Democratic Socialism

 

Democratic Socialism

Oxford Reference dictionary describes democratic socialism as a political ideology that advocates social ownership of the means of production and is therefore committed to the overthrow of capitalism as an economic model, while maintaining a commitment to political democracy.

This letter of commitment distinguishes it from authoritarian models of centralized socialism, such as the Soviet model. Informally, the term is often used synonymously with social democracy, which seeks not to overthrow capitalism but to reform it using existing democratic institutions.

This political philosophy, which should not be confused with social democracy, emphasizes worker's self-management and democratic control of economic institutions within a market socialist economy or some form of a decentralized planned socialist economy.

How important would worker majorities consider hair products for African Americans? What if a majority of workers decided that only English-language commercial reading material should be printed in the United States? Would planning bodies decide for or against allocating materials for sex toys? Or binders for trans men? Or sexually explicit artwork? 

This ideology combines left-wing politics and populist oratory and themes and it's generally studied under the framework of or social populirism

Democratic socialists argue that capitalism is inherently incompatible with the values of freedom, equality and solidarity .

 These ideals can only be achieved through the realization of a socialist society. Although most democratic socialists seek a gradual transition to socialism, democratic socialism can support either revolutionary or reformist politics as means to establish socialism. 

As a term, it was popularized by social democrats who were opposed to the authoritarian socialist development in Russia and elsewhere during the 20th century.

The origins of democratic socialism can be traced to 19th-century utopian socialist thinkers and the British Chartist movement that somewhat differed in their goals, yet all shared the essence of democratic decision making and public ownership of the means of production as positive characteristics of the society they advocated for. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, democratic socialism was also influenced by social democracy.

The gradualist form of socialism promoted by the British Fabian Society and Eduard Bernstein’s evolutionary socialism in Germany influenced the development of democratic socialism. Democratic socialism is what most socialists understand by the concept of socialism. Democratic socialism can include libertarian socialism, market socialism, reformist socialism, and revolutionary socialism as well as ethical socialism, liberal socialism, social democracy and some democratic forms of state socialism and utopian socialism.

Democratic socialism is contrasted to Marxism–Leninism which is viewed as being authoritarian or undemocratic in practice. Democratic socialists oppose the Stalinist political system and the Soviet-type economic system, rejecting the perceived authoritarian form of governance and the centralized administrative command economy that took form in the Soviet Union and other Marxist–Leninist states during the 20th century. Democratic socialism is also distinguished from Third Way social democracy on the basis that democratic socialists are committed to systemic transformation of the economy from capitalism to socialism whereas social democratic supporters of the Third Way were more concerned about challenging the new rights and win social democracy back to power.

This has resulted in analysts and critics alike arguing that in effect it endorsed capitalism, even if it was due to recognizing that outspoken opposition to capitalism in these circumstances was politically nonviable; and that it was not only anti-socialist and neoliberal, but anti-social democratic in practice. Some maintain this was the result of their type of reformism that caused them to administer the system according to capitalist, not socialist, logic while others saw it as a modern form of socialism theoretically fitting with democratic, liberal market socialism, distinguishing it from classical socialism, especially within the UK.

As an ideology that regards the market economy as inherently unfair, un-equalizing, and reformed, its solution is to cut that system’s most important lifeline: private ownership of the means of production. Instead of a system in which firms and all of their equipment and machinery rest in the hands of a small group of owners, democratic socialists would prefer “economic democracy,” whereby companies would be controlled either by their workers or by an administrative structure operated by the state, according to an article by Daron Acemoglu.

Democratic socialists contrast their envisioned system with the Soviet-style brand. Theirs, they argue, can be achieved wholly by democratic means. But the most recent attempts to socialize production (in Latin America) have relied on anti-democratic arrangements. And that points to another problem with the current debate in the US: democratic socialism has been conflated with social democracy. And, unfortunately, Sanders has contributed to this confusion.