What Is Democratic Socialism?
Democratic socialism is what all rational people would choose in the “original condition” under the “veil of ignorance.” That’s why I support it. Historically it has been promoted by many Christians including the original Pietists such as Philipp Jacob Spener (1635-1705) and August Hermann Francke (1663-1727).
Pietist Christians were among the founders of Scandinavian socialism.
Democratic socialism is socialism chosen by the people—as in Scandinavia. A few years ago Danes were given the opportunity to vote to abolish socialism and adopt a more laissez faire capitalist economy (American model). They chose to keep their socialism.
”Socialism” can have many faces. The one I believe people in the original condition, under the veil of ignorance, would choose is a mixed economy in which there is private property and incentive to create, invest and grow financially but also government guidance of the economy in which the government acts as “umpire” to limit the size and power of corporations and the growth of the gap between rich and poor.
John Rawls, in his A Theory of Justice, argued for “maximizing the minimum,” meaning the government has the duty (because all rational people in the original condition under the veil of ignorance would choose it) to create systems by which the increasing wealth of the rich would benefit the poor. That does not necessarily mean giving the poor money; it could and in my view does mean creating opportunities for the poor to leave poverty behind.
And socialism, in my view, means the government has the job, as it were, of taking care of the indigent, those in society who cannot take care of themselves.
Whenever I bring up Denmark or any other Scandinavian country and its socialism some here object that Denmark is a relatively homogeneous society and America is diverse. I don’t get the objection. I look, for example, at China which is extremely diverse, encompassing many ethnic groups. Yet most people there enjoy the benefits of its socialist economic system which is, in fact, a mixed economy. The problem with China is that it is not democratic.
I am not endorsing China! I am simply answering the objection that some always raise when I mention Denmark’s economic system.
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