Socialism

Socialism is a family of ideas and systems that favor collective or public ownership and democratic control of the economy, with the aim of reducing inequality and exploitation. The word covers a wide range, from advocates of state ownership of major industries to those who favor worker cooperatives.

Early socialist thinkers in the nineteenth century, such as Robert Owen and Henri de Saint-Simon, were followed by marxism, which saw socialism as a stage after capitalism on the way to communism. Twentieth-century versions included Soviet-style central planning, the nationalizations of postwar Britain and the Nordic model of market economies with extensive welfare programs, which many scholars regard as capitalist with high taxes rather than socialist.

Definitions are heavily contested. Critics, including conservatives and libertarians, argue that socialism undermines incentives and relies on central planners who lack the information to coordinate an economy, a point made in the knowledge problem, and point to the failures of the Soviet Union and Venezuela. Supporters argue that the record of authoritarian states does not define socialism, and that it can be pursued democratically. Many American politicians who use the label, such as Bernie Sanders, mean democratic socialism.