Socialist State

A socialist state (or socialist republic) generally refers to any state that is constitutionally dedicated to the construction of a socialist society. It is closely related to the political strategy of "state socialism", a set of ideologies that posit that a socialist economy can be established through government policies. Alternatively, the term Workers' State is used to describe a state where the working class controls the machinery of government, but has not yet established a socialist economy. Both of these concepts are distinguished from a socialist government, which generally refers to a liberal democratic state presided over by an elected majority socialist party, which does not necessarily have to be pursuing the development of socialism, and where the state apparatus is not constitutionally bound to the construction of a socialist system.

Non-statist socialists, such as anarcho-socialists, libertarian socialists, and council communists, reject the concept of a "socialist state" altogether, believing that the modern state is a byproduct of capitalism and cannot be used, or is not required, for the establishment of a socialist system. They reason that a "socialist state" is antithetical to socialism, and that socialism will emerge spontaneously from the grass-roots level in an evolutionary manner, developing its own unique political and economic institutions for a highly-organized stateless society.

The phrase Socialist state, or Communist state in the West, is widely used by Leninists and Marxist–Leninists in reference to a state under the control of a vanguard party that is organizing the economic, social, and political affairs of said state toward the construction of socialism. This often includes at least the "commanding heights" of the economy to be nationalised, usually operated according to a plan of production, at least in the major production and social spheres. Under the Leninist definition, the socialist state presides over a state capitalist economy structured upon state-directed accumulation of capital, with the goal of building up the country's productive forces and promoting worldwide socialist revolution, with the eventual long-term goal of building a socialist economy.

Most theories assume widespread democracy, and some assume workers' democratic participation at every level of economic and state administration, while varying in the degree to which economic planning decisions are delegated to public officials and administrative specialists. States where democracy is lacking, yet the economy is largely in the hands of the state, are termed by orthodox Trotskyist theories as "workers' states" but not socialist states, using the terms "degenerated" or "deformed" workers' states.

In the early 21st century, right leaning commentators (especially in the United States) have come to use the term "socialist state" to describe states that provide welfare provisions, such as healthcare and unemployment benefits, despite the economic basis of such states being capitalist in nature, privatized and operated for profit.