Socialism can be characterized on the basis of two very general criteria. One of them is related to income distribution. In the capitalist system, each individual receives remuneration commensurate with their capacity. For socialism, however, all human beings must give back all they can, depending on his talent, although the distribution of wealth is carried out taking into account the needs of people. It is also possible to define socialism in terms of ownership of the means of production. Machinery or land, in the capitalist system, belong to individuals. In socialist systems, the means of production are owned by the whole society.
In The Communist Manifesto, a work that Marx wrote in 1848 with his friend and collaborator Friedrich Engels, the authors divided the thinkers seconded to socialism utopian socialists, who sought to reform society, and scientific socialists, who based their theories, such as of the class struggle in the philosophical, economic and historical.
Although there were precursors of socialism and the French Revolution, among them François Noel said Babeuf (1760-1797), generally considered the fathers of socialism were the French political philosopher Claude Henri de Saint-Simon (1760-1825) and British industrial reformer and Robert Owen (1771-1858).