General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The marginalization of "The Left" through the years. Not hearing us now at all. [View all]Douglas Carpenter
(20,226 posts)Last edited Sun Mar 24, 2013, 06:34 PM - Edit history (1)
has been tried numerous times and it does not work. It is worse than even oppressive sweat-shop capitalism in terms of the on the ground reality it produces. The only successful systems that grant prosperity and democratic rights to the vast overwhelming majority are the social-democratic or as some call them the democratic socialist models where socialism and capitalism are mixed. Even Hugo Chavez's model encouraged and saw a major increased in the private sector and produced astounding results. Even though the Chavez model is not quite the same as the Scandinavian type social democratic model the principle of a mixed economy with multi-party democracy is the same. This is not an ideological positions - nothing else works. Social democracy is indeed under attack and there have been cutbacks - but it still survives and it is not going away. while the bureaucratic collectivist models are buried in the dustbin of history.