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Social democracy

This article is about the ideology within the socialist movement. For socialism emphasizing democracy sometimes described as social democracy, see Democratic socialism. For the policy regime in Northern Europe sometimes described as social democracy, see Nordic model. For the social welfare model in Western Europe, see Social market economy.

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Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism[1] that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, social democracy has taken the form of predominantly capitalist economies, a robust welfare state, policies promoting social justice, market regulation, and a more equitable distribution of income.[2][3]

Social democracy maintains a commitment to representative and participatory democracy. Common aims include curbing inequality, eliminating the oppression of underprivileged groups, eradicating poverty, and upholding universally accessible public services such as child care, education, elderly care, health care, and workers' compensation.[4][5] Economically, it supports income redistribution and regulating the economy in the public interest.[6]

Social democracy has a strong, long-standing connection with trade unions and the broader labour movement. It is supportive of measures to foster greater democratic decision-making in the economic sphere, including collective bargaining and co-determination rights for workers.[7]

The history of social democracy stretches back to the 19th-century labour movement. Originally a catch-all term for socialists of varying tendencies, after the Russian Revolution, it came to refer to reformist socialists who were strategically opposed to revolution as well as the authoritarianism of the Soviet model, nonetheless the eventual abolition of capitalism was still being upheld as an important end goal during this time.[8] However, by the 1990s social democrats had embraced mixed economies with a predominance of private property and promoted the regulation of capitalism over its replacement with a qualitatively different socialist economic system.[9] Since that time, social democracy has been associated with Keynesian economics, the Nordic model, and welfare states.[10]

Social democracy has been described as the most common form of Western or modern socialism.[11][12] Amongst social democrats, attitudes towards socialism vary: some retain socialism as a long-term goal, with social democracy being a political and economic democracy supporting a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach towards achieving socialism.[13] Others view it as an ethical ideal to guide reforms within capitalism. One way modern social democracy can be distinguished from democratic socialism is that social democracy aims to strike a balance by advocating for a mixed market economy where capitalism is regulated to address inequalities through social welfare programs and supports private ownership with a strong emphasis on a well-regulated market. In contrast, democratic socialism places greater emphasis on abolishing private property ownership in favor of full economic democracy by means of cooperative, decentralized, or centralized planning systems.[14] Nevertheless, the distinction remains blurred in colloquial settings, and the two terms are commonly used synonymously.[15]

The Third Way is an offshoot of social democracy which aims to fuse economic liberalism with social democratic economic policies and center-left social policies. It is a reconceptualization of social democracy developed in the 1990s and is embraced by some social democratic parties; some analysts have characterized the Third Way as part of the neoliberal movement.[16]

  1. ^ Eatwell & Wright 1999, pp. 80–103; Newman 2005, p. 5; Heywood 2007, pp. 101, 134–136, 139; Ypi 2018; Watson 2019.
  2. ^ Miller, David (2016). "Social democracy". Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. doi:10.4324/9780415249126-S057-1. ISBN 978-0-415-25069-6. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
  3. ^ Miller (1998a); Lane (2023), pp. 96–114.
  4. ^ Heywood 2012, p. 97; Hoefer 2013, p. 29.
  5. ^ Hinchman & Meyer 2007, p. 137.
  6. ^ Miller 1998, p. 827; Badie, Berg-Schlosser & Morlino 2011, p. 2423; Heywood 2012, p. 128.
  7. ^ Hinchman & Meyer 2007, p. 91; Mathers, Taylor & Upchurch 2009, p. 51.
  8. ^ Adams 1993, pp. 102–103.
  9. ^ Weisskopf 1992, p. 10; Miller 1998, p. 827; Jones 2001, p. 1410; Heywood 2012, pp. 125–128.
  10. ^ Gombert 2009, p. 8; Sejersted 2011.
  11. ^ Williams 1985, p. 289; Foley 1994, p. 23; Eatwell & Wright 1999, p. 80; Busky 2000, p. 8; Sargent 2008, p. 117; Heywood 2012, p. 97; Hain 2015, p. 3.
  12. ^ Eatwell & Wright 1999, pp. 81, 100; Pruitt 2019; Berman 2020.
  13. ^ Roemer 1994, pp. 25–27; Berman 1998, p. 57; Bailey 2009, p. 77; Lamb 2015, pp. 415–416.
  14. ^ Astor (2018).
  15. ^ Weisskopf 1992, p. 10.
  16. ^ Romano 2006, p. 11.
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