Democratic Socialism: Your Beliefs?

[Evariste]

Democratic Socialism is a term that I have never come in contact with before joining this prestigious forum. I suppose that growing up in Northern Florida, or America for that matter, doesn't expose oneself to this ideal, or most leftist ideals for that matter. Am I correct when I say that I can chalk this one up as a European invention? All of the cursory research that turned up on wikipedia and google was vague at best. From what I could gather, democratic socialists favor "control of the political process and economy by the people to ensure fairness." What does this mean exactly? I'm very interested to know an actual followers viewpoint. For all you democratic socialists out there, what are your beliefs? Why did you choose to follow this political philosophy? What does democratic socialism mean to you?

[Blaven]

From my understanding of the two, democratic socialism advocates the transition from capitalism to socialism through democratic means. Social democracy is like the bastard love child of socialism and capitalism. It wants to dramatically overhaul the capitalist system, but not out right abolish it.

I think.

[greek302]

Democratic solcialism.....What an Idea.
I am a democratic Semi-socialist. I think the government should run electricity, and all all health care, I like governmet programs like medicare & social security being run by the govermnet. I also think the government should take 40% of your income and give you theese amenities for free.

[whalenapp81]

democratic socialism, only works when u have a steady increase and decrease of the population, if one of those is significantly larger than the other, then u get into the problems that mainland europe is having

[Zenith Darksea]

You sound like a democratic socialist. Yes, it is a European invention, as is socialism itself, and indeed most forms of political thought ('tis where the history comes from, after all... I'm joking, of course) that we find throughout the Western (and Eastern, to some extent) world.

I myself am a democratic socialist, un-surprisingly.

[Blaven]

Why is that the left has so many "isms"? Socialism, Marxism, democratic socialism, communism, anarchism...all they are are five ways to say the same thing (essentially).

Honestly, when you start on the left side of spectrum you have to go through a thousand different sub-branches of the same thing. Then you hit center, then its all just right till somewhere at the end is fascism (and how "rightist" it is is somewhat debatable).

[Tom Paine]

Democractic socialism is a European idea, like socialism and communism, and even democracy, dare I say it; and its one I support... and one that Britain used to espouse to a greater extent than it is now doing, shunning it to a shocking degree at present. Democratic socialism is the only form of socialism that can lay a reasonable claim to the title, as it is the only form of socialism where each man is truly equal in power as in all else due to the one-man one-vote ideal.

[KingOfTheIsles]

Why is that the left has so many "isms"? Socialism, Marxism, democratic socialism, communism, anarchism...all they are are five ways to say the same thing (essentially).

Anarchism is nothing like any of the others....

[Blaven]

Anarchism is nothing like any of the others....

Anarchism as an ideology is based around the concept that the state is evil and must be destroyed, like communism.

[Zenith Darksea]

Except Communism is rather more programmatic. It doesn't actually think that the state should be destroyed because it is evil; Communism merely believes that the state will die off as a natural result of Communist policy.

[Blaven]

...True. But their overall goal is the same: a stateless, communist society. But the means to achieving that are different, I guess.

[Hansa]

What is discussed here, market sosialism or sosial democracy?

[hsimoorb]

democratic socialism, only works when u have a steady increase and decrease of the population, if one of those is significantly larger than the other, then u get into the problems that mainland europe is having

Eh? How did you come to that conclusion? What about population asymetry turns social democracies on thier heads? And for the record, europe is not a social democracy. They may be more liberal over there, but they're not socialists.

[greek302]

One of the major flaws with solcialism is that it needs a highly competant government...And in todays world thats hard to find.

[RusskiSoldat]

Democratic socialism tries to combine the good of democracy and socialism, but has flaws of it's own.
It has the social security, financial stability, individual liberty, and consumer goods that are the main good points of democracy and socialism, but it also doesn't addequately treat business (with too many socialist measures imposed on real growth), the government is weak (unions are overgrown due to business regulations) and no radical changes are likely to be made (combination of the inneficiency of democracy and stability of socialism).

[Armfelt]

Democratic socialism tries to combine the good of democracy and socialism, but has flaws of it's own.
It has the social security, financial stability, individual liberty, and consumer goods that are the main good points of democracy and socialism, but it also doesn't addequately treat business (with too many socialist measures imposed on real growth), the government is weak (unions are overgrown due to business regulations) and no radical changes are likely to be made (combination of the inneficiency of democracy and stability of socialism).

For once we agree.

I believe Sweden is a social democracy. Am I right in thinking Sweden has some of the best schools in the world?

Actually the Swedish public school system is not what it used to be. If I recall correctly the Finnish is better.

[Britisocialist]

Actually the Swedish public school system is not what it used to be. If I recall correctly the Finnish is better.

Ah. My mistake. Am I right in thinking it has good public services?

[greek302]

Why do you think bush wants to privatize everything? Becuase the governmet has no funds for programs.


Also EU study says Swedish schools best in Europe.

[Bwaho]

Also EU study says Swedish schools best in Europe

hmm... never heard about that here. Only complaints about our school.

[stop-3]

You should hear the crap that goes on in British schools. 'Education'? I think not. More like social engineering(or engineering of souls) as beloved by socialists. The corruption is profound - as evidence I give you this little tid-bit:
In the vast majority of teacher's rest-rooms(I forget the proper term) there exists a machine called a 'dish washer'! Yes - it seems that these lefty (they are at least in the region in which I live) 'socially concious' poor dears need a diabolical-expensive piece of junk to wash their tea-mugs! Unreal innit? But then, socialism is unreal.
Of course, 'democratic socialism' is a contradiction in terms. The socialist faith (for that it what it is) is all about the worship of power taken to the ultimate degree, which is hardly democratic.
Someone mentioned earlier on in this thread about all the socialist 'isms'. Dammned right! Unfortunately it is part of the power of the faith that each member of it has his own take on it and thus decry any other that calls himself 'socialist' if conveniant to him.