What is socialist party?

Answer 1

A socialist party is, in theory at least, a political party that argues for and works towards the transformation of society in a socialist direction. Armed with a socialist ideology, socialist parties seek political power to reform the economy from one based on private ownership to one based on common ownership.

Although this is a very broad definition of a socialist party, the historical divisions, schisms and splits within the socialist movement inevitably make it difficult to answer the question in a few paragraphs. Socialist parties have often disagreed on what socialism means, how socialism should be achieved, and what role the socialist party should take. Arguably the most important divisions arose after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, led by the socialist Bolshevik Party. Power was taken through revolution and violence, socialist transformation was enacted from above and often undemocratically, and the Bolshevik/Communist Party assigned itself a vanguard/dictatorial role within the new society.

On the other hand, more moderate socialist parties at the time (including the SPD in Germany) advocated a parliamentary and constitutional route to socialism, based on democracy. Socialism would be achieved gradually and by peaceful means, and capitalism would slowly wither away.