socialism
English
Etymology
Attested since 1832; either from French socialisme or from social + -ism.
Pronunciation
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈsoʊʃəlɪzəm/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈsəʊʃəlɪzəm/
Audio (UK) (file)
- Hyphenation: so‧cial‧ism
Noun
socialism (usually uncountable, plural socialisms)
- Any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.
- 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…
- 1918, National Economic League Quarterly, page 19
- 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.
- 1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn, Pt. II:
- A system of social and economic equality in which there is no private property.
- (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.
- 1978, Daniel Bell, The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism, Basic Books, page xii:
- 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.
- (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.
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Antonyms
- capitalism
- free enterprise
Derived terms
- authoritarian socialism
- Buddhist socialism
- champagne socialism
- Christian socialism
- democratic socialism
- Dhammic socialism
- eco-socialism
- ethical socialism
- Eurosocialism
- evolutionary socialism
- Fabian socialism, Fabianism
- guild socialism
- identity socialism
- international socialism
- Islamic socialism
- Jewish socialism
- lectern socialism
- lemon socialism
- liberal socialism
- libertarian socialism
- market socialism
- National Socialism
- penthouse socialism
- presocialism
- professorial socialism
- real socialism
- religious socialism
- revolutionary socialism
- Ricardian socialism
- scientific socialism
- secular socialism
- silver-spoon socialism
- Smithian socialism
- socialism in one country
- socialism of the chair
- socialism with a human face
- state socialism
- utopian socialism
Related terms
- social
- social democracy
- social democrat
- social democratic
- socialisation
- socialise
- socialist
- socialistic
- socialistically
- socialization
- socialize
Translations
political philosophy of social and economic equality
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group of socialist political philosophies
|
intermediate phase of social development
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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See also
- anarchism
- authoritarianism
- autonomism
- Bernsteinism
- Blairism
- bolshevism
- Bolshevism
- Bushism
- capitalism
- Clintonism
- collectivism
- communism
- Communism
- conservatism
- fascism
- Fascism
- free enterprise
- Gaitskellism
- Gorbachevism
- Hitlerism
- individualism
- justicialism
- Khrushchevism
- Kirchnerism
- Leninism
- liberalism
- Maoism
- Marxism
- Marxism-Leninism
- Peronism
- Pétainism
- progressivism
- Reaganism
- Rooseveltism
- syndicalism
- Stalinism
- Thatcherism
- Titoism
- totalitarianism
- trade unionism
- Trotskyism
- Trudeauism
- Trumpism
References
- Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “socialism”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
- “socialism”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
- “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.
Anagrams
- sialomics
Romanian
Etymology
From French socialisme.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /so.t͡ʃi.aˈlism/
Noun
socialism n (uncountable)
- socialism
Declension
declension of socialism (singular only)
| singular | ||
|---|---|---|
| n gender | indefinite articulation | definite articulation |
| nominative/accusative | (un) socialism | socialismul |
| genitive/dative | (unui) socialism | socialismului |
| vocative | socialismule | |
Further reading
- socialism in DEX online - Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)
Swedish
Etymology
Borrowed from French socialisme. By surface analysis, social + -ism. Attested since 1848.
Noun
socialism c
- socialism
Declension
| Declension of socialism | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | |||
| Indefinite | Definite | Indefinite | Definite | |
| Nominative | socialism | socialismen | socialismer | socialismerna |
| Genitive | socialisms | socialismens | socialismers | socialismernas |
Antonyms
- kapitalism (“capitalism”)
Derived terms
- fondsocialism
- katedersocialism
- marknadssocialism (“market socialism”)
- nationalsocialism (“National Socialism”)
- realsocialism
- statssocialism
- ungsocialism
- vänstersocialism
Related terms
- social (“social”)
- socialisation (“socialisation, socialization”)
- socialisera (“socialise, socialize”)
- socialisering (“socialisation, socialization”)
- socialist (“socialist, Socialist”)
- socialistisk (“socialist, socialistic, Socialist (all adjectives)”)