While
Marxism had a significant impact on socialist thought, pre-Marxist thinkers (before Marx wrote on the subject) have advocated
socialism in forms both similar and in stark contrast to
Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels' conception of socialism, advocating some form of
collective ownership over large-scale production, worker-management within the workplace, or in some cases a form of
planned economy.
List
Early socialist and proto-socialist philosophers and political theorists:
Gaius and
Tiberius Gracchus, ancient Roman statesmen who advocated heavily for policies in the interest of the
Plebeians. These policies included
land and wealth redistribution and
subsidized grain to help the poor.