Socialism

Socialism refers to any of various economic and political concepts of collective ownership and administration of the means of production and sharing of goods and services some of which have been developed as more or less highly articulated and developed theory and/or praxis. In a Marxist or labor-movement definition of the term, socialism is a phase of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done with the goal of creating a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to control by the community. This power may be exercised on behalf of the state, through a market, or through popular collectives such as workers' councils and cooperatives. As an economic system, socialism is often characterized by state, cooperative, or worker ownership of the means of production, goals which have been qualified to, and claimed by, a number of political parties and governments