柠檬社会主义（英语：Lemon socialism）是一个经济学上的专有名词，“柠檬社会主义”是发达资本主义国家在本次全球金融危机中挽救处于困境之中金融机构的普遍政策，为了应对危机，发达资本主义国家先后通过部分国有化的方式为深陷危机之中的金融机构直接注入资本。最早在2008年美国次贷危机爆发时，由该国经济学家保罗·克鲁格曼（Paul Robin Krugman）提出。其特点是：政府干预市场，对在竞争中本该被淘汰的公司免于破产倒闭，使该付出成本的股东和企业主不负担责任而把责任转移给国库和纳税人，制造寡头垄断性企业盈利都归自己，亏损却都由国家财政和国民承担的半套式资本主义。此情形在资本主义国家大规模经济危机和金融危机时表现尤其明显。其原因多是由于政府因害怕大型企业集体倒闭造成社会恐慌、失业率升高或是矛盾冲突，而向企业主的勒索妥协发放纾困贷款，或是行政干预造成该企业优势。

Lemon socialism is a pejorative term for a form of government intervention in which government subsidies go to weak or failing firms, often with the intent of preventing further, systemic damage to what might otherwise be considered a free marketplace. These subsidies can even take the form of a full or partial bail-out, as happened during the 2008 financial crisis. The pejorative comes from the perception among free-market economists that failing companies are defective lemons that a working free market would replace with better-functioning companies in response to market demand, and the public-sector involvement this type of state intervention shares with socialism.