One is almost tempted to say "socialisms," for philosophies from
Anarchism to
Marxism to
Social Democracy claim to be
socialist. It is the favored
definition of
G.D.H. Cole, a
Guild Socialist, that I usually employ: "
democracy and the classless
society."
Socialism generally implies that those who
labor will democratically control the
means of production and the fruits of their own labor. By this logic, one cannot say that many of the states that claimed to be socialistic were; for the factories and industry were not controlled by the workers, even indirectly through a
democratic mechanism.
But who am I to say what socialism is? Does it seem
sectarian? The term has been
used and abused by so many that it has lost much meaning.
Of course,
YMMV.