A contradiction between which of those two word pairs ;)<p>Seriously though,  if you think of Socialism as a group of ideas across different fields, you find a lot of diversity once you get to the applied level. You can get anarchy (the aforementioned social libertarians and others tend towards anarchism) or totalitarianism. Direct democracy or dictatorship.<p>Say you accept Marx's characterization of history as a struggle between classes, you are moved to rage by The Communist Manifesto,^  it describes the brutal no-nonsense history of civilization in a way that makes sense. There are lots of directions you can go from there.  Obviously marx had some pretty specific applications which I read as leading to something not that far from bolshevism, but you don't have to agree with everything.<p>^I suggest that you read it. For most people, I suspect you'll quibble with bits and pieces that have since (it's been 150 years, after all) been subject to more trial and scrutiny. As a narrative, it is not without predictive power.