As an American, I became aware that Democratic Socialism is looked on in a completely different light here than it is in the rest of the world. It is not well understood in the United States, and even the WORD socialism is a taboo to be involved with. I made this video to try and show Americans what it was. And make them aware that it is NOT communism, and that Democratic Socialist and Social Democratic parties are very numerous in Europe. In fact, most American's would not know that the Labour Party of the UK, the current majority party, is actually a Social Democratic Party, part of the "Socialist International", the largest international political organization.<br><br> Democratic socialism advocates socialism as a basis for the economy and democracy as a governing principle. This indicates that the means of production are owned by the entire population and that political power would be in the hands of the people democratically through a co-operative commonwealth or republic as a post-state form of self-government. In its broadest sense, democratic socialism could refer to any attempts to bring about socialism through peaceful democratic means as opposed to violent insurrection. This can sometimes include social democracy. Contents [hide] * 1 Basic concept * 2 Common ideas * 3 Definition * 4 History o 4.1 Forerunners and formative influences o 4.2 Modern democratic socialism o 4.3 Democratic socialism today * 5 See also * 6 Notes * 7 References * 8 External links [edit] Basic concept Socialism is based on the idea that the economy and means of production should be in the hands of ordinary working people,[1] or in older terminology the "working class". Democratic socialism involves the entire population controlling the economy through some type of democratic system. Directly contrasting this is what some theorists call state capitalism in which a non-democratic state controls the means of production instead of the workers (as in, for example, the Soviet Union during and after Stalin's era). Some authors see democratic socialism as sharing many political ideas with social democracy, while others see them as radically opposed. Nevertheless, democratic socialists often share political parties with social democrats, such as the British Labour Party in the 1980s. Democratic socialism is the second-strongest current of socialism in terms of political success in free elections, immediately following social democracy.[citation needed] [edit] Common ideas Many types of socialism fit the above description, though many employ different methods for socializing the economy. Some common ideas are as follows: * A democratically managed planned economy - sometimes alongside markets geared for consumption rather than profit.[citation needed] * Nationalization: taking control of the means of production from the bourgeoisie and giving it to the state is a common idea amongst groups that call themselves democratic socialists. The more libertarian strain (eg. the Socialist Party USA and Socialist Resistance) advocates socialization/direct workers' ownership and control instead of state ownership.[citation needed] * A state: most democratic socialists support parliamentary democracy, although libertarian socialists favor decentralized communes and other forms of non-statist social organization.[citation needed] * Workplace democracy: the application of democracy to the workplace is naturally supported by those that call themselves democratic socialists.[citation needed] [edit] Definition Democratic socialism is difficult to define, and groups of scholars have radically different definitions for the term. Some equate it to other socioeconomic systems such as libertarian socialism, state socialism or social democracy. While others claim that it is fundamentally different from those ideologies. Among those definitions of democratic socialism which sharply distinguish it from social democracy, Peter Hain, for example, classes democratic socialism, along with libertarian socialism, as a form of anti-authoritarian “socialism from below” (using the term popularised by Hal Draper), in contrast to Stalinism and social democracy, variants of authoritarian state socialism. For him, this democratic/authoritarian divide is more important than the revolutionary/reformist divide.[2] In this definition, it is the active participation of the population as a whole, and workers in particular, in the management of economy that characterises democratic socialism, while nationalisation and economic planning (whether controlled by an elected government or not) are characteristic of state socialism. A similar, but more complex, argument is made by Nicos Poulantzas.[3] In contrast, in other definitions, democratic socialism simply refers to all forms of socialism that follow an electoral, reformist or evolutionary path to socialism, rather than a revolutionary one.[4] However, for those who use the term in this way, the scope of the term socialism itself can be very vague, and include forms of socialism compatible with capitalism. For example, Robert M. Page, a Reader in Democratic Socialism and Social Policy at the University of Birmingham, writes about "transformative democratic socialism" to refer to the politics of the Clement Atlee government (a strong welfare state, fiscal redistribution, some nationalisation) and "revisionist democratic socialism", as developed by Anthony Crosland and Harold Wilson: ”The most influential revisionist Labour thinker, Anthony Crosland..., contended that a more ‘benevolent’ form of capitalism had emerged since the [Second World War]... According to Crosland, it was now possible to achieve greater equality in society without the need for ‘fundamental’ economic transformation. For Crosland, a more meaningful form of equality could be achieved if the growth dividend derived from effective management of the economy was invested in 'pro-poor' public services rather than through fiscal redistribution.”[5] Indeed, some proponents of market socialism see the latter as a form of democratic socialism.[6] A variant of this second set of definitions is Joseph Schumpeter’s argument, set out in Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1941) that liberal democracies were evolving from “liberal capitalism” into democratic socialism, with the growth of workers’ self-management, industrial democracy and regulatory instutions.[7] Other definitions fall somewhere between the first and second set, seeing democratic socialism as a specific political tradition closely related to and overlapping with social democracy. For example, Bogdan Denitch, in Democratic Socialism defines it as proposing a radical reorganization of the socio-economic order through public ownership, workers’ control of the labour process and redistributive tax policies. [8] Robert G. Picard similarly describes a democratic socialist tradition of thought including Eduard Bernstein, Karl Kautsky, Evan Durbin and Michael Harrington[9] Finally, the term democratic socialism can be used to refer to a version of the Soviet model that was reformed in a democratic way. For example, Mikhail Gorbachev described perestroika as building a “new, humane and democratic socialism”[10] Consequently, some former Communist parties have rebranded themselves as democratic socialist, as with the Party of Democratic Socialism in Germany.