State socialism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
State socialism, broadly speaking, is any variety of socialism which relies on ownership of the means of production by the state. State socialism is often referred to simply as "socialism"; the attributive "state" is usually added only by socialists with a different vision, wishing to criticise state socialism.
Today, many political parties on the political left advocate a mild version of what may be considered "state socialism", in the form of social democracy. These moderate socialists do not advocate the overthrow of capitalism in a socialist revolution, and they support the continuing existence of the capitalist state and the capitalist economic system, only turned to more social purposes.
Democratic Socialists argue for a gradual, peaceful transition from capitalism to (full) socialism. They wish to abolish capitalism, but through evolution rather than revolution.
In contrast, Marxism holds that a socialist revolution is the only practical way to implement fundamental changes in the capitalist system. Some Marxists maintain that after a certain period of time under socialism, the state should "wither away" (in the sense that political power should be decentralized and distributed evenly among the population), producing a communist society.
Of course, the state did not, in fact, wither away in the 20th century's so-called Communist states. Some Marxists defend them and contend that the transitional period simply wasn't finished. Other Marxists denounce those "Communist" states as Stalinist, arguing that their leadership was corrupt and that it abandoned Marxism in all but name. In particular, some Trotskyist schools of Marxism call those countries state socialist to contrast them with proper socialism; other Trotskyist schools call them state capitalist, to emphasise the lack of true socialism.
Libertarian socialists go further, deriding even Marxism as state socialism. They use the term in contrast with their own form of socialism, which involves collective ownership of the means of production without state intervention.
