Social democracy Totally Explained

Everything about Social Democrats totally explained

Social democracy is a political ideology that emerged in the late 19th century out of the socialist movement. Modern social democracy is unlike socialism in the traditional sense which aims to end the predominance of the capitalist system, or in the Marxist sense which aims to replace it entirely. Instead, social democrats aim to reform capitalism democratically through state regulation and the creation of programs and organizations which work to or remove injustices they see in the capitalist market system. "Social democracy" is also used to refer to the particular kind of society that social democrats advocate. While some consider social democracy a moderate type of socialism, others, defining socialism in the traditional or Marxist sense, reject that designation.
   Social democratic parties initially advocated socialism in the strict sense, achieved by class struggle as defined by the Orthodox Marxists within or affiliated with the Social Democratic Party of Germany: August Bebel, Eduard Bernstein, Friedrich Engels, Karl Kautsky and Wilhelm Liebknecht., the two movements often share political parties, such as the British Labour Party in the 1980s, and the Brazilian Workers' Party today.
   One way to delineate between social democratic parties (or movements) and democratic socialist ones, would be to think of social democracy as moving left from capitalism and democratic socialism as moving right from Marxism: in other words, a mainstream leftist party in a state with a market economy and a mostly middle class voting base might be described as a social democratic party, while a party with a more radical agenda and an intellectual or working class voting base that has a history of involvement with further left movements might be described as a democratic socialist party. However, this isn't always the case. The British Labour Party charter identifies the party as a "democratic socialist party," even though the current and former leader, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, identify themselves as social democrats.
   The Socialist International (SI), a worldwide organization of social democratic, and labour parties, defines the socialist option as one in which it's "the people of the world who should exercise control by means of a more advanced democracy in all aspects of life: political, social, and economic." The SI emphasizes the following principles: first, freedom—not only individual liberties, but also freedom from discrimination and freedom from dependence on either the owners of the means of production or the holders of abusive political power; second, equality and social justice—not only before the law but also economic and socio-cultural equality as well, and equal opportunities for all including those with physical, mental, or social disabilities; and, third, solidarity—unity and a sense of compassion for the victims of injustice and inequality. These ideals are described in further detail in the SI's Declaration of Principles.
   Social democratic parties originally included both democratic socialists and revolutionary socialists. Indeed, the split with the revolutionary socialists, including Rosa Luxemburg and Vladimir Lenin, was spectacularly hostile. After World War I and the Russian Revolution, many leading social democrats, including Eduard Bernstein, were explicitly non-revolutionary. In reaction to this, many Bolsheviks and other Marxist-Leninist parties adopted a strategy of publicly denouncing social democrats as "social fascists."

History

Pre-war—social democracy and Marxism

Many parties in the second half of the 19th century described themselves as social democratic, such as the German Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein and the Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei (which merged to form the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands), the British Social Democratic Federation and the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. In most cases these parties were avowedly revolutionary socialist which were not only seeking to introduce socialism, but also to introduce democracy in undemocratic countries. Most of these parties were to some degree influenced by the works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who were still actively working to influence European politics from London.
The modern social democratic current came into being through a break within the socialist movement in the early 20th century, between two groups holding different views on the ideas of Karl Marx. Gerhard Schröder in Germany, Jens Stoltenberg in Norway, Göran Persson in Sweden, David Lange, Roger Douglas in New Zealand, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen in Denmark, Wim Kok in the Netherlands and Ricardo Lagos in Chile. In general, these apparent reversals in policy have encountered significant opposition among party members and core voters: many of the latter, indeed, have claimed that their leaders have betrayed their traditional principles. Lula ultimately won the presidential election in 2002, only to promote a vision based largely on European social democratic economic policy., which is one of the main political parties at the European level, and most social democratic parties are members of the Socialist International, which is the historical successor to the Second International. The United States is the only first world nation which doesn't possess a competitive social democratic or democratic socialist party.
During the latter part of the twentieth century, most social democratic parties distanced themselves from socialist economic policies (for example public ownership and a planned economy) and, in the opinion of many if not most democratic socialists, of socialism in general. Many modern social democrats have broadened their objectives to include aspects of environmentalism, feminism, racial equality and multiculturalism.
Since the 1980s, a number of social democratic parties have adopted policies which support a relatively lightly regulated economy and emphasize equality of opportunity rather than equality of outcome as the benchmark for social justice. This trend, known as the Third Way, is controversial among some of the left, many of whom argue that Third Way parties (such as New Labour in the United Kingdom. See also List of social democratic parties.

Examples of social democracy

The prime example of social democracy is Sweden, which prospered considerably under the leadership of Olof Palme. Sweden has produced a strong economy from sole proprietorships up through to multinationals (for example, Saab, Volvo, Ikea, and Ericsson), while maintaining one of the longest life expectancies in the world, low unemployment, inflation, infant mortality, national debt, and cost of living, all while registering sizable economic growth.
   Others also point to Norway as an example of a social democratic nation, where the Norwegian Labour Party played a critical role in Norway's recent political history by making social democratic reforms after WWII. In Norway, progressive taxation was introduced and the public sector greatly increased in size. Recently, Norway's economy has experienced an acceleration in economic growth, aided, in part, by the exploitation of oil deposits.
   Another prominent example is the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, which has been politically dominated by the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation and its successor the New Democratic Party since 1944. While in office the CCF and NDP have nationalized major industries, initiated wide ranging public works, and introduced generous social services such as universal health care (later implemented nationally in Canada), as well as the establishment of public automobile insurance. Today, however, while retaining its social democratic philosophy, the Saskatchewan NDP is no longer as far to the left as it once was, in comparison with the federal NDP.
   To a lesser extent, the Canadian Province of Manitoba is viewed as social democratic, with nationalized businesses such as Manitoba Hydro. However the Manitoba NDP is also more moderate in comparison to the Federal NDP. Generally speaking, the provincial wings of the NDP that are major contenders for government (British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba & Nova Scotia) tend to be more in the modern Third Way mould of social democracy, as opposed to the federal party and smaller provincial wings that still follow the older style of democratic socialism (reminiscent of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation).

Criticism of social democracy

Social democracy has been criticized both from the right, by economic liberals and conservatives, and from the left, by socialists and communists. The majority of contemporary criticism comes from economic liberals, who advance the following arguments:

The regulations placed on the market by social democracy tend to limit economic efficiency and growth.

Social democracy limits indivdual rights to reach its societal goals.

Social democratic programs sometimes entail large government outlays, which can result in sizeable budget deficits.

State provision of education, health care, childcare and other services limits individual choice. Even where private alternatives are available, some liberals would argue that it still limits individual choice, since it requires that an individual effectively pay twice for a service (to the state and the private provider).

It has been argued that social democracy tends to tax the working class more than the rich who can resort to tax evasion through sophisticated accounting, therefore impeding the efforts of the working class to build wealth. Social democrats reply that their policies in fact enhance individual rights by raising the standard of living of the great majority of the population, increasing social mobility, raising the power of workers and consumers in society, keeping production and, therefore, GDP higher, stabilizing economic conditions by providing economic security to individuals, and eliminating the threat of extreme poverty. Individual rights are also maintained, as in many places alternative private facilities are also available. It is also argued that, by restricting some economic rights, social democracy makes the market more fair. Social democrats also contend that the conservative administrations in the United States and Britain have been responsible for far larger budget deficits than any social democratic government.
There is also criticism of social democracy from the political left. Many social democrats reject the label "socialist" and the goal of achieving Socialism. For their part, socialists regard social democracy as an obstacle to truly radical reform of society. They claim that social democrats can only operate within the constraints of the existing capitalist orientated economic system, limiting many social reforms, and buy into the capitalist system to such an extent that they eventually become indistinguishable from classical economic policies and economic liberalism. Left-wing critics allege that some professed social democrats, such as Tony Blair (UK), Gerhard Schröder (Germany), and to a lesser extent Göran Persson (Sweden) have violated the principles of social justice and equity by implementing tax cuts, cuts in social spending, privatisation of elements of the welfare state and industrial deregulation.

The record and the future of social democracy

Many of the policies espoused by social democrats at the beginning of the twentieth century have since been put into practice by social democratic governments throughout the industrialized world. Large-scale nationalisations have taken place, the role of the state in providing free-to-user or subsidized health care and education has increased greatly.
With the election of Ronald Reagan in the United States and Margaret Thatcher in Britain, it was widely perceived that social democracy was on the retreat in the Western world. The resultant adoption of Third Way ideology by many social democrats, and the subsequent electoral success of Third way advocates Clinton and Blair, has proved divisive within the broader social democratic community. In Britain, for example, most of the nationalized industries were sold off in the 1980s and 1990s, and Tony Blair's Labour government, rather than reversing this process, continued it. Inequalities of wealth have also risen in some countries under social democratic governments, including the United Kingdom under Blair. Social Democrats have justified these policies by accepting the claims of many liberal economists that a rise in the gap between rich and poor doesn't necessarily indicate a lower standard of living for the working class of the country in question.
Many of the reforms made by social democrats in Europe, particularly the establishment of national health care services, have been embraced by liberals and conservatives: in Britain, both the Liberal Democrats and all but the most hard line Thatcherites in the Conservative Party campaign heavily in favor of the protection of the National Health Service established under the post-War Labour government of Clement Attlee. Even in a country with no major social democratic party, such as the United States, there are regulatory programmes, such as public health and environmental protection, and welfare programmes, such as Medicare and Medicaid, which remain in place during administrations of all political persuasions.

Everything about Social Democrats totally explained

History

Pre-war—social democracy and Marxism

Examples of social democracy

Criticism of social democracy

The record and the future of social democracy

List of famous social democrats