What does socialism have to do with the Gini?
A perfect communist state would have a Gini index of 0 (everyone makes the same regardless of how shitty their work is).
In a perfect capitalist state with no socialism, there's no restriction on how wealthy you can be (bill gates) and there's no restriction on how poor you can be (starve to death). A perfect capitalist state would have a Gini index much closer to 1.... maybe like 0.6 or 0.7 would be about right. Obviously people doing the same work would get paid the same but there would still be a very large difference between rich and poor, hence a Gini index closer to 1.
Gini is also a relatively strong indication of democracy because people are selfish and people will vote for things that they want (free shit). The most democratic countries in the world, Sweden and Norway, have very low Gini numbers of 25 and 26 because everyone has a fairly equal grab at everyone else's money. Countries with the most inequality tend to be shit holes that nobody would call democratic without giggling. Example: Brazil's Gini index is 57 (very unequal) and their democracy index is 7.38 out of 10 and classed as a "flawed democracy".
So what have we learned so far? Democracy leads to legal freedom, economic freedom, an increase in socialism, and an increase in human development. Countries with major corruption problems tend to be less democratic, less socialist, sometimes less economically free, and less developed.
The countries on the list of most economically free (capitalist) also show up on the list of countries that have the most equal income distribution (socialist) and the list of countries with the strongest democracy (freedom).
Socialism and capitalism are not mutually exclusive. Both are good when used correctly.
edit
apparently USA is #18 in democracy. lulz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index
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