The best historical example of a socialist government before the 20th century is the government under Roman emperor Diocletian. Our founding fathers were probably familiar with this type of government and wisely chose not to follow this example. Peter Earle has written a nice piece, Of Krugman and Diocletian – Peter C. Earle – Mises Daily, that discusses the debate Ron Paul and Paul Krugman had about the Diocletian government and its relevance to our modern day governments.
