of all the people. We will still be "sharing scarcity."

We can't predict how long this transitional stage will take, and it will take different lengths of time in different countries. Obviously, 70 years of socialist development in the Soviet Union, taking place under constant attack from capitalists and fascists, wrestling with huge problems of underdevelopment, wasn't enough to make socialism irreversible. This was due to those constant attacks, to mistakes made by Communists and others, to trying to build an advanced society in an under-developed country, to the many millions of workers and Communists lost during WWII.

So, contrary to some left thinkers who see a quick transition once capitalism is done away with, we see socialism not as a quick fix on the way to communism, but as a long stage of social development.

Written by the Communist Party U.S.A.