Authoritarian socialism refers to a collection of political-economic systems describing themselves as socialist and rejecting the liberal democratic concepts of multi-party politics, freedom of assembly, habeas corpus and freedom of expression. Several countries, including the Soviet Union and Maoist China have been described by journalists and scholars as Authoritarian Socialist states. However, neither state used the term 'authoritarian socialist' to describe themselves — these states declared themselves to be Proletarian or People's Democracies.