Second, the recognition that socialism is a process means that it is non-linear. The actual struggles, and particularly the class struggles, in a society will determine the trajectory of the process and, specifically, whether the process is advancing or regressing. Socialism, then, is a process of social transformation which includes the democratizing of society as well as the transformation of the agents of change. This very fact has a profound implication on the process of social transformation, that is, on socialism itself. Thus, the recognition of socialism as a process actually helps us to guard against a philosophical idealism in which we romanticize the revolutionary road only to fall prey to despair when challenges are encountered.