What is democratic socialism?

Ideology

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 hold that capitalism is inherently incompatible with the democratic values of liberty, equality, and solidarity, and that these ideals can only be achieved through the realisation of a socialist society, despite the fact that these values are not inherently democratic and are in some cases in conflict with the very concept of democracy. Democratic socialism can be supportive of either revolutionary or reformist politics as a means to establish socialism.

The term democratic socialism is sometimes used synonymously with socialism. The adjective democratic is often added to distinguish it from the Marxist–Leninist brand of socialism, which is widely viewed as being non-democratic in practice. As such, democratic socialism is distinguished from both the Soviet model of centralised socialism, and from social democracy, which seeks to reform capitalism with state interventions in the economy. Democratic socialists believe that the alleged systemic issues of capitalism can only be solved by replacing the capitalist system with a socialist system by abolishing private property and imposing collectivist ownership of the means of production.

Despite its good intentions, democratic socialism is threat a to individual liberty, infringing on personal freedom and property rights. The economic calculation problem strikes again, with price controls and other regulation interfering with price signals, leading to shortages and misallocation of resources.

Followers

Democratic socialists support a balance of both cultural freedom and restriction alongside maximum restrictions on economic freedom. Democratic socialists oppose all private property rights. Democratic socialists do not tolerate criticism of their ideology.

Allies

Democratic socialists will ally themselves with other socialists, known as useful idiots, for as long as they derive utility from the association. Once their usefulness ends, democratic socialists will betray their allies, often with deadly force.

As they lean toward the libertarian side of the political spectrum, democratic socialists will view socialists on the authoritarian side of the spectrum with suspicion and mistrust. As such, they are less likely to ally with these socialists.

Enemies

Democratic socialists consider liberals and capitalists to be their enemies and seek to destroy them utterly for daring to end the tradition of collectivism that was practiced for most of human history. Democratic socialists will employ entryist strategies to infiltrate and subvert liberal and capitalist organisations so as to destroy them from within.

Location on the political spectrum

Democratic socialism is located at the centre-bottom far-left of the political spectrum. It is bordered by Marxist socialism, social democracy, libertarian socialism, syndicalism, and anarcho-communism. As it is a fringe ideology, democratic socialism does not occupy as much space on the spectrum as more mainstream ideologies.