Libertarian socialism

This red-and-black flag is commonly used by left-libertarians.

Libertarian socialism refers to the myriad of different socialist trends which all share a common distrust of governments (regardless of which class controls them), seek a decentralized (and often planned) economy, and often are militantly hostile to what they view as "unnecessary hierarchies". A large amount of libertarian socialists are anarchists, while others could include ecosocialists and libertarian marxists.

Because most libertarian socialists reject material or historical conditions, commonly thinking that the human civilization develops based upon ideals, and generally lack any revolutionary theory that goes beyond spontaneous action and other idealistic notions, they can be largely viewed as modern utopian socialists.

Libertarian socialist movements have yet to gain the same historical relevance or state power as past-or-present scientific socialists have. Nearly all libertarian socialist movements could only appear in times a mass civil unrest or civil war, when governments were weakened to the point where such movements could not be immediately dealt with. However, even in such conditions, those libertarian socialist polities were hastily defeated by the organized forces of governments.

See also

• Right-wing libertarianism
• Utopian socialism
• Anarchism