Difference between revisions of "Danton's politics"
From Danton's Real Life Userguide
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By moderate socialism I mean limited socialism under a democratic political regime with a free market economy. | By moderate socialism I mean limited socialism under a democratic political regime with a free market economy. | ||
| − | All Western democracies are in fact social-democratic. The Keynesian welfare state, introduced in the United States during the great depression of the 1930s as a response to one of the cyclic crises inherent in capitalism, is a form of minimal social-democracy. The difference between the welfare state and socialism proper is only a matter of degree | + | All Western democracies are in fact social-democratic. The Keynesian welfare state, introduced in the United States during the great depression of the 1930s as a response to one of the cyclic crises inherent in capitalism, is a form of minimal social-democracy. The difference between the welfare state and socialism proper is only a matter of degree. As a moderate socialist I advocate a greater degree of socialism, but within the same framework, that of liberal democracy. |
| − | The | + | The theory of moderate socialism was developed by Bernstein, who invented the term "social-democracy." Bernstein thought that the transition to socialism could be gradual, rather than requiring a revolutionary rupture. The ''practice'' of moderate socialism was developed in France by Leon Blum, whose Popular Front government illustrated how a leftist coalition could exercise power within the framework of liberal democracy, and then yield the power when overturned in the elections. More recently, John Rawls developed a theory of social justice which has affinities with a moderate socialist perspective. |
==Failure of the Marxist governments== | ==Failure of the Marxist governments== | ||
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Like the Marxists, the leftist anarchist movements made the mistakes of rejecting liberal democracy and of advocating compulsory collectivism. But they developed a model of the autonomous collective unit which maintains its relevance today, among those that advocate decentralized forms of economic and political organization. | Like the Marxists, the leftist anarchist movements made the mistakes of rejecting liberal democracy and of advocating compulsory collectivism. But they developed a model of the autonomous collective unit which maintains its relevance today, among those that advocate decentralized forms of economic and political organization. | ||
| − | In the economic context, the automous collective unit is the workers cooperative. | + | In the economic context, the automous collective unit is the workers cooperative. As a complement to top-down social reform carried out by the state, the working class movement should focus on building economic democracy from the bottom up, through the creation of cooperatives. A decentralized movement of voluntary association will in the long run allow us simply to replace companies that mistreat their employees, rather than having to conflict with their owners. |
==See also== | ==See also== | ||
