Cuba is a communist country as is Russia and China. All at one time tried uncontrolled socialism and discovered that it was not feasible. They have all introduced certain capitalistic reforms managed by the state with some success. Other countries currently struggling with socialism include Italy, Greece, France, a couple Baltic states, and several central American countries. Both capitalism and socialism require some sense of balance to be successful. Both a pure capitalist economy or a pure socialist economy will fail and usually as the result of a violent revolution.
You left out Germany..who has had cradle-to-grave free health care for their citizens in some form since the late 1880's...
And we see how *that* has bankrupted them..
With the exception of France, again, you listed countries whose issues stemmed from corrupt government, not the democratic socialism vision.
(Berlusconi ring a bell?)
Again...I am referring to *democratic* socialism, as opposed to just plain socialism...there *is* a difference.
(Sweden, for example, has a type of 50/50 thing going (part socialism, part capitalism...a kind of "compassionate" capitalism)....and it's doing very well.
As I said, there needs to be a balance between capitalism and socialism. By the way, democracy has nothing to do with capitalism or socialism. It is a form of government not economics although most democracies tend to tilt stronger toward.capitalism while communist countries more toward socialism. A communist or dictator country does not need any socialism as the government dictates what happens in the economy. If they decide all you get is some beans and rice, then that is all you are going to get. I believe North Vietnam was basically that way and North Korea also. In those cases what the economy produced went to the government and basically nothing to the people.
The biggest difference between a democratic socialist country and the other 2 is who decides where and how much the fruits of the economy are distributed. In a democracy, the people through their elected government decide; in a communist country, the party decides, in a dictatorship, the dictator decides. The problem always seems to come when too much is taken out of the economy resulting in economic failure. Makes little difference if it is given to the people or squandered in some other manner by the government.