Democratic socialism

Democratic socialism is a political movement propagating the political ideals of socialism within the form of a parliamentary democracy and in opposition to Communism as practiced by the former Soviet Union.

Democratic socialists typically advocate a welfare state, and re-distribution of wealth along with nationalisation of major industry. People or groups who describe themselves as democratic socialists, are generally further to the left and more radical than the more moderate social democrats. However, democratic socialists tend to co-exist with social democrats in a single political entity, as the case with the New Democratic Party.

Many people see Scandinavian countries such as Sweden as a model of democratic socialism. Others would characterize these countries as being capitalist states with socialist features and not truly democratic socialist.