Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Socialism
So′cial-ism
,Noun.
[Cf. F.
socialisme
.] A theory or system of social reform which contemplates a complete reconstruction of society, with a more just and equitable distribution of property and labor. In popular usage, the term is often employed to indicate any lawless, revolutionary social scheme. See
Communism
, Fourierism
, Saint-Simonianism
, forms of socialism. [
Socialism
] was first applied in England to Owen’s theory of social reconstruction, and in France to those also of St. Simon and Fourier . . . The word, however, is used with a great variety of meaning, . . . even by economists and learned critics. The general tendency is to regard as socialistic any interference undertaken by society on behalf of the poor, . . . radical social reform which disturbs the present system of private property . . . The tendency of the present socialism
is more and more to ally itself with the most advanced democracy. Encyc. Brit.
We certainly want a true history of
socialism
, meaning by that a history of every systematic attempt to provide a new social existence for the mass of the workers. F. Harrison.