Socialism is range of economic and social systems characterized by social ownership and democratic control of the means of production, as well as the political theories and movements associated with them. Modern socialism originated in the late nineteenth-century working class political movement. Karl Marx posited that socialism would be achieved via class struggle and a proletarian revolution which represents the transitional stage between capitalism and communism. Union leader, Eugene Debs was a five-time Socialist Party candidate for president and the most prominent socialist living in America.