state socialism

noun

|Updated on: 5 May 2018

Definition of state socialism

: an economic system with limited socialist characteristics that is effected by gradual state action and typically includes public ownership of major industries and remedial measures to benefit the working class

Recent Examples of state socialism from the Web

Herbert Hoover, who could justifiably campaign as a progressive Republican, pigeonholed Smith as an advocate of state socialism (the same epithet that a spiteful Smith would hurl at Roosevelt in 1936).

— sam roberts, New York Times, "Trailblazers in Politics and Civil Rights," 19 Apr. 2018
Yet since the country cast off state socialism in the 1980s, crony capitalists have come to control the Communist Party.

— alice han and, WSJ, "China’s Awkward Debt Problem," 7 July 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'state socialism.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.