Socialism as a Socio-economic System

European societies had been developing capitalist institutions for a couple of centuries before — in the first half of the last century — the term capitalism appeared. Thus, the term simply denoted the socio-economic system that already existed. At about the same time the term socialism was also introduced. But it denoted a system which did not exist, which was yet to be created. Of all known social systems, socialism is the only one that exists as a project, not as a fact. A project can be accomplished in different ways or fail to be accomplished at all.