socialism
    n 1: a political theory advocating state ownership of industry
    2: an economic system based on state ownership of capital [syn:
       socialism, socialist economy] [ant: capitalism,
       capitalist economy]

Socialism \So"cial*ism\, n. [Cf. F. socialisme.]
   A theory or system of social reform which contemplates a
   complete reconstruction of society, with a more just and
   equitable distribution of property and labor. In popular
   usage, the term is often employed to indicate any lawless,
   revolutionary social scheme. See Communism, Fourierism,
   Saint-Simonianism, forms of socialism.
   [1913 Webster]

         [Socialism] was first applied in England to Owen's
         theory of social reconstruction, and in France to those
         also of St. Simon and Fourier . . . The word, however,
         is used with a great variety of meaning, . . . even by
         economists and learned critics. The general tendency is
         to regard as socialistic any interference undertaken by
         society on behalf of the poor, . . . radical social
         reform which disturbs the present system of private
         property . . . The tendency of the present socialism is
         more and more to ally itself with the most advanced
         democracy.                               --Encyc. Brit.
   [1913 Webster]

         We certainly want a true history of socialism, meaning
         by that a history of every systematic attempt to
         provide a new social existence for the mass of the
         workers.                                 --F. Harrison.
   [1913 Webster]

   Socialism of the chair [G. katheder socialismus], a term
      applied about 1872, at first in ridicule, to a group of
      German political economists who advocated state aid for
      the betterment of the working classes.
      [Webster 1913 Suppl.]