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This article is about a political ideology. For the social welfare model in Northern Europe commonly described as "social democracy", see Nordic model. For the model of capitalism in Western Europe sometimes conflated with social democracy, see Social market economy.

Social democracy is a political ideology that officially has as its goal the establishment of democratic socialism through evolutionary methods. An example of this would be the Swedish Social Democratic Party, whose leader, Stefan Lfven, openly identifies as a "Socialist Democrat," and says he is "proud" to be a socialist. [1] "Social democracy" is often used to refer to the social and economic policies prominent in Western and Northern Europe during the latter half of the 20th century.[2][3]

Following the split between reformists and revolutionary socialists in the Second International, social democrats have called for a peaceful, evolutionary transition from capitalism to socialism. Social Democracy asserts that the only acceptable, constitutional form government is representative democracy under the rule of law. It advocates the promotion of democratic decision-making beyond political democracy to include economic democracy to guarantee employees and other economic stakeholders sufficient rights of co-determination[4] and support for a mixed economy that opposes the excesses of capitalism such as inequality, poverty, and oppression of underprivileged groups while rejecting a fully free economy or a fully planned economy. [5] Social democratic policy favors universally-accessible public services such as education, health care, workers' compensation, child care and care for the elderly.[6] Social democracy is strongly connected with the trade union labour movement and supports collective bargaining rights for workers.[7]

Social democracy originated in 19th century Germany from the influence of both the reformist socialism of Ferdinand Lassalle, as well as the internationalist revolutionary socialism advanced by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.[8] The Marxists and Lassallians were in rivalry over political influence in the movement until 18681869 when Marxism became the official basis of Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany.[9] In the Hague Congress of 1872, Marx modified his earlier stance on revolution and declared that in some countries workers would be able to achieve their aims through peaceful means, but said that was not true of all countries. For example, Marx cited Holland, Britain, and the United States as examples of countries where he believed it would.[10] Eduard Bernstein was influenced by the gradualist platform favored by the British Fabian movement, which led him to advocate a similar evolutionary approach to socialist politics. By the early 20th century, social democracy began to reject Marxism and embraced alternative philosophical frameworks including ethical socialism and liberal socialism, particularly through the influence of figures like Carlo Rosselli who sought to disassociate socialism from the legacy of Marxism.[11] The Third Way is a major faction in social democratic parties that developed in the 1990s, which has claimed to be social democratic though others have identified it as being effectively a neoliberal movement.[12] Most social democratic and labor parties are members of the Socialist International.[13]

The origins of social democracy have been traced to the 1860s, with the rise of the first major working-class party in Europe, the General German Workers' Association (ADAV) founded by Ferdinand Lassalle.[14] At the same time the International Workingmen's Association also known as the First International was founded in 1864 brought together socialists of various stances, and initially brought forth a conflict between Karl Marx and the anarchists led by Mikhail Bakunin over the role of the state in socialism, with Bakunin rejecting any role for the state.[10] Another issue at the First International was the role of reformism.[15]

Although Lassalle was not a Marxist, he was influenced by the theories of Marx and Engels, and he accepted the existence and importance of class struggle. However unlike Marx's and Engels' The Communist Manifesto, Lassalle promoted class struggle in a more moderate form.[16] While Marx viewed the state negatively as an instrument of class rule that should only exist temporarily upon the rise to power of the proletariat and then dismantled, Lassalle accepted the state. Lassalle viewed the state as a means through which workers could enhance their interests and even transform the society to create an economy based on worker-run cooperatives. Lassalle's strategy was primarily electoral and reformist, with Lassalleans contending that the working class needed a political party that fought above all for universal adult male suffrage.[14]

The ADAV's party newspaper was called Der Sozialdemokrat ("The Social Democrat"). Marx and Engels responded to the title "Sozialdemocrat" with distaste, Engels once wrote "But what a title: Sozialdemokrat!...Why don't they simply call it The Proletarian." Marx agreed with Engels that "Sozialdemokrat" was a bad title.[16] However the origins of the name "Sozialdemokrat" actually traced back to Marx's German translation in 1848 of the French political party known as "Partie Democrat-Socialist" into "Partei der Sozialdemokratie"; but Marx did not like this French party because he viewed it as dominated by the middle class, and associated the word "Sozialdemokrat" with that party.[17] There was a Marxist faction within the ADAV represented by Wilhelm Liebknecht who became one of the editors of the Die Sozialdemokrat.[16]

Faced with opposition from liberal capitalists to his socialist policies, Lassalle controversially attempted to forge a tactical alliance with the conservative aristocratic Junkers due to their anti-bourgeois attitudes, as well as with Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck.[14] Friction in the ADAV arose over Lassalle's policy of a friendly approach to Bismarck that had assumed that Bismarck in turn would be friendly towards them that did not succeed. This approach opposed by the party's Marxists, including Liebknecht.[17] Opposition in the ADAV to Lassalle's friendly approach to Bismarck's government resulted in Liebknecht resigning from his position as editor of Die Sozialdemokrat, and left the ADAV in 1865. In 1869 Liebknecht along with Marxist August Bebel founded the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany (SDAP), that was founded as a merger of three groups: petit-bourgeois Saxon People's Party (SVP), a faction of the ADAV, and members of the League of German Workers Associations (VDA).[17]

Though the SDAP was not officially Marxist, it was the first major working-class organization to be led by Marxists and Marx and Engels had direct association with the party. The party adopted stances similar to those adopted by Marx at the First International. There was intense rivalry and antagonism between the SDAP and the ADAV, with the SDAP being highly hostile to the Prussian government while the ADAV pursued a reformist and more cooperative approach.[18] This rivalry reached its height involving the two parties' stances on the Franco-Prussian War, with the SDAP refusing to support Prussia's war effort by claiming it rejected it as an imperialist war by Bismarck, while the ADAV supported the war.[18]

In the aftermath of the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War, revolution broke out in France, with revolutionary army members along with working-class revolutionaries founding the Paris Commune.[19] The Paris Commune appealed both to the citizens of Paris regardless of class, as well as to the working class who were a major base of support for the government by appealing to them via militant rhetoric. In spite of such militant rhetoric to appeal to the working class, the Commune also received substantial support from the middle-class bourgeoisie of Paris, including shopkeepers and merchants. The Commune, in part due to its sizable number neo-Proudhonians and neo-Jacobins in the Central Committee, declared that the Commune was not opposed to private property, but rather hoped to create the widest distribution of it.[20] The political composition of the Commune included twenty-five neo-Jacobins, fifteen to twenty neo-Proudhonians and protosyndicalists, nine or ten Blanquists, a variety of radical republicans, and a few Internationalists influenced by Marx.[21]

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