Two major issues have divided competing traditions and tendencies within socialism. The first is the goals or ends for which socialists should strive for and the second is the means they should use to achieve socialists ends. The two variations of socialism which focuses on the means are revolutionary and evolutionary socialism while the two that focus on the goals are fundamentalist and revisionist socialism.
Revolutionary socialists believed that socialism could only be introduced by a revolutionary overthrow of the existing political system which was, in most countries, capitalism. The first successful socialist revolution was the Bolshevik revolution in 1917, which served as a model for subsequent generations of revolutionary socialists. Revolutionary socialists seek a mass uprising of the working class to seize control of the economy and create an egalitarian society based on common ownership.
However as the 19th century progressed, enthusiasm for popular revolt waned in advanced capitalist states such as western Europe. Capitalism had matured and the urban working class lost its revolutionary character. Wages had increased and the working class had more rights and better working conditions. Therefore, evolutionary socialism developed, which believed that socialism would develop naturally and peacefully out of liberal capitalism. The Fabian Society introduced parliamentary socialism in the UK and they believed that socialism could be introduced through political action and education. The political action would come from the creation of a socialist party to compete for power while elite groups could be converted to socialism through education. They believed socialism would occur through a gradual process of social reform and the working class would use the ballot box to introduce socialism, which would therefore develop as an evolutionary outgrowth of