26 Facts About Democratic socialism

Democratic socialism is a left-wing political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-management within a market socialist economy or an alternative form of a decentralised planned socialist economy.

Democratic socialism was popularised by socialists who opposed the backsliding towards a one-party state in the Soviet Union and other nations during the 20th century.

Democratic socialism is contrasted with Marxism–Leninism, which opponents often perceive as being authoritarian, bureaucratic, and undemocratic in practice.

Democratic socialism socialists oppose the Stalinist political system and the Soviet-type economic planning system, rejecting as their form of governance the administrative-command system formed in the Soviet Union and other Marxist–Leninist states during the 20th century.

Democratic socialism is distinguished from Third Way social democracy because democratic socialists are committed to the systemic transformation of the economy from capitalism to socialism, while social democrats use capitalism to create a strong welfare state, leaving many businesses under private ownership.

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The main criticism of democratic socialism is focused on the compatibility of democracy and socialism.

Democratic socialism is defined as having a socialist economy in which the means of production are socially and collectively owned or controlled alongside a liberal democratic political system of government.

Democratic socialism socialists have long rejected the belief that the whole economy should be centrally planned.

Democratic socialism should mean an active, democratically accountable state to underpin individual freedom and deliver the conditions for everyone to be empowered regardless of who they are or what their income is.

Democratic socialism sometimes represents policies within capitalism instead of an ideology that aims to transcend and replace capitalism, although this is not always the case.

In Soviet politics, democratic socialism is the version of the Soviet Union model reformed democratically.

Democratic socialism has occasionally been described as the form of social democracy prior to the displacement of Keynesianism by neoliberalism and monetarism, which caused many social-democratic parties to adopt the Third Way ideology, accepting capitalism as the current status quo and powers that be, redefining socialism in a way that it maintained the capitalist structure intact.

Democratic socialism has some degree of significant overlaps on practical policy positions with social democracy, although they are often distinguished from each other.

Democratic socialism originally represented socialism achieved by democratic means and usually resulted in reformism, whereas social democracy included reformist and revolutionary wings.

Democratic socialism is committed to a decentralised form of economic planning, where productive units are integrated into a single organisation and organised based on self-management.

Eugene V Debs and Norman Thomas, both United States Presidential candidates for the Socialist Party of America, understood socialism to be an economic system structured upon production for use and social ownership in place of the for-profit system and private ownership of the means of production.

Democratic socialists and contemporary proponents of market socialism have argued that rather than socialism itself, the primary reason for the economic shortcomings of Soviet-type economies was command economies.

Critics of the free market and laissez-faire, as commonly understood, argue that Democratic socialism is fully compatible with a market economy and that a genuinely free-market or laissez-faire system would be anti-capitalist and socialist.

McNally criticises market socialists for believing in the possibility of fair markets based on equal exchanges to be achieved by purging parasitical elements from the market economy, such as private ownership of the means of production, arguing that market Democratic socialism is an oxymoron when Democratic socialism is defined as an end to wage labour.

Form of Democratic socialism practised by parties such as the Singaporean People's Action Party during its first few decades in power was pragmatic, as it its rejection of mass nationalisation characterised it.

Democratic socialism involves the entire population controlling the economy through some democratic system, with the idea that the means of production are owned and managed by the working class.

Philosophical support for democratic socialism can be found in the works of political philosophers such as Axel Honneth and Charles Taylor.

Theoretically and philosophically, socialism itself is democratic, seen as the highest democratic form by its proponents and at one point being the same as democracy.

Some argue that socialism implies democracy and that democratic socialism is a redundant term.

However, others, such as Michael Harrington, argue that the term democratic socialism is necessary to distinguish it from that of the Soviet Union and other self-declared socialist states.

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One of the foremost scholars who have argued that Democratic socialism and democracy are compatible is the Austrian-born American economist Joseph Schumpeter, who was hostile to Democratic socialism.