socialism

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

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsoʊʃəlɪzəm/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsəʊʃəlɪzəm/

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• Hyphenation: so‧cial‧ism

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.
   • 1976 August, “Land Improvement in China”, in China Reconstructs‎, volume XXV, number 8, China Welfare Institute, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 29, column 2:

     Soil improvement often involves the movement of large quantities of earth, but the Chinese peasants face this task with a high degree of enthusiasm for socialism.

   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.

• capitalism
• free enterprise

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “socialism”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “socialism”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “socialism”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, retrieved 15 July 2017, reproduced from Stuart Berg Flexner, editor in chief, Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Random House, 1993, →ISBN.

• sialomics

• сочиалисм (socialism) — Moldovan Cyrillic spelling

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

• IPA^(key): /so.t͡ʃi.aˈlism/

socialism n (uncountable)

1. socialism

• socialist

• socialism in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)

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

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socialism c

1. socialism

• kapitalism (“capitalism”)

• fondsocialism
• katedersocialism
• marknadssocialism (“market socialism”)
• nationalsocialism (“National Socialism”)
• realsocialism
• statssocialism
• ungsocialism
• vänstersocialism

• social (“social”)
• socialisation (“socialisation, socialization”)
• socialisera (“socialise, socialize”)
• socialisering (“socialisation, socialization”)
• socialist (“socialist, Socialist”)
• socialistisk (“socialist, socialistic, Socialist (all adjectives)”)

• socialism in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• socialism in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• socialism in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)