Social Democracy
Historically, Social Democrats have been supporters of a moderate form of socialism. Modern social democrats however do not advocate socialism in practice and instead support reforming capitalism in an attempt to make it more equitable through the creation and maintenance of a welfare state. Most social democratic parties are members of the Socialist International which is a successor to the Second International.Often, the term socialism is used to denote social democrats, although in many countries socialism is a broader concept including reformists, democratic socialists, Marxists, communists and sometimes anarchists.
Social democrats are often described, particularly by revolutionary socialists as being reformists that is in favour of change through gradual reforms in the capitalist system. While some social democrats contend that a process of gradual reforms will eventually bring about socialism many, including most of the leadership of social democratic parties, now argue that the goal of reforms is to make capitalism more equitable and that this makes the abolition of capitalism unnecessary.
Social democratic parties are among the largest parties in most countries in Europe. Some studies claim that globally, more people share the basic ideals of Social Democrats than of any other political movement. These parties are seen as centre left in orientation.
Most social democratic parties belong to the Socialist International.
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2 In general, contemporary Social Democrats support: 3 Common criticism of social democracy 4 Social Democratic Parties 5 Social Democratic Parties in the United States |
History
The modern social democratic current came into being by a break within the socialist movement in the early twentieth century. Although initially the terms social democrat and socialist were seen as synonymous after the Russian Revolution social democrats were seen as those who reject revolutionary socialism in favour of evolutionary socialism, or reformism, as advocated by Eduard Bernstein.
The argument between evolutionary socialists and revolutionary socialists, for an example the debates between Bernstein and Rosa Luxemburg occurred initially within the German Social Democratic Party (SPD). With the outbreak of World War I in which the SPD voted in the Reichstag in favour of war credits and as social democratic parties in other European nations backed their own nations in the war effort, the split between reformist and revolutionary strands became final and revolutionary socialists left the social democartic parties eventually forming Communist parties.
Following the split between revolutionary socialists and evolutionary socialists another split developed within social democracy, between those who still believed it was necessary to abolish capitalism (without revolution) and replace it with a socialist system through parliamentary means and those who believed that the capitalist system could be retained but simply needed adjustements such as social transfers to redistribute income and the implementation of social programs through a welfare state in order to make capitalism more humane. In practice, social democratic parties have come to be dominated by the latter position and, in the post World War II era, abandoned any commitment to abolish capitalism. For instance, in 1959 the Social Democratic Party of Germany adopted the Godesberg Program which abandoned any commitment to class struggle and Marxism. These two streams are often referred to as democratic socialists advocating socialism through democratic means and social democrats advocating reforming, rather then replacing, capitalism.
Since World War II, differences between social democartic parties and communists have grown. Previously, many western European social democrats advocated central planning of the economy an widespread nationalisation of industry on the Soviet model while having a democratic political system. Gradually these positions were abandoned by every social democratic and labour party in the west.
Most modern social democratic parties have adopted the Third Way either formally or in practice. Modern social democrats are in favor of a capitalist market economy, but with a strong and large government. Many social democratic parties have shifted emphasis from the traditional goal of creating a socialist economy to human rights and environmental issues. In this, they are facing increasing challenge from Greens who view ecology as fundamental to peace, and require reform of money supply and safe trade measures to ensure ecological integrity. In Germany in particular, Greens, Social Democrats, and more extreme socialist parties, have cooperated in so-called Red-Green Alliances. In other countries the Greens tend to the right and have co-operated with liberal or even conservative parties as in Mexico.
This marks a break with the theories of Karl Marx who, in the Communist Manifesto of 1848 stated that workers should seize the control of means of production from the capital owners and form a state dictatorship of working class. This is in sharp contrast to social democratic ideas, such as workers' unions and employers' unions debating over the wages of the workers to better the working people's living conditions, while control of the means of production would remain in the hands of capitalists.
A number of the policies advocated by social democrats have endured such as progressive income tax and publicly funded medicine have endured. Other measures such as tuition-free university education have largely been overturned, often by social democratic governments themselves. Social democrats have, for the most part, also abandoned the concept of nationalization and have instead fully or partly privatised state owned industry and services. The Labour Party in Britain is especially enthusiastic about implementing Public-Private Partnerships to deliver public services, has introduced tuition fees for post secondary education and have cut back on social programs.
See also: History of Socialism
Critics of social democracy argue that individual rights suffer in favour of the rights of the community and that individual choice is not as great in systems that provide state run schools, health care, child care and other services. Some go as far as to claim that the role of parenthood has been shifted to the state, or that welfare state would be more accurately described as 'client society' as individuals are state nurtured from cradle to grave.
Conservatives and liberals argue that social democracy interferes with market mechanisms and hurts the economy by encouraging large budget deficits.
There are also criticisms that social democracy encourages high taxation and hurts the ability of entrepreneurs to invest in the economy.
Critics of the welfare state argue that it is unaffordable, particularly as the population ages putting more demands on pensions and health care provisions.
Socialists criticise social democrats for being so dependent on the capitalist system that they become indistinguishalbe from liberals and end up trying to make the capitalist system work rather than try to overturn it. Thus, social democrats such as Tony Blair and Gerhard SchrÃÂöder end up doing the work of capitalists by implementing tax cuts, cuts in social programs, privatisations and a rolling back of the welfare state rather than extending it.
See Social Democratic Party for a list of all political parties named that way.
Their have been many socialist and social democratic parties in American history, most notably the Socialist Party of America whose best known leaders were Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas and the Socialist Labor Party of America led by Daniel DeLeon, but they have been less successful then their European counterparts. In the 1970s the Socialist Party of America split into three factions, the Democratic Socialists of America led by Michael Harrington, the Social Democrats USA and the Socialist Party, USA.
Today, the Green party, with 2 to 4 percent of the vote in presidential elections, might be seen as the largest anti-capitalist party and has the support of many American socialists. With the 2000 Ralph Nader campaign arguably having cost the Democrats the election, the Democratic Party which has moved away from welfare state policies under Bill Clinton and Al Gore is under pressure to adopt some social democratic measures in their platform such as universal health care with Democrats such as Howard Dean pushing for such a revision of the Democratic position.
In general, contemporary Social Democrats support:
Common criticism of social democracy
Social Democratic Parties
See Socialist International for a list of members of that body. Social Democratic Parties in the United States