Socialism Timeline

In the first half of the 20th century, the Soviet Union and the communist parties of the Third International came to represent socialism in terms of the Soviet model of centrally planned economies directed by a state owning all means of production, though other trends condemned the lack of democracy.

Image source: Soviet Union

Influenced by Lenin, the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party stated that the development of the socialist workers' culture should not be 'hamstrung from above' and opposed the Proletkult (1917–1925) organisational control of the national culture.

Image source: Proletkult

The distinction between communism and socialism became salient in 1918 after the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party renamed itself to the All-Russian Communist Party, interpreting communism specifically to mean socialists who supported Bolshevism, Leninism and later Marxism–Leninism.

Image source: Russian Social Democratic Labour Party

By the early 1920s, communism and social democracy had become the two dominant political tendencies within the international socialist movement, with socialism itself becoming the most influential secular movement of the 20th century.

Trotsky's writings on literature such as his 1923 survey which advocated tolerance, limited censorship and respect for literary tradition had strong appeal to the New York Intellectuals.

Image source: Leon Trotsky

In his Dictionary of Socialism (1924), Angelo S. Rappoport documented the evolving definitions and varieties of socialist thought in the early 20th century.

Trotsky would later co-author the 1938 Manifesto for an Independent Revolutionary Art with the endorsement of prominent artists Andre Breton and Diego Rivera.

The establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 saw socialism introduced, eventually developing into a system combining a large state sector controlling the commanding heights of the economy with a growing private sector.

Image source: China

This system substituted Yugoslavia's Soviet-type central planning with a decentralised, self-managed system after reforms in 1953, creating a distinctive model of workers' self-management.

Image source: Socialist self-management

This ideology influenced the policies of the British Labour Party during Clement Attlee's 1945 administration, including nationalisation of coal mines in 1947 and the creation of British Shipbuilders combining major shipbuilding companies.

Image source: Attlee ministry

By 1968, the prolonged Vietnam War gave rise to the New Left, socialists who tended to be critical of the Soviet Union and social democracy, energized by events like the May 1968 insurrection in France and the Stonewall riots of 1969.

Image source: New Left

In 1972, the Chicago Women's Liberation Union published 'Socialist Feminism: A Strategy for the Women's Movement', which is believed to be the first published use of the term 'socialist feminism'.

In The Concepts of Socialism (1975), Bhikhu Parekh identifies four core principles of socialism and particularly socialist society, namely sociality, social responsibility, cooperation and planning.

Image source: Bhikhu Parekh

In 1989, the Soviet Union saw the end of communism, marked by the Revolutions of 1989 across Eastern Europe, culminating in the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Many countries moved away from socialism as a neoliberal consensus replaced the social democratic consensus in the advanced capitalist world.

Image source: Revolutions of 1989

Mainstream social democratic and socialist parties are networked in Europe in the Party of European Socialists formed in 1992, coordinating center-left politics at the European level.

Image source: Party of European Socialists

In his study Ideologies and Political Theory (1996), Michael Freeden states that all socialists share five themes: society is more than a collection of individuals; human welfare is desirable; humans are active and productive; human equality; and progressive history creating positive change through human effort.

Image source: Michael Freeden

Many mainstream socialist parties lost large parts of their electoral base in the early 21st century. This phenomenon is known as Pasokification from the Greek party PASOK, which declined from 43.9% in 2009 to 4.7% in 2015 due to its poor handling of the Greek government-debt crisis and austerity measures.

Image source: Pasokification

In 1990, the São Paulo Forum was launched by the Workers' Party (Brazil), linking left-wing socialist parties in Latin America. Its members were associated with the pink tide of left-wing governments on the continent in the early 21st century.

Image source: São Paulo Forum

Member parties ruling countries included the Front for Victory in Argentina, the PAIS Alliance in Ecuador, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front in El Salvador, Peru Wins in Peru, and the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, whose leader Hugo Chávez initiated what he called 'Socialism of the 21st century'.

Image source: United Socialist Party of Venezuela

Socialism experienced a resurgence in popularity in the 2010s due to the 2008 global financial crisis, which discredited neoliberal orthodoxy and renewed interest in socialist ideas among younger generations.

On the right of the socialist movement, the Progressive Alliance was founded in 2013 by current or former members of the Socialist International, offering an alternative network for social democratic parties.

Image source: Progressive Alliance

The decline of mainstream parties opened space for more radical and populist left parties, such as Spain's Podemos, Greece's Syriza (in government, 2015–19), Germany's Die Linke, and France's La France Insoumise. In Europe, the share of votes for socialist parties was at its 70-year lowest in 2015.

A 2018 IPSOS poll found 50% of respondents globally agreed socialist values were valuable for societal progress. A 2019 Axios poll found 70% of US millennials willing to vote for a socialist candidate; a 2021 IEA survey found 67% of young Britons wanted a socialist economic system; and a 2023 IPSOS poll found a majority of the British public favoured public ownership of utilities.