[rmnunez]

I had the impression Socialism was a subcategory of communism rather than the other way around.

Socialists will have you know there was no socialism in communist countries, even though these usually called themselves socialists. There is some relationship between the two, both propose governments with a highlighted labor focus to emerge from revolutionary processes to redistribute wealth and both seek strong centralized governments.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, socialism has waned. Socialist governments and politicians watered-down their rhetoric and adopted more representative and democratic policies like their ideological counterparts. The transformation of socialists has resulted from an effort to make themselves more attractive to a greater number and this way gain sufficient popular support to govern. This effort to attract a more varied constituency has made socialists (like Democrats in the US) a diverse group with perspectives that cannot find fit under any other ideology (like these Dutch pedophiles). Nowadays socialists often are critical of politicians and parties who describe themselves as socialists. They denounce accomodations and compromises, what these socialists want is something that looks more like communism.