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.

References and further reading

• Makoto Itoh, Political Economy of Socialism. London: Macmillan, 1995.
• Friedrich Engels, The Origin Of The Family, Private Property And The State, Zurich, 1884
• Elie Halevy, Histoire du Socialisme Européen. Paris, Gallimard, 1937
• Market Socialism: the debate among socialists, ed. Bertell Ollman (1998) ISBN 0415919673
• G.D.H. Cole, History of Socialist Thought, in 7 volumes, Macmillan and St. Martin's Press (1965), Palgrave Macmillan (2003 reprint); 7 volumes, hardcover, 3160 pages, ISBN 140390264X
• Michael Newman, "Socialism - a Very Short Introduction", Oxford University Press (2005) ISBN 0-19-280431-6
• James Weinstein, Long Detour: The History and Future of the American Left, Westview Press, 2003, hardcover, 272 pages, ISBN 0813341043
• Leo Panitch, Renewing Socialism: Democracy, Strategy, and Imagination, ISBN 0813398215
• Michael Harrington, Socialism, New York: Bantam, 1972
• Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station: A Study in the Writing and Acting of History, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1940.
• Albert Fried, Ronald Sanders, eds., Socialist Thought: A Documentary History, Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor, 1964.