26 February 2016
By Jeremy Au Yong
The Straits Times
"One of the few books offering an explanation of the ideology -
Democratic Socialism: A Global Survey by Donald Busky - itself notes the
struggle to find a consensus definition.For instance, it noted the disagreements over whether democratic socialism and social democracy are the same thing.
Following the US campaign, one might come to assume that the two are
interchangeable, but Mr Busky - formerly a prominent member of the
democratic socialist organisation known as Socialist Party USA -
contends that they are not.
'Social democracy is a somewhat controversial term among democratic
socialists. Many democratic socialists use social democracy as a synonym
for democratic socialism, while others, particularly revolutionary
democratic socialists, do not; the latter seeing social democracy as
something less than socialism - a milder, evolutionary ideology that
seeks merely to reform capitalism,' he writes.
Democratic socialism, he says, is the 'wing of the socialist movement
that combines a belief in a socially owned economy with that of a
political democracy.'
In short, it appears that while social democracy embraces capitalism
but seeks to humanise it through state intervention, democratic
socialists want to replace the privately owned profit-driven economy
with one that is socially owned...."
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