Is democratic socialism a better form of government?
Democratic socialism is a form of government whose popularity is growing exponentially. It is found that democratic socialism is a better alternative to capitalism and communism, two other very popular forms of government. Democratic socialism can be considered the best form of government because key industries are nationalized, there is an even distribution of wealth, and it produces a well working economy.
The theory of democratic socialism is to provide a society in which the needs of all people, not just the wealthy, are met. It also involves the sharing of wealth among the society as a whole. Democratic socialism is a political and economic theory of social organization that basically states that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community, not just a few people. In layman’s terms, it is common ownership. Every citizen under socialism is considered truly equal, every citizen has a voice in the government, and everyone's rights are equally important.
“When people in the United States are introduced to the concept of socialism - whether in the popular media or in a high school class - they are presented with a simple equation: socialism = a crippled economy that fails to meet people's basic needs + a totalitarian government” (Robertson). Robertson proves a good point in saying this, because generally children in the United States grow up either being taught that socialism is bad or evil, which is completely wrong, or they end up being taught nothing of socialism at all. It is until these children are exposed to a socialist government, through education or experience (which few usually have the privilege of doing) t...
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In Socialism Coincides with American Values, Jedediah Purdy produces an interesting insight and argument about the theory of socialism. He believes that socialism can be incredibly beneficial to the United States political and economic systems but are swept aside due to harsh misconceptions of the idealism. He states, “There are essential insights that we lose track of when we let ‘socialism’ be turned into a slur.” Purdy then argues socialism is more American than most Americans want to believe.
Socialism is a word that has obtained a bad connotation in American society. Politicians are loath to lay claim to it, and often using it to lambast their political opponents with it. Yes in many ways America has seemed to embrace the economic benefits of Capitalism so whole heartedly, thoughts of a tangled bureaucratic mess of welfare and wealth distribution that is so contrary to the American idea of individualism are conjured up at the mere thought of Socialism. In fact many still equate Socialism with Communism and are given to thoughts of the Cold War, and the battle of ideologies that it entailed. Many Americans would perhaps be quite surprised to learn that Socialism had found a place in American society at one time, and that it held a considerable amount of influence over the direction the country would take.
The key principals behind most social democratic ideology are that of equality and collectivism. In practice, the state manages the economy using Keynesian economic principals, manages the provision of welfare through the welfare state and takes a regulatory roll in peoples lives. This protects citizens from the extremes of poverty and prevents major economic inequality.
Many United States citizens are frightened by the word Socialism. However, the predominant ideology in most Third World countries is socialism. There are many reasons why Third World countries have turned to socialism as their form of government. The main reason the Third World has taken on the concept of socialism is because of the history of feudalism and colonialism that these countries faced for so many years. Socialism was seen as a way to reform the land of many underdeveloped countries. Socialism believes the government needs to intervene to make sure no feudalism or unjust land ownership systems are being enforced.
In an article titled Socialism Is Not Harmful they instead believe that democracy and socialism complement one another and that the corporation and the society should meet the needs of all people (2). The Democratic Socialist do not believe that the government should own every business, but that businesses should be ran by the employees who work for them (2). Their main goal is to get wealth into as many peoples hands as possible. What they despise is not the very rich, instead what they are actively speaking against is the gap between the very rich and the rest of the working class. The remainder of the article is spent trying to discredit myths spread about socialism, such as the government wanting to own everything and assuring people that they are not
after this period, but it did not meant that the country was engaging in the ideology of a pure socialist system. It is important to mention that a welfare state is: the intervention of government that aims to create equitable economic and living conditions among the citizens. The government provides all the physical, social, and materials needs, rather than the people obtaining it themselves. There is a redistribution of wealth by taxing the middle and upper class that aims to help the underprivileged with multiple and different social programs. In contrast, a pure socialist system is when a population collectively owns and controls all means of productions that at the end is distributed proportionally. However, a socialist society does not engage in profit accumulation like a welfare state does to provide welfare programs. The welfare state has been engaging in social welfare programs, that led to an overall conclusion that a welfare state combines socialists beliefs to better improve the economy and to provide adequate living
Democracy is a structured system in which government officials are elected based on a majority of votes by the people. Democracy stresses the governance by the people through their elected representatives. If you don’t think the official you elected is governing based on the reasons you voted for him, you can elect a different representative in the next election that is the beauty of democratically held elections. Its important to remember a democracy doesn’t call for socio economic equality; the equality in a democracy is that everyone has equal representation through government. In essence a democracy is something where it doesn’t matter how rich or poor you are, the color of your skin everybody’s votes for elected officials are worth the exact same.
The universal definition of democracy is that "people have substantial control over decisions which affect them". This definition is broad and within it are multiple worldviews with differing interpretations of what is meant by "people", "control", and "decisions". Two of the worldviews of democracy included within this universal definition are liberalism and socialism.
When considering the well being of all citizens, socialism is the best economic system. Command economies do not work, market economies only provide for the needs of a small elite group of people, and traditional economies are impossible in a world of this size. While there are certainly arguments against socialism, the arguments for it outweigh. Socialism is better because it allows for the government to provide for the basic needs of all citizens—this is impossible in a market economy, and outweighed by the negative aspects of a command economy. In time of great national economic and political turmoil, it is important that a consensus be made as to the best economic system for the U.S. and the rest of the world. In my opinion, this best system is socialism.
“Socialism.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 30 Jan. 2012. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 2 Feb. 2012. .
By relinquishing private ownership the theory is that the state will oversee the distribution of wealth in a fair and equal manner. One of the shortcomings of this idea is it basiclly rules out the ideas of natural selection being necessary to the overall expansion and development of mankind. When you place laws against the development of better technologies you are depriving your economy of the chance to grow. Socialism discourages workers because there is no chance for personal gain, thus eliminating the will to work hard and improve
Socialism can be defined as an economy wherein all the resources and the means of production of the economy are owned by the community as a whole and there is an equitable distribution of the goods and the wealth. According to Socialism, people of the economy do not live or work in isolation, but they live as a whole in cooperation. In a Socialist form of system, the goods and services are provided through a central system of government ownership and not private ownership. Everything that is being produced by the people in a Socialist system is a social product and, hence, every individual who contributes in the production of goods is entitled to a share of it. Therefore, based on how much a person has contributed in the society, everyone receives
Democracy has come to mean a principle under whose flag has most of the developed countries aced in their race for Imperialism. It has gone beyond all previous governing systems and has made room for progress and development. By offering free and fair elections, democracy has redefined human dignity and patriotism. It has also helped to improve decision-making among the citizens, and brought down the crime level. Democracy is for sure the most fitting among the other types of government, and needs to be implemented fully for effective functioning of a state.
What is democracy? Democracy a form of government in which the people freely elect representatives to govern them in a country, democracy guarantees free and fair elections, basic personal and political rights and independent court of law. There are two types of democracy, direct and indirect democracy. Direct democracy or pure democracy is where there is direct participate of the people; people make decisions for them instead of letting them representative make decision for them. Indirect democracy the decisions are made by the representative on behalf of the people that voted for them. All over the world people are having different views with regard to democracy and how it operates. “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried” ~ Winston Churchill, some have said democracy is the worst government form of government which I also think it’s! Due to the how it operates.