Wiktionary

socialism

English

 
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

Attested since 1832; either from French socialisme or from social +‎ -ism.

Pronunciation

Noun

socialism (usually uncountable, plural socialisms)

  1. Any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.
    1. A system of social and economic equality in which there is no private property.
      • 1918, National Economic League Quarterly, page 19:
        …Americans as a rule have no faith in the fundamental doctrine of socialism — no private property. To be sure, that fundamental doctrine is not expressly maintained in this program of the British Labor Party ; but all its proposals lead straight to the adoption by the nation of that doctrine…
    2. A system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state.
      • 1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn, Pt. II:
        Socialism is usually defined as "common ownership of the means of production". Crudely: the State, representing the whole nation, owns everything, and everyone is a State employee. This does not mean that people are stripped of private possessions such as clothes and furniture, but it does mean that all productive goods, such as land, mines, ships and machinery, are the property of the State... One must also add the following: approximate equality of incomes (it need be no more than approximate), political democracy, and abolition of all hereditary privilege, especially in education. These are simply the necessary safeguards against the reappearance of a class-system.
      • 2005, Louise Shelley, Policing Soviet Society: The Evolution of State Control, Routledge, →ISBN, page 57:
        As Gorbachev understood perestroika, the Soviet Union would retain the principal components of state socialism (state control over the means of production and centralized planning), meaning that state control over the economy and the labor force were to be maintained.
  2. (Marxism-Leninism) The intermediate phase of social development between capitalism and communism in Marxist theory in which the state has control of the means of production.
    • 1978, Daniel Bell, The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism, Basic Books, page xii:
      For me, socialism is not statism, or the collective ownership of the means of production. It is a judgment on the priorities of economic policy…the community takes precedence over the individual in legitimate economic policy. The first lien on the resources of a society therefore should be to establish that "social minimum" which would allow individuals to lead a life of self-respect, to be members of the community.
  3. Any of a group of later political philosophies such democratic socialism and social democracy which do not envisage the need for full state ownership of the means of production nor transition to full communism, and which are typically based on principles of community decision making, social equality and the avoidance of economic and social exclusion, with economic policy giving first preference to community goals over individual ones.
  4. (chiefly Western, often derogatory, colloquial) Any left-wing ideology, government regulations, or policies promoting a welfare state, nationalisation, etc.
    • 2019, Geoffrey M. Hodgson, Is Socialism Feasible?: Towards an Alternative Future, Edward Elgar Publishing, →ISBN:
      I have used the term "liberal solidarity". It needs to stake out its ideological territory and to debate not only with socialism and conservatism, but with other varieties of liberalism.

Antonyms

Derived terms

Translations

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See also

References

Anagrams

Romanian

 
Romanian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia ro

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from French socialisme. By surface analysis, social +‎ -ism.

Pronunciation

Noun

socialism n (uncountable)

  1. socialism

Declension

singular only indefinite definite
nominative-accusative socialism socialismul
genitive-dative socialism socialismului
vocative socialismule

Further reading

Swedish

 
Swedish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia sv

Etymology

Borrowed from French socialisme. By surface analysis, social +‎ -ism. Attested since 1848.

Pronunciation

Noun

socialism c

  1. socialism

Declension

Declension of socialism
nominative genitive
singular indefinite socialism socialisms
definite socialismen socialismens
plural indefinite socialismer socialismers
definite socialismerna socialismernas

Antonyms

Derived terms

References

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