For the politically uninitiated: Socialism exists nowhere in the world (except perhaps North Korea)!
Howzat? Definition of socialism (from
here):
The notion of socialism has evolved into what is more commonly employed today as "Social Democracy". Which has this definition (from
here):
A mixed-economy is totally based upon "capitalism", which is defined as:
Moreso, capital is also a medium-of-exchange for goods and services as defined by:
Which means in most economies that there is a mixture of "trade and industry"
some of which may be run by governments on a non-profit basis. In today's modern economies, those examples in which government participation is most evident are the key elements of HealthCare and Education. (Whilst some states go a bit further and control the supply of Energy.)
The key aspect of a Social Democracy is that there is a balance between services provided by states/governments and and private companies. Whyzzat?
Because some components of any market-economy require government control because the availability of product/services is of such of such importance that governments have guaranteed their provision at acceptable costs.
What is the key aspect of Social Democracies? It is Income Taxation that prevents Income Disparity (or Unfairness) - which ipso-facto becomes an
essential public guarantee of any national governance. Typical of such key public provisions (beyond defense, policing, etc.) of Social Democracies are those of National Healthcare and Education (primary/secondary and tertiary) levels!
Thus there is no clear distinction in any country today as to its level of Social Democracy (and thus government provision of
key services) - but the broadness/depth of those provisions does differentiate most countries today ...
