 State socialism, state socialism is a classification for any socialist political and economic perspective advocating state ownership of the means of production either as a temporary measure in the transition from capitalism to socialism, or as characteristic of socialism itself. It is often used interchangeably with state capitalism in reference to the economic systems of Marxist-Leninist states such as the Soviet Union to highlight a role of state planning in these economies, with the critics of said system referring to it more commonly as state capitalism. Libertarian and Democratic Socialists claimed that these states had only a limited number of socialist characteristics. However, Marxist-Leninists maintained that workers in the Soviet Union and other Marxist-Leninist states had genuine control over the means of production through institutions such as trade unions. State socialism is held in contrast with libertarian socialism, which rejects the view that socialism can be constructed by using existing state institutions or by governmental policies. By contrast, proponents of state socialism claimed that the state through practical considerations of governing must play at least a temporary part in building socialism. It is possible to conceive of a democratic state that owns the means of production, but it is internally organized in a participatory, cooperative fashion, thereby achieving both social ownership of productive property and workplace democracy in day-to-day operations.