Defining Socialism

Socialism can be defined in two ways: as an ideology based on property-rights infringements or as an ideology based on economic redistribution. History has labeled the former version “communism” and the latter “democratic socialism,” less often “the welfare state.” These two definitions of socialism share one common ideological end goal, namely the elimination of economic differences between individual citizens. Rather than being separate, the two definitions represent different political methodologies for reaching the socialist ideological end goal. The property-rights definition, a.k.a., communism, cannot coexist with a democratic government; the redistributive definition, a.k.a., democratic socialism, is at least theoretically compatible with parliamentary democracy.