Social Democracy

Social democracy might be seen as a product of the attempt to rid socialism of what are considered its negative attributes. In other words, social democracy attempts to provide an alternative to capitalism that is free of the authoritarianism or totalitarianism of typical socialism. Social democracy historically arose from a split among Marxists or those sympathetic to the ideas of Karl Marx regarding the question of goal. The social democrats, however, were not the only group that arose over differences in objective or goal. There were other smaller groups such as the pacifists, the anarchists, and the syndicalists. While still claiming an allegiance to Marxism, the social democrats sought to reform it and revise their criticisms of capitalism. Their main premise is that socialism need not be achieved through revolution but can be achieved through an evolutionary approach. Also, they saw capitalism as capable of being reformed to ameliorate the problems associated with it. That is, social democrats preached a fundamental reformation of capitalism rather than the core socialist goal of abolishing capitalism. They were, however seen as unserious by revolutionary socialists, who see any attempt to reform capitalism as doomed. For the socialists, the reformers would be gradually corrupted by capitalism and ultimately become capitalists.

In spite of this difference, the two groups did not become fully distinct until the onset of World War I, which revealed the irreconcilable nature of the difference between the two groups. The evolutionary socialists or reformers supported their respective national governments in the war effort. Ideally this was against the Marxist idea of a universal working class and was thus defined as treason by other socialists. It was a sabotage of the grand aim of socialism to unite workers all over the world in order to overthrow capitalism. It was after the war that the evolutionary socialists became known as social democrats while the revolutionary socialists became either socialists or communists.

The core features of social democracy are as follows:

• Support for private enterprise or deregulation of the economy but with strong protection of workers and consumers or general interests
• Expansive social security aimed mainly at poverty, health, and deprivation
• Social provisioning by the state—education, housing, and employment
• Social/popular laws that safeguard the entire citizenry from the miseries and oppression of capitalism—minimum wage legislation, good working conditions, job security, social mobility
• Concern with emerging issues of the environment: gender equity, ethnic and racial equity, unfettered migration, and multiculturalism