Etatism (of French état, state) or statism is the view that a government must send society in the direction it desires. It is used to describe:
The term is usually used to say from a country or party that it is more ethical than desired by the user of the term. Statism is the opposite of anarchism or libertarism.
Socialism is often described as ethatist (eg in Friedrich Hayek - The Road to Serfdom and Ludwig Von Mises - Omnipotent government). It is also described as such by Karl Marx in the Communist Manifesto. There are, however, forms of socialism and communism (social anarchism) that are clearly not ethical.
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