Confused - Times Two Socialism is a failed ideology. It was the avant-garde approach to how to do government - in the Twentieth Century. The Soviet Union was the flagship petri dish. That conquered, infiltrated or ingratiated themselves with many other nations - to establish them as additional petri dishes (Hello, Cuba). We certainly now have a large enough, long enough sample set - and the results are in. The system is contaminated - Socialism does not work.