List of socialist states


Several past and present states have declared themselves socialist states or in the process of building socialism. The majority of self-declared socialist countries have been Marxist–Leninist or inspired by it, following the model of the Soviet Union or some form of people's or national democracy. They share a common definition of socialism and they refer to themselves as socialist states on the road to communism with a leading vanguard party structure, hence they are often called communist states. Meanwhile, the countries in the non-Marxist–Leninist category represent a wide variety of different interpretations of the term socialism and in many cases the countries do not define what they mean by it. Modern uses of the term socialism are wide in meaning and interpretation.
As a sovereign state is one different entity from the political party that rules that state at any given time, a country may be ruled by a socialist party without the country itself claiming to be socialist or the socialist party being written into the constitution. This has occurred in both one-party and multi-party political systems. In particular, there are numerous cases of social democratic and democratic socialist parties winning elections in liberal democratic states and ruling for a number of terms until a different party wins the elections. While socialist parties have won many elections around the world and most elections in the Nordic countries, many of those countries have not adopted socialism as a state ideology or written the party into the constitution.
Several countries with liberal democratic constitutions mention socialism. India is a liberal democracy that has been ruled by non-socialist parties on many occasions, but its constitution makes references to socialism. Certain other countries such as Croatia, Hungary, Myanmar and Poland have constitutions that make references to their communist and socialist past by recognizing or condemning it, but without claiming to be socialist in the present.

Overview

is the only criterion used by the list, therefore it includes all countries that have claimed to be socialist, even if their claims are disputed. All countries that have not claimed to be socialist are excluded, even in cases where certain outside observers regarded those countries as socialist.
The list includes countries that assert in their constitutions that they are based on socialism, regardless of their economic or political system. It does not list countries that do not have constitutional references to socialism as socialist states, even in cases where the government is currently run by a socialist party or other left-wing parties. Inversely, countries that do maintain constitutional references to socialism are listed, even when those countries are ruled by non-socialist parties. The list is best understood as a list of countries that explicitly claim to be socialist and it does not reflect the actual economic systems themselves.
The following images are a combined map of all countries that declared themselves socialist states under any definition at some point in their history, including recognition by the Soviet Union, color-coded for the number of years they said they were socialist:

Current socialist states

Marxist–Leninist states

Non-Marxist–Leninist states

Countries with constitutional references to socialism

Socialist territories with limited recognition

These are territories that have claimed independence or autonomy and have declared themselves socialist under some interpretation of the term. While these territories have created stable institutions of governance that have existed for a considerable period of the time, they are not widely recognized as states by the international community and officially belong to other sovereign states under international law.

Marxist–Leninist states

Non-Marxist–Leninist states

Ephemeral socialist states

These are short-lived political entities that emerged during wars or revolutions and declared themselves socialist under some interpretation of the term, but which did not survive long enough to create a stable government or achieve international recognition.
There are multi-party states with communist or socialist parties leading the government, sometimes together. Such states are not considered to be communist or socialist states because the countries themselves allow for multiple parties and do not provide a constitutional role for their communist parties or socialism. This list does not include socialist parties following social democracy which governed most of the Western world as part of the mainstream centre-left. It mainly includes democratic socialist parties positioned to their left.
CountryPartyElectoral coalitionElectionLower houseUpper houseOfficial ideology
National Liberation Front—2017Arab socialism
People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola—2017—Democratic socialism
Vanguardism
Awami LeagueGrand Alliance2018—Socialism
Workers Party of BangladeshGrand Alliance2018—Marxism–Leninism
Jatiya Samajtantrik DalGrand Alliance2018—Socialism
Barbados Labour Party—2018Democratic socialism
Congolese Party of Labour—2017—Democratic socialism
People's Rally for ProgressUnion for the Presidential Majority2018—Democratic socialism
PAIS Alliance:es:Frente UNIDOS|Frente UNIDOS2017—Socialism of the 21st century
African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde—2014—Democratic socialism
People's National Congress—2015—Democratic socialism
Militant Socialist Movement—2014—Democratic socialism
Muvman Liberater—2014—Democratic socialism
Rodrigues People's Organisation—2014—Democratic socialism
Mozambique Liberation Front—2014—Democratic socialism
South West African People's Organisation—2019—Socialism
Nepal Communist Party—2017People's Multiparty Democracy
Sandinista National Liberation Front—2016—Sandinismo
Socialist Party—2019—Democratic socialism
Unity Labour Party—2015—Democratic socialism
African National Congress—2019—Socialism
Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria RegionNational Progressive Front2016—Arab socialism
Party of the Revolution—2015—Democratic socialism
Communist Party of UruguayBroad Front2019Marxism–Leninism
Movement of Popular ParticipationBroad Front2019Socialism of the 21st century
United Socialist Party of VenezuelaGreat Patriotic Pole2015
Socialism of the 21st century
Communist Party of VenezuelaGreat Patriotic Pole2015
Marxism–Leninism
Republican Bicentennial VanguardGreat Patriotic Pole2015
Chavismo
Patriotic Front—2016—Democratic socialism

Examples of direct communist party rule in multi-party democracies and constitutionally socialist states include:


These ruling communist parties have won elections and governed in the context of multi-party liberal democracies without seeking to establish a one-party state and therefore the listed entities do not fall under the typical definition of a socialist or communist state.