Did You Know This Already?: February 2016

Socialism and democracy cannot be compared because it would just be like comparing apples to oranges since socialism is an economic system while democracy is a political ideology. An economic system defines the manner of producing and distributing the goods and services of society while a political system refers to the institutions that will comprise a government and how the system will work. The two systems, nevertheless, have a common denominator ‘“ they work for the goals of society.

Socialism is an economic system that puts emphasis on collective ownership of the production resources and relies on the state or the workers’ council to be the mouthpiece of society on how these resources will be managed and controlled. The equality among members of society is, however, adversely affected in varying degrees depending on the form of socialism adopted by society. The extreme form of socialism has little or no regard at all for civil liberties, thus, citizens do not enjoy the equal right to representation and the equal right to hold office, among others.

Democracy, on the other hand, is a political system that promotes the freedom and the equal right of an individual to self-development. People in a democratic society either directly govern themselves (direct democracy) or elect some individuals to whom the power to govern society is delegated. In some democratic systems, however, a portion of society are not able to effectively join in political exercises, especially those who are underprivileged because of the influence exerted by interest groups who have the money to economically exploit other people by using their economic power to control and even corrupt the political system to their advantage.

Can both systems co-exist in one society? Certainly, both systems can blend to define the directions of a society. A socialist society can for instance be a socialist democracy in the same way as a democratic society can become a democratic socialist. Socialism and democracy have varying degrees. A society can be extremely socialist or can be at the other end of the spectrum to become capitalist or choose to be somewhere between. In terms of political ideology, society can choose to adopt democracy, go the other end to choose dictatorship or be somewhere within the two extremes.

Some experts suggest that the best combination of economic system and political ideology is the one that fully recognizes and balances the ideals of individual freedom and rights on one end and social cooperation on the other.

Summary:

1. Socialism and democracy cannot be compared because socialism is an economic system while democracy is a political ideology.

2. Economic systems like socialism and political ideologies like democracy can co-exist in the same society.

3. Some experts suggest that the best blend of socialism and democracy is the one that recognizes and balances individual freedom and rights on one end and social cooperation on the other.

What it means is that one takes a hard look at countries around the world who have successful records in fighting and implementing programs for the middle class and working families. When you do that, you automatically go to countries like Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and other countries that have had labor governments or social democratic governments, and what you find is that in virtually all of those countries, health care is a right of all people and their systems are far more cost-effective than ours, college education is virtually free in all of those countries, people retire with better benefits, wages that people receive are often higher, distribution of wealth and income is much fairer, their public education systems are generally stronger than ours.