The history of politics is abundant with various theories and ideologies that seek to present their views on how the society and its economic production and exchange should be organized in a better manner. Some of these concepts, such as capitalism, arose naturally as a result of historical changes; others required a serious amount of prior thinking and argumentation to be considered viable and useful. Additionally, the majority of the nowadays famous ideas regarding the political structure of the society appeared only after the spirit of rationalism spread across Europe in the 17th century. It is explained by the fact that the latter philosophy hugely determined the subsequent fast technological development, which, in turn, led to significant changes in the structures and institutes of western societies.
Today such terms as Marxism, fascism, capitalism, socialism, and liberalism can be found as an active part of political discourses of practically every country around the world. Even people without prior political or economic education or any deep interest in those spheres at least once read or heard about them in the newspapers, books, TV, and on the internet. However, it is fair to claim that although these concepts are very popular and widely used, not many people would be able to tell the difference, for instance, between Marxism and socialism. On the one hand, that happens due to the fact that all the named concepts partly overlap with each other. On the other hand, their wrongful usage by public figures and media workers also adds to the confusion. For this reason, in order to address the abovementioned issues, this essay will intend to discuss the essence of Marxism, fascism, capitalism, socialism, and liberalism concepts and clarify the difference between them.