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They all bear some traits of a socialist system, true socialist or not, hence my all-encompassing vote. And no, socialism is not automatically a bad thing. I believe there's good and bad in both camps. It's not like capitalism doesn't have a few skeletons in its closet.
There are very few self declared Socialist countries. Those being North Korea, China, Laos, Cuba, and Vietnam. I would not want to live in any of those countries.
I think there is a huge difference between countries with social policies/tendencies and true socialist countries. All of the countries on your list have varying degrees of social policies, but none of them are true socialist countries.
Just going off the list of self-declared socialist countries, I'm going to wager that true socialism is a bad thing.
Spain is governed by a nominally socialist party, but all of the countries listed have a basically capitalist (private ownership) system with greater or lesser degrees of social planning (as does the U.S.) So I'll pick 'none of the above'.
As others have said, by the standards the right-wing wackaloons use in campaigns in the U.S., they would all be socialist, and so would their beloved Israel.
Most of western Europe and Canada are considered Social-Democracies, meaning the are basically left-of-center, with a great deal more central control over an otherwise open market, while the U.S. remains somewhat right-of-center.
On one hand, there's no denying quality of life is higher in Social Democracies. On the other hand, the ability to innovate is hampered to some degree. Guess it depends what you're looking for.
Using a minimally strict definition of "socialist country", I think the Scandinavian countries would qualify.
Note that many other countries (New Zealand, France, etc.) would have qualified for that miserable title 30 years ago, but since have privatized a lot of things.
The MAJORITY of the time it is inaccurate. However, imo, it is not meant to be accurate, it is meant to frighten the base and stir them up.
It really does make you wonder what self-interest politicians would ever have in fostering an educated public.
If people could not be riled into irrational rage over words used in the wrong context like "socialist", how would they ever control them enough to get their votes?
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And no, socialism is not automatically a bad thing. I believe there's good and bad in both camps. It's not like capitalism doesn't have a few skeletons in its closet.
