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State socialism, broadly speaking, is any variety of socialism which relies on ownership of the means of production by the state. State socialism is often referred to simply as "socialism"; the attributive "state" is usually added only by socialists with a different vision, wishing to criticizestate socialism. Some socialists prefer to call the system state capitalism. In this way public ownership through nationalization is held to be the preferred method for building socialism. Other socialists believe in a more decentralized approach which puts the means of production directly into the hands of the working class as opposed to indirectly through state bureaucracies which they claim represent a new elite. Proponents of state socialism claim the state, through practical considerations of governing, must play a temporary part in building socialism.

Today, many political parties on the political left advocate a mild version of what may be considered "state socialism", in the form of social democracy. These moderate socialists do not advocate the overthrow of capitalism in a socialist revolution, and they support the continuing existence of the capitalist state and the capitalist economic system, only turned to more social purposes.

Some Democratic Socialists argue for a gradual, peaceful transition from capitalism to (full) socialism. They wish to abolish capitalism, but through evolution rather than revolution.

In contrast, Marxism holds that a socialist revolution is the only practical way to implement fundamental changes in the capitalist system. Some Marxists maintain that after a certain period of time under socialism, the state should "wither away" (in the sense that political power should be decentralized and distributed evenly among the population), producing a communist society.

Of course, the state did not, in fact, wither away in the 20th century's so-called Communist states. Some Marxists defend them and contend that the transitional period simply wasn't finished. Other Marxists denounce those "Communist" states as Stalinist, arguing that their leadership was corrupt and that it abandoned Marxism in all but name. In particular, some Trotskyist schools of Marxism call those countries degenerated workers' states to contrast them with proper socialism (i.e. workers' states); other Trotskyist schools call them state capitalist, to emphasise the lack of true socialism.

Many libertarian socialists and anarchists go further, deriding even Marxism as state socialism. They use the term in contrast with their own form of socialism, which involves collective ownership of the means of production without state intervention.

• New class
• State capitalism
• Bureaucratic collectivism
• Coordinatorism
• Degenerated workers state
• Deformed workers state
• Planned economy