Socialism

Socialism is an ideology with the core belief that a society should exist in which popular collectives control the means of power, and therefore the means of production. In application, however, the de facto meaning of socialism has changed with time. Although it is a politically loaded term, it remains strongly related to the establishment of an organized working class, created through either revolution or social evolution, with the purpose of building a classless society. It has also, increasingly, become concentrated on social reforms within modern democracies. This concept and the term Socialist also refer to a group of ideologies, an economic system, or a state that exists or has existed.

A state that exists, or has existed, or may exist

Main articles: Communist state, Social democracy

Related Topics:
Communist state - Social democracy

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Most past and present states ruled by parties of Communist orientation called (or call) themselves "socialist." However, in the western world they were usually all referred to as "Communist states." Once again, whether these states were socialist or not was (and is) disputed, with the large majority of today's socialists (including many, perhaps most, communists) contending that they were not socialist, for reasons directly analogous to those just discussed in the section above (regarding the "socialist" economy).

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A libertarian socialist society known as "The Republic" emerged in 1930s Spain during the civil war. See Anarchism in Spain.

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There are also some who dispute whether it is appropriate to refer to any state, past, present, future, or hypothetical as "socialist," preferring to reserve that word for an economy or even a society, but not a state.

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