Social Democracy: the Common Ground Between Capitalism and Socialism

There has been much debate lately as to whether Bernie Sanders is really a democratic socialist. He claims to be one, but some public intellectuals like Paul Krugman claim that he is not. Krugman claims that Sanders is really a social democrat. Krugman goes on to argue that countries such as Denmark, Norway, and Sweden are really social democracies.

(See the reference section under Krugman for a link to a Democracy Now debate between him and Richard Wolff.)

Is Krugman right? One way to find out would be to take a poll. In other words, one could go to the Nordic countries Krugman mentions and ask those who self-identify as social democrats if they are:

1. primarily a capitalist, 
2. primarily a socialist, or 
3. some combination of the two.

My guess is that you will find many social democrats who think of themselves as some combination of the two.

Another way to find out would be to look at the dictionary definitions of Social Democracy and Democratic Socialism. I've provided Wikipedia definitions and links to these two terms in the reference section at the bottom of this blog post.

As the title of this blog post implies, I think of social democracy as being a common ground between capitalism and socialism. Krugman, on the other hand, seems to think that social democracy has to either be capitalist or socialist, but it cannot be both. Further, he seems to be saying that social democracy has to be subsumed under capitalism. I disagree.

In any case, the purpose of this blog post is not to tell you whether Paul Krugman is right or not. My purpose is to provide you with some tools to think about what terms like Democratic Socialism, Democratic Capitalism, and Social Democracy mean and how they can be related to one another. Then I'll leave it up to you to make up your mind.

The Meaning of Exhaustive and Mutually Exclusive

Many tend to talk about capitalism and socialism as being mutually exclusive (i.e. there is no overlap so the idea of a common ground would be impossible by definition).

Also, many people tend to talk about these two ideologies as being exhaustive (i.e. all forms of political economy must be either capitalist or socialist).

To help clarify what I mean by mutually exclusive and exhaustive, I've drawn some pictures for you.

The box above represents some category such as "all political economies." It is divide into two smaller boxes, A and B, which could stand for two ideologies as follows: A stands for Democratic Socialism and B stands for Democratic Capitalism.

Notice that there is no overlap between A and B. This means that they are mutually exclusive. Also notice that there is no space in the larger box for other kinds of political ideology. This means that A and B are exhaustive - i.e. there are no other alternatives.

If you're thinking: Well, what about non-democratic ideologies like fascism or communism? By asking this question, you are challenging the idea that democratic socialism and democratic capitalism are the only two possibilities. So, it may well be that Fascist and Communist ideologies do exist even if we don't like them. Just because you don't like something doesn't mean that it cannot exist.

So, if you want to consider two mutually exclusive ideas, but you do not want to exclude the possibility that there are other alternatives, you can picture the situation as follows:

In addition, it may be wise to specifically label an area of the picture as being "Everything Else."

Now, if the two major ideas that you'd like to think about are not mutually exclusive, then you may want to draw the box this way.

And, if you want to put a specific label on the common ground between these two major ideas, then you may want to draw the box this way.

Using Tables to Think About Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy

Now, if you want to think about capitalism and socialism as mutually exclusive entities, and you want to see how they are related to democracy and totalitarianism, you could create a two by two table as follows.

If you want to put specific names on the cells within these two boxes, you could do so as follows.

Now, if you want to picture capitalism in relationship to all other forms of political economy, you could do so as follows. Note that there may be forms of non-capitalism other than socialism.

Now, if you want to picture socialism in relationship to all other forms of political economy, you could do so as follows. Note that there may be forms of non-socialism other than capitalism.

Finally, if you want to talk about everything else more explicitly, you could switch to a three-by-three table as follows. Note that many of the possible cells in this table do not have names.

So, if you are talking with a friend about Bernie Sanders, I suggest that you first try to find out how they picture his philosophy of political economy. One way to do that is to find a picture that best represents their viewpoint. Then, you may want to talk about alternative ways of looking at his philosophy.


And, finally, you may want to present the way you think about the situation. I think this is possible if you're trying to understand your friend and the feeling is mutual. In my option, that's a very important first step if you're also trying to find common ground. For more on this approach, see Anatol Rapoport's Rules in the reference section.

References

--------------------------
Acemoglu, Daron


Social Democracy Beats Democratic Socialism
Daron Acemoglu
Feb 17, 2020


https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/social-democracy-beats-democratic-socialism-by-daron-acemoglu-2020-02



--------------------------
Beshears, Fred


Socialism, Communism, Capitalism, Fascism, Democracy, and Totalitarianism
by Fred M Beshears
https://innovationmemes.blogspot.com/2020/02/socialism-communism-capitalism-fascism.html


Types and Versions of Capitalism
by Fred M Beshears
https://innovationmemes.blogspot.com/2018/10/types-and-versions-of-capitalism.html


Various Types of Socialism
by Fred M Beshears
https://innovationmemes.blogspot.com/2018/09/various-types-of-socialism.html


-------------------------
Enteman, Willard F.

Managerialism: The Emergence of a New Ideology

FMB Note: The 2x2 and 3x3 tables in this blog are from Enteman's book Managerialism (p. 150-151)

--------------------------
Krugman, Paul

Sanders & Socialism:
Debate Between Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman &
Socialist Economist Richard Wolff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6J3ROV4IPc


Bernie Sanders Isn’t a Socialist: But he plays one on TV. That’s a problem.
By Paul Krugman
Feb. 13, 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/opinion/bernie-sanders-socialism.html


Paul Krugman on This Bernie Sanders and Socialism Thing
by Tom Gallagher
2/19/2020
What Sanders actually calls himself is a "democratic socialist"—a term that never appears in Krugman’s article—because he doesn’t believe that billionaires should be running the show and the working people of the country should.
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/02/19/paul-krugman-bernie-sanders-and-socialism-thing

-------------------------
Rapoport, Anatol

Anatol Rapoport's Rules: Why Being Fair To Your Opponent Matters
by Fred M Beshears
https://innovationmemes.blogspot.com/2014/10/anatol-rapoports-rules-why-being-fair.html


--------------------------
Wikipedia


Democratic Socialism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_socialism

"""
Democratic socialism is a political ideology that advocates political democracy alongside social ownership of the means of production, often with an emphasis on democratic management of enterprises within a socialist economic system.

Democratic socialists see capitalism as inherently incompatible with the democratic values of liberty, equality and solidarity; and believe that the issues inherent to capitalism can only be solved by superseding private ownership with some form of social ownership. Ultimately, democratic socialists believe that reforms aimed at addressing the economic contradictions of capitalism will only cause more problems to emerge elsewhere in the economy, that capitalism can never be sufficiently "humanized" and that it must therefore ultimately be replaced with socialism.

Democratic socialism is distinguished from both the Soviet model of centralized socialism and from social democracy, where "social democracy" refers to support for political democracy; the nationalization and public ownership of key industries but otherwise preserving and strongly regulating, private ownership of the means of production; regulated markets in a mixed economy; and a robust welfare state.
"""


Social Democracy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_democracy

"""
Social democracy is a political, social and economic ideology that supports economic and social interventions to promote social justice within the framework of a liberal democratic polity and capitalist economy. The protocols and norms used to accomplish this involve a commitment to representative and participatory democracy; measures for income redistribution and regulation of the economy in the general interest; and welfare state provisions. Social democracy thus aims to create the conditions for capitalism to lead to greater democratic, egalitarian and solidaristic outcomes. Due to longstanding governance by Social Democratic parties and their influence on socioeconomic policy development in the Nordic countries, in policy circles "social democracy" has become associated with the Nordic model in the latter part of the 20th century.
"""