Democratic socialism is a variant of socialism that rejects centralized, elitist or authoritarian means of transitioning from capitalism to socialism. Democratic socialism advocates for the immediate creation of decentralised economic democracy from the grassroots level, undertaken by and for the working class itself.
The term is often used by socialists who favour spontaneous revolution from below or gradualist reformism over organised revolutionary socialism, in an effort to distinguish themselves from Leninist socialists, who seek to organise a revolutionary movement by a vanguard party based on principles of democratic centralism.
Democratic socialists endorse a post-capitalist, socialist economic system as an alternative to capitalism. Some democratic socialists advocate market socialism based on workplace self-management, while others support a non-market system based on decentralized-participatory planning. Many contemporary democratic socialists reject centralized planning as a basis for democratic socialism.
Read more about Democratic Socialism: Definition, Notable Democratic Socialists
Famous quotes containing the words democratic socialism, democratic and/or socialism:
“There’s no such thing as socialism pure
Except as an abstraction of the mind.
There’s only democratic socialism,
Monarchic socialism, oligarchic
The last being what they seem to have in Russia.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“No one can doubt the purpose for which the Nation now seeks to use the Democratic Party. It seeks to use it to interpret a change in its own plans and point of view.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for Socialism is its adherents.”
—George Orwell (1903–1950)