What is a Democratic Socialist?

[muriel_volestrangler]

66. The Facebooker who wrote that changed a few of the DSA statements

Here's the original, with the changes in italics:

A Democratic Socialist is not a Marxist Socialist or a Communist. A Democratic Socialist is one who seeks to restrain the self-destructive excesses of capitalism and channel the Government’s use of our tax money into creating opportunities for everyone

Democratic socialists believe that both the economy and society should be run democratically—to meet public needs, not to make profits for a few. To achieve a more just society, many structures of our government and economy must be radically transformed through greater economic and social democracy so that ordinary Americans can participate in the many decisions that affect our lives.
...
In the short term we can’t eliminateA Democratic Socialist does not want to destroy private corporations, but we candoes want to bring them under greater democratic control. The government could use regulations and tax incentives to encourage companies to act in the public interest and outlaw destructive activities such as exporting jobs to low-wage countries and polluting our environment. Public pressure can also have a critical role to play in the struggle to hold corporations accountable. Most of all, socialists look to unions to make private business more accountable.

http://www.dsausa.org/what_is_democratic_socialism

And worth putting in their first answer, as their basic economic stance:

Democratic socialists do not want to create an all-powerful government bureaucracy. But we do not want big corporate bureaucracies to control our society either. Rather, we believe that social and economic decisions should be made by those whom they most affect.

Today, corporate executives who answer only to themselves and a few wealthy stockholders make basic economic decisions affecting millions of people. Resources are used to make money for capitalists rather than to meet human needs. We believe that the workers and consumers who are affected by economic institutions should own and control them.

Social ownership could take many forms, such as worker-owned cooperatives or publicly owned enterprises managed by workers and consumer representatives. Democratic socialists favor as much decentralization as possible. While the large concentrations of capital in industries such as energy and steel may necessitate some form of state ownership, many consumer-goods industries might be best run as cooperatives.

Democratic socialists have long rejected the belief that the whole economy should be centrally planned. While we believe that democratic planning can shape major social investments like mass transit, housing, and energy, market mechanisms are needed to determine the demand for many consumer goods.

(The evolution of the definition seems to have gone via this Facebook page, which had:

"As a short term goal the Democratic Socialist does not want to destroy private corporations, but does want to bring them under greater democratic control. ...", and added the initial paragraph about "not a Marxist Socialist or a Communist".

https://www.facebook.com/DemocraticSocialist/photos/a.522929914521718.1073741830.519136358234407/536466779834698/?type=1&permPage=1