My understanding is as such: Communism (the ideal): a classless, moneyless society where all states around the world have withered away and people are free to

My understanding is as such: Communism (the ideal): a classless, moneyless society where all states around the world have withered away and people are free to organise themselves outside the tyranny of the state or private property owners Communist Party: Authoritarians who like to use the above as a carrot and seem to like to create one-party states who never wither away. They claim to represent workers but tend to stick their own representatives anywhere that has any economic significance. Leftist critics of such societies often characterise this as "state capitalism" where the state is effectively one gigantic, brutal monopoly. In Lenin's words "He who does not work, neither shall he eat." Socialism (marxist): Workers own the means of production as a vital step towards communism Bourgeois socialism: A pejorative for what we call social democracy or democratic socialism Social democracy: The distribution of value to society through highly general programs, as you put it, within a liberal, capitalist society. Democratic socialism: Social ownership (i.e. co-ops, municipal ownership, some nationalisation) of the "means of production", usually still within a market and otherwise retaining liberal democracy and usually also aiming to implement social democratic policies, too. Also interesting: Ricardian socialism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricardian_socialism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricardian_socialism