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Article: Socialism
- Article from:
- Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History
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SOCIALISM
The word
socialism
was coined in 1832 by Pierre Leroux, editor of the Parisian journal,
Le Globe
. The doctrine of socialism took on many different meanings as it grew and expanded from western Europe to Russia, the United States, Asia, and Australia. In the days of the Soviet Union, it was a common popular misconception that Russians invented both socialism and communism and exported them, when in fact they borrowed these creeds from western Europe and developed their own versions.
All socialist theories are critical of wealth and the concentration of wealth in private hands; all of them advocate the elimination of poverty by equalizing the distribution of wealth, most often ...