What Is Socialism?

Socialism is a type of political theory or system that deals with social organisation. It advocates in general that the means of producing or distributing goods is controlled and owned by a centralized authority or government. It is this government that controls and plans measures within a society. It is a kind of Marxist-Leninist philosophy that seeks a cooperative society rather than one based on the effects of competition as advocated by capitalism.

Socialism in politics has been associated with mostly the communist countries of the cold war. It however did exist in democratic societies such as India, Denmark and other European countries as well. Communism is supposed to be a more militant and leftist form of socialism. It is considered as an alternative model of governing by those who have seen the ill effects of capitalism.

SOCIALISM
There are different types of economic system, these includes socialism, capitalism, communism, syndicalism, mixed economy and Islamic economic system. Socialism refers to such an economic system wherein the state own all mean of productions and all aspect of nation life are decided by the central authority. Socialism replaces the private enterprise with the state enterprise, private ownership with the social ownership and the personal profit with the national profit. All citizens' works according to their ability for achieve the national goals. State planning is undertaken for the utilization of the national recourses for type social and economic development of the country. Some features are:
There is no private enterprise. Instead state enterprise is set up. All the enterprises and all the economic activities are guided by the social benefit. No one has to work for personal profits. The central planning is most important feature of the socialism. The central planning makes the economic plans so as to mobilize and utilize national resources for national development, progress and the prosperity. Its basic purpose is to provide equal opportunities of life to all citizens without any discrimination. There are all members of the same society with equal opportunities. All income goes to the state who distributes income according to needs. Although there is no absolute income equality, yet there is no such income in-equality as in the case of capitalism.