which countries are socialist 
today most countries in the world feature some aspects of socialism even in the united states but especially in countries found in europe and asia only a few are full blown pure socialist marxist leninist communist economies the people s republic of china cuba laos vietnam and north korea the ussr also was but the soviet union collapsed in the 1990s the bottom linethe economic and political system of socialism has been a part of human existence in theory or practice for many centuries it espouses the collective ownership of the means of production and places the importance of state control above that of the individual proponents believe that it creates equality and provides workers with security critics claim that it neglects essential human behavior socialism contrasts with capitalism a system based on a free market economy and private ownership 