On the one hand, socialists typically criticize the welfare state as an attempt to legitimize the economic system of capitalism by making it appear more equitable, while failing to resolve any of its fundamental contradictions and further distorting the market through policy interventions.

During the eighties, anti-authoritarian socialists in the United Kingdom and New Zealand criticised the rigid and determinist view of popular culture deployed within the Frankfurt School theories of capitalist culture, which seemed to preclude any prefigurative role for social critique within such work.

All socialists criticize the current system in some way.

Early socialists (Utopian socialists and Ricardian socialists) criticized capitalism for concentrating power and wealth within a small segment of society that controls the means of production and derives its wealth through a system of exploitation.

Later, some socialists, such as Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels, criticised Macdonald for his close relationship with Benjamin Disraeli and the Conservative Party.

Many socialists, particularly libertarian socialists, individualist anarchists, and De Leonists criticise the concept of collectivism.

At the same time, some socialists criticized his elitist attitudes, while some feminists have regarded his attitude of sexual equality as being inconsequential.

The socialists outside SKP criticized the Soviet-residing leadership and Comintern for excessive intervention in activities inside Finland.

Hutchinson has often stressed the importance of the working class nature of loyalism and has argued in favour of socialism, although other socialists have criticized the exclusionary nature of his ideas, arguing that it does not constitute true socialism as it only applies to one community.