Socialism refers to a broad array of
ideologies and
political movements with the goal of a
socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to control by the community.
[1] This control may be either direct—exercised through popular collectives such as
workers' councils—or indirect—exercised on behalf of the people by the state. As an
economic system, socialism is often characterized by
state, worker, or community ownership of the
means of production, goals which have been attributed to, and claimed by, a number of
political parties and governments throughout history.
The modern socialist movement largely originated in the late-19th century
working class movement. In this period, the term 'socialism' was first used in connection with
European social critics who criticized
capitalism and
private property. For
Karl Marx, who '
helped establish and define the modern socialist movement, socialism would be the socioeconomic system that arises' after the
proletarian revolution, in which the means of production are owned collectively. This society would then progress into
communism.
Since the 19th century, socialists have not agreed on a common doctrine or program. Various adherents of socialist movements are split into differing and sometimes opposing branches, particularly between
reformists and revolutionaries. Some socialists have championed the complete
nationalization of the means of production, while
social democrats have proposed selective nationalization of key industries within the framework of
mixed economies. Some
Marxists, including those inspired by the
Soviet model of economic development, have advocated the creation of
centrally planned economies directed by a state that owns all the means of production. Others, including Communists in
Yugoslavia and
Hungary in the 1970s and 1980s,
Chinese Communists since the
reform era, and some Western economists, have proposed various forms of
market socialism, attempting to reconcile the presumed advantages of cooperative or state ownership of the means of production with letting
market forces, rather than central planners, guide
production and
exchange.
[2] Anarcho-syndicalists,
Luxemburgists (such as those in the
Socialist Party USA) and some elements of the
United States New Left favor decentralized collective ownership in the form of
cooperatives or workers' councils.