Liberal socialism

Liberal socialism is a socialist political philosophy that includes liberal principles within it. Liberal socialism does not have the goal of completely abolishing capitalism and replacing it with socialism; instead, it supports a mixed economy that includes both private property and social ownership in capital goods.

Although liberal socialism unequivocally favors a mixed market economy, it identifies legalistic and artificial monopolies to be the fault of capitalism and opposes an entirely unregulated economy. It considers both liberty and equality to be compatible and mutually dependent on each other. Principles that can be described as "liberal socialist" are based on the works of philosophers such as Mill, Bernstein, Dewey, Rosselli, Bobbio, Mouffe and Polanyi. Other important liberal socialist figures include Calogero, Gobetti, Hobhouse, Keynes, and Tawney. Liberal socialism has been particularly prominent in British and Italian politics.

Liberal socialist's seminal ideas can be traced to John Stuart Mill. Mill theorised that capitalist societies should experience a gradual process of socialisation through work-controlled enterprises, coexisting with private enterprises. Mill rejected centralised models of socialism, that could discourage competition and creativity, but argued that representation is essential in a free government and democracy could not subsist if economic opportunities were not well distributed, therefore conceiving democracy not just as form of representative government, but as an entire social organisation.

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