Socialism is not the same as a MIXED Economy [View all]

[kennetha]

Last edited Tue Feb 26, 2019, 05:33 PM - Edit history (1)

Contrary to what some apparently under-informed and historically under-educated Sanders supporters, and also way too many Republicans, seem to want you to think, it is simply not true that wherever any social goods are provided by the government, rather than the market, one has "socialism."

A MIXED economy employs both market mechanisms and non-market mechanism to distribute various goods.

If you look around the world, mixed economies come in a wide variety, and vary in the degree of their dependence on market mechanisms vs non-market mechanisms. Mixed economies also involve greater and lesser degrees of regulation of the market and greater or less degree of taxation, with tax schemes being more or less broadly based, and more or less progressive or regressive, from nation to nation.

Like most developed democracies in the world, the US has a mixed economy. It has a great deal of private, rather than collective ownership of the "means of production" but also various social welfare programs, run by governments at various levels, that are not driven by market forces alone.

The mixed economy was one of the greatest advances in political economy of 20th century. It is NOT a form of socialism. It is, in fact, a way to PRESERVE the core of capitalism, while simultaneously giving capitalism a human face. It thus is a way of SAVING capitalism and REDUCING the lure of socialism.

European Social Democratic Parties would bristle at the idea of being called Democratic Socialists. They are often in fact, bitter opponents of Democratic socialism.

Democratic Socialism is, as its name and history implies, about the democratic ownership and control of the "means of production." It tends toward, for example, the nationalization of various industries, the abolition or seizure of private property. The Soviet Union was socialist, but very much ANTI-Democratic. Democratic Socialists are definitely NOT Soviet Style totalitarians to be sure, but they are SOCIALIST. They are opposed to capitalism. Democratic Socialist parties of days gone by were bitterly opposed to Soviet Style totalitarianism, not because of its socialism, but because it was so anti-democratic. Huge debates took place over many years among various socialist movements.

The Democratic Party of America has never been a SOCIALIST party, but it has a lot in common with European Social Democratic Parties.

Bernie Sanders obfuscates these distinctions, seemingly on purpose. Perhaps because he knows that Socialism, whether of the discredited Soviet variety or of the much more palatable Democratic variety, would be a hard sell in the US.

The Republicans also obfuscate these distinctions, because they seem to want a pure, laissez fare form of Capitalism that eviscerates the welfare state in the apparent belief that the Mixed Economy was a terrible idea all along and just the leading edge of true Socialism

Personally I reject both the obfuscation of Sanders and the obfuscation of the Republicans. I am a proud democrat. What would be called a Social Democrat in Europe. I fully believe in the Mixed Economy, as the democratic party has almost always done.

The trick is not to abolish capitalism but to harness its creative (and destructive) potential while simultaneously use the instruments of the Mixed Economy .. the greatest innovation in political economy of the 20th Century .. to give capitalism a human face. That means achieving the right mix of market and non-market distribution schemes, that means regulating markets in a way that keeps them open and competitive, rather than dominated by monopolies, that means a tax system that both incentivizes investment and innovation but also spreads the benefits thereof to the populace at large.

This is what the Democratic Party has long stood for. And even when that party most resembled the Social Democratic Parties of Europe, Bernie was still on the side of Democratic Socialism. Wonder why that is? Cause he is not a European style Social Democrat nor an American style Democrat, but a true blue Democratic Socialist. Or so it seems to me.