an economic and political theory advocating collective or state ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
an economic or political system based on this
The social emphasis in socialism is shown by the fact that, in the 19th cent., it was contrasted often with individualism rather than with capitalism. The democratic state apparently offered a means of achieving socialism by consent – a strategy to which social democrats adhered, despite electoral setbacks, while Communists instead opted for the shortcut of revolution and autocracy — Professor Peter Clarke
in Marxist theory, a transitional stage of society in which the means of production is under collective control but goods are distributed according to work done
socialist adj and noun
socialistic adj