Ideology committed to popular, constitutional rule and the protection of basic rights while maintaining that key aspects of economic life must be publicly owned, or socially controlled, to ensure an equitable distribution of the community's wealth.

An economic and political system that combines private ownership of some of the means of production, governmental distribution of some essential goods and services, and free elections.

A variation of socialist ideology that threats greater egalitarianism as its primary goal, but also assumes that such goals can and should be implemented by a government that comes to power and rules by democratic means, not by violence and repression. Under democratic socialism the government might own some of the major economic resources and regulate much of the economy, but it does not attempt to plan and control all aspects of the economic system.