5.2 Democratic Socialism: Concept and Characteristics

Concept: socialism achieved and maintained through democratic means — universal suffrage, competitive multiparty elections, civil liberties, constitutional rule — with socialism pursued by gradual reform (nationalisation where needed, welfare universally, redistribution by taxation) rather than revolution. The state is not smashed but captured and humanised.The intellectual line (four stations):1. Eduard Bernstein (Evolutionary Socialism, 1899) — the revisionist heresy: Marx's predictions were failing (the middle class growing, not shrinking; workers not immiserating; democracy advancing); therefore drop the revolution, march through institutions; "the movement is everything, the final goal nothing."2. The Fabians (Sidney and Beatrice Webb, Shaw, the London School of Economics' founding circle) — permeation of the parties and civil service; research over barricades.3. Social democracy's mid-century settlement — the Keynesian welfare state: Beveridge's report, the NHS, the Scandinavian model (Sweden's "folkhemmet" — the people's home): market economy + universal welfare + strong unions + progressive taxation + corporatist bargaining.4. The contemporary spectrum — from "third way" (Blair, Schröder: market-accepting, welfare- retaining) to the renewed democratic-socialist left post-2008.Characteristics (the exam list):1. Political democracy — multiparty competition, civil liberties, rule of law, constitutional opposition (the sharpest line against Leninism);2. Economic democracy in degrees — mixed economy: public, cooperative and private sectors; nationalisation of natural monopolies/commanding heights; regulation of the rest;3. The welfare state — universal health, education, social insurance, pensions; decommodification of…