SOCIALISM

A scheme of government aiming at absolute equality in the distribution, of the physical means of life and enjoyment It is on the continent employed in a larger sense; not necessarily implying communism, or the entire abolition of private property, but applied to any system which requires that the land and the instruments of production should be the property, not of individuals, but of communities or associations or of the government 1 Mill, Pol. Econ. 28.