Socialist state

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• Strictly speaking, any real or hypothetical state organized along the principles of socialism
  Socialism
  
  Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating public or state ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, and a society characterized by equality for all individuals, with a fair or Egalitarianism method of compensation....
   may be called a socialist state. The term socialist republic is used by those socialists who wish to emphasize that they favour a republic
  Republic
  
  A republic is a state or country that is not led by a hereditary monarch but in which the people have an impact on its government. The word originates from the Latin term res publica....
  an form of government. Furthermore, since socialism purports to represent the interests of the working class
  Working class
  
  Working class is a term used in academic sociology and in ordinary conversation to describe, depending on context and speaker, those employed in specific fields or types of work....
  , many socialists refer to a state organized according to their principles as a workers' state.

• According to Marxism
  Marxism
  
  Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism holds at its core a Marxist analysis of Critique of capitalism and a theory of social change....
  , socialism is a stage of social and economic development that will replace capitalism
  Capitalism
  
  Capitalism is an economic system in which wealth, and the means of producing wealth, are private property and controlled rather than commonly, publicly, or state-owned and controlled....
  , and will in turn be replaced by communism
  Communism
  
  Communism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarianism, classlessness, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general....
  . Thus, in Marxist terms, a socialist state is a state that has abolished capitalism and is moving towards communism.

• Several past and present states have claimed to follow some form of Marxist ideology, usually Marxism-Leninism
  Marxism-Leninism
  
  Marxism-Leninism is a communist ideology stream that emerged as the mainstream tendency among the Communist parties in the 1920s as it was adopted as the ideological foundation of the Communist International during Stalin's era....
  . Thus, in accordance with the definition given above, they referred to themselves as socialist states. The first example was the Soviet Union
  Soviet Union
  
  The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
  , which was proclaimed a "socialist state" in its 1936 Constitution
  1936 Soviet Constitution
  
  The 1936 Soviet constitution, adopted on December 5, 1936, and also known as the "Stalin" constitution, redesigned the government of the Soviet Union....
   and a subsequent 1977 one
  1977 Soviet Constitution
  
  At the Seventh Session of the Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Ninth Convocation on October 7, 1977, the fourth and last Soviet Constitution, also known as the "Brezhnev Constitution", was unanimously adopted....
  . Another well-known example is the People's Republic of China
  People's Republic of China
  
  The People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the List of countries by population in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately a fifth of the world's population....
  , which is a "socialist state" according to its 1982 Constitution of the People's Republic of China
  Constitution of the People's Republic of China
  
  The Constitution of the People's Republic of China is the highest law within the People's Republic of China. The current version was adopted by the 5th National People's Congress on December 4, 1982 with further revisions in 1988, 1993, 1999, and 2004....
  . In the West, such states are commonly known as "communist state
  Communist state
  
  Communist state is a term used by many political scientists to describe a form of government in which the state operates under a single-party state and declares allegiance to Marxism-Leninism or a derivative thereof....
  s" (though they do not use this term to refer to themselves).

• Some other countries use the term "socialist" in their official name or constitution without claiming to follow Marxism or any of its derivatives. In such cases, the intended meaning of "socialism" can vary widely, and sometimes the constitutional references to socialism are left over from a previous period in the country's history. Examples of countries using the word "socialist" in a non-Marxist sense in their names include the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
  Sri Lanka
  
  Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is an island country in South Asia, located about off the southern coast of India....
   and the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
  Libya
  
  Libya , officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya , is a country located in North Africa. Bordering the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Libya lies between Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
  . Countries with non-Marxist references to socialism in their constitutions include India
  India
  
  India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
   and Portugal
  Portugal
  
  Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Located in southwestern Europe, Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east....
  .

• Because there are several different branches of socialism, a country's claim to the label of "socialist state" or "socialist republic" is almost always disputed by some branch. Indeed, there are many socialists who strongly oppose certain (or all) self-proclaimed socialist republics. Trotskyists
  Trotskyism
  
  Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an Orthodox Marxism and Bolshevik-Leninism, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party....
  , for instance, are particularly known for their opposition to Communist states.

See also

• List of socialist countries
  List of socialist countries
  
  This is a list of countries, past and present, that declared themselves socialism either in their names or their constitutions. No other criteria are used; thus, some or all of these countries may not fit any specific definition of socialism....
  
• Bureaucratic collectivism
  Bureaucratic collectivism
  
  Bureaucratic collectivism is a theory of social class society. It is used by some Trotskyisms to describe the nature of the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, and other similar states in Central Europe and Eastern Europe and elsewhere ....
  
• Communist state
  Communist state
  
  Communist state is a term used by many political scientists to describe a form of government in which the state operates under a single-party state and declares allegiance to Marxism-Leninism or a derivative thereof....
  
• Legislatures in communist states
• Deformed workers' state
  Deformed workers' state
  
  In Trotskyism political theory, deformed workers' states are states where the bourgeoisie has been overthrown through social revolution, the industrial means of production have been largely nationalized bringing benefits to the working class, but where the working class has never held political power ....
  
• Degenerated workers' state
  Degenerated workers' state
  
  In Trotskyist political theory the term degenerated workers' state has been used since the 1930s to describe the state of the Soviet Union after Stalin's consolidation of power in or about 1924....
  
• Dictatorship of the proletariat
  Dictatorship of the proletariat
  
  The "dictatorship of the proletariat" or workers' state is a term employed by Marxists that refers to what they see as a temporary state between the capitalism society and the classless, stateless and moneyless Communism society....
  
• Socialism
  Socialism
  
  Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating public or state ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, and a society characterized by equality for all individuals, with a fair or Egalitarianism method of compensation....
  
• State capitalism
  State capitalism
  
  State capitalism, for Marxism and heterodox economics is a way to describe a society wherein the productive forces are owned and run by the state in a capitalist way, even if such a state calls itself socialist....
  
• State socialism
  State socialism
  
  State socialism, broadly speaking, is any variety of socialism which relies on control of the means of production by the state, either through state ownership or regulation....