A
socialist state or
socialist republic (sometimes
Workers' State) refers to any
state that is
constitutionally dedicated to the establishment of
socialism. In Western usage, the term "
Communist state" is often used in reference to single-party socialist states governed by parties adhering to a variant of
Marxist-Leninism; however these states officially refer to themselves as "socialist states" that are in the process of building socialism and do not describe themselves as "communist" or as having achieved
communism. Aside from the "Communist states", a number of other states have described their orientation as "socialist" in their constitutions.