Social democracy

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Social democracy

Definition

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Social democracy is a political ideology that considers itself to be a form of reformist democratic socialism. It advocates for a peaceful, evolutionary transition of the economy to socialism through progressive social reform of capitalism. It asserts that the only acceptable constitutional form of government is representative democracy under the rule of law. It promotes extending democratic decision-making beyond political democracy to include economic democracy to guarantee employees and other economic stakeholders sufficient rights of co-determination. Common social democratic policies include advocacy of universal social rights to attain universally accessible public services such as education, health care, workers' compensation, and other services including child care and care for the elderly. Social democracy is connected with the trade union labour movement and supports collective bargaining rights for workers. Most social democratic parties are affiliated with the Socialist International. Social democracy originated in 19th century Germany from the influence of both the internationalist revolutionary socialism and doctrine of communism advanced by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels; and the reformist socialism of Ferdinand Lassalle. The Marxists and Lassallians were in rivalry over political influence in the movement until 1868-1869 when Marxism became the official basis of Germany's Social Democratic and Labour Party. In the Hague Congress of 1872, Marx modified his stance on revolution by declaring that there were countries with democratic institutions where reformist measures could be advanced, saying that "workers may achieve their aims by peaceful means, But this is not true of all countries. " Marx stressed his support for the Paris Commune due to its representative democracy based on universal suffrage. A major non-Marxian influence on social democracy came from the British Fabian Society founded in 1884 by Frank Podmore that emphasized the need for a gradualist evolutionary and reformist approach to the achievement of socialism. Fabianism is believed to have strongly influenced revisionist Marxist Eduard Bernstein who adopted its evolutionary socialism. Bernstein rejected many major tenets promoted by Marx and Engels that he viewed as inaccurate or obsolete. He opposed classical and orthodox Marxisms' assumption of the necessity of socialist revolution and class conflict, claiming that socialism could be achieved through evolutionary means via representative democracy and cooperation between people regardless of class. He claimed that a mixed economy of public, cooperative and private enterprise would be necessary for a long period of time before private enterprises would evolve of their own accord into cooperative enterprise. Social democracy in the 1930s began to transition away from association with Marxism towards liberal socialism, particularly through the influence of figures like Carlo Rosselli who sought to disassociate socialism from the legacy of Marx's communism. This also was the result of the alliance of liberal and social democratic movements in popular front movements in the 1930s, that opposed fascism. Such views were inspired by Bernstein's description of socialism as being an "organized liberalism", that completely rejected Marx's hostility to liberalism. By the post-World War II period, most social democrats in Europe had abandoned their ideological connection to Marxism. The Third Way is a controversial major faction in social democratic parties that developed in the 1990s, that has claimed to be social democratic though others have identified it as being effectively a neoliberal movement and not social democratic. Another substantial contemporary faction in the social democratic movement are proponents of market socialism.