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Democratic socialism is a left-wing [1] set of political philosophies that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, [2] with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-management [3] within a market socialist, decentralised planned, or democratic centrally planned socialist ...
- Overview
- Characteristics of democratic socialist thought
- History of democratic socialism
democratic socialism, political ideology that supports the establishment of a democratically run and decentralized form of socialist economy. Modern democratic socialists vary widely in their views of how a proper socialist economy should function, but all share the goal of abolishing capitalism rather than improving it through state regulation (as preferred by social democrats). They also prioritize democracy as an end over democracy as a means, and some democratic socialists see revolution as an acceptable method of achieving the democracy they desire.
(Read George Bernard Shaw’s 1926 Britannica essay on socialism.)
Democratic socialists reject Marxism-Leninism (i.e., communism) as a legitimate form of socialism, arguing that command economies effectively belong to a small bureaucracy that treats the means of production as its own private property. Democratic socialists also disagree with social democrats’ attempts to harness capitalism to a strong welfare state, since such mixed economies still leave many businesses’ ownership under private (and therefore undemocratic) control. Instead, all employees should enjoy either democratic control or self-management in the workplace.
Some democratic socialists believe that markets have a place in a socialist economy, so long as the competing businesses are publicly, cooperatively, or otherwise socially owned. And, like social democrats, many democratic socialists advocate for the enactment of state regulation and state welfare programs, both as temporary means of ameliorating the harm of capitalism and as methods of transforming the system piecemeal.
The conceptual union of democratic and socialist thought began early in the latter’s development. Karl Marx hinted at an openness to democratic government in The Civil War in France (1871), his fawning account of the short-lived Paris Commune of 1871. Marx, whose sketch of that aborted government includes a pyramid-like structure of elected delegates, continued to refer to the Paris Commune in later works as a model for socialism. Two decades later, Marx’s partner Friedrich Engels seemingly made Marx’s suggestion explicit, writing that the democratic republic is “the specific form for the dictatorship of the proletariat.” And Engels’s own successor Karl Kautsky established a clear continuity of thought on the matter by declaring socialism to be industry’s ownership by the democratic state.
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A thread of insistence on democratic decision-making in government continued to weave through socialist discourse in the West through the first half of the 20th century. But democratic socialism as it is now defined, with its emphasis on decentralized decision-making, did not arise as a discrete political current until after 1956, when Nikita Khrushchev’s “secret speech” on Joseph Stalin’s abuses resulted in widespread disenchantment with communism among leftists in the Western world.
Some members of other socialist groups—such as anarchists, disaffected communists, and issue-based activists in the United States and Europe—subsequently rechristened themselves as members of the “New Left” to distance themselves from the social democratic establishments in both the Soviet Union and Europe. Many of the disparate groups that emerged under this banner, such as the emblematic Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) with its dedication to participatory democracy, either called themselves democratic socialists or met the criteria by which future democratic socialists would be known. They never coalesced into a lasting political party (and many did not want to), yet the overlap in their concerns and their tactics—mass protests, strikes, and civil disobedience, among others—made them a powerful movement into the 1970s.
Cross-pollination among New Left groups led to the broadening of democratic socialist concerns to include social disparities that were previously ignored, accommodating such issues as gay rights, anti-colonialism, and environmentalism. Democratic socialist organizations that followed, such as the Democratic Socialists Organizing Committee (DSOC) and the New American Movement (NAM) in the United States, inherited this interest in multiple causes, a stance later described as multi-tendency or intersectional.
noun. : a political movement advocating a gradual and peaceful transition from capitalism to socialism by democratic means. According to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the goal of having democratic socialism is to achieve a more equal and just society; that the economy and society be run "democratically." Timothy Kandor.
Oct 24, 2018 · The term generally refers to collectively-owned businesses and forms of government, in which workers and government entities have more control over the means of production and...
The Democratic Socialists of America is the largest socialist organization in the United States, with over 90,000 members. We believe that working people should run both the economy and society democratically to meet human needs, not to make profits for a few.
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Jun 12, 2019 · - The New York Times. What Is Democratic Socialism? Whose Version Are We Talking About? 78. Members of the Democratic Socialists of America gathered in New York in May. Because a binary view of...
Nov 2, 2015 · What Is Democratic Socialism? - JSTOR Daily. Politics & Government. What Is Democratic Socialism? Bernie Sanders is a democratic socialist, but just what is democratic socialism and where did it come from? Sanders campaigning in New Orleans, Louisiana, July 2015. By: Matthew Wills. November 2, 2015. 2 minutes.
