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It was most often Engels who had the task of presenting the future society. He commented and developed the indications by Marx, and then made corrections of great importance after Marx’s death. The aim of the article is to show that Engels did not defend just one single notion of socialism, but several. In his mind they corresponded to different stages in the construction of communism. For the period of transition following the coming to power of the proletariat, he envisaged a state controlled market socialism. For the period of socialism, as such, he recommended integral planning, abolishing the market. But later he moved away from this idea and approached an associative socialism, more in tune with the aims of communism: in brief, co-operatives, and a plan of orientation, which correspond to two levels of democracy. Finally, the article presents a certain number of critical commentaries in the light of past history and of current research on models of socialism.