ABSTRACT
The future of socialism is often debated as if socialism had a single past. In the 1980s the radical right have tried to bury socialism. One of their best tactics in doing so has been to identify socialism with the authoritarian states and failing economies of the communist world. Western socialism can then be presented as a lesser version of this greater failure, but sharing essential features of authoritarian collectivism and economic stagnation. Socialism is defined by the right in terms of the triad of collective ownership, state intervention and centralized planning, and it is still defended by some of its supporters in those terms.
