Although early twentieth-century intellectuals were wont to uphold the régimes of Lenin, Stalin, and Mussolini as model societies representing humanity's ideal future, more recently socialism has fallen into some disfavor as its adverse effects on human life have become more evident. Nevertheless, the notion persists in some quarters that the destructive features of the Soviet, fascist, and Nazi states reflected only their specific historical circumstances or the malevolent intent of particular individuals, and that under more favorable circumstances and more enlightened leaders "true" socialism would have proven much more benevolent. Some advocates of socialism imagine that a such a society might be governed democratically or that it could be accomplished without draconian economic controls or without suppressing basic freedoms of speech, the press, and religion. Whether or not such freedoms are compatible with socialism in practice is best addressed by the approach used here, examining how socialist premises interact with human nature regardless of the historical setting, and inferring what tendencies might be inherent in any large-scale socialist society.     

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