A recent Gallup poll shows that 36% of Americans have a favorable impression of socialism with numbers reaching a majority of Democrats and self-described liberals. The recent Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll shows that 63% of GOPers think Obama is a socialist. All of a sudden after years of reticence the "socialist" meme is back in American political parlance. The Gallup poll did not offer a definition of "socialism" and most people in this country, be they Gopers or Dems, are probably not all that "clear on the concept." Given the fact that the American media has effectively immunized the American public against "socialism" by nearly 100 years of propaganda, the fact that over one third of Americans are still open to the idea and left-leaning citizens even more so, is something of a surprise. So what is "socialism" and what should 21st century socialism in America look like?
Here are some of what I think should be underlying tenets of 21st century American socialism. These can be put into pragmatic and realizable terms as follows:
- Thoroughgoing political democracy,
- Comprehensive social democracy and,
- All around economic democracy
To elaborate, I would evaluate the status of these three democracies at present as follows:
- Political democracy: Currently we have at best partial, adulterated political democracy. The two party system thwarts political expression and moneyed interests subvert the electoral process. Public financing and other reforms that open up the political process to average citizens are essential for establishing true political democracy. There are, of course, profound inequalities in the structure of our political democracy including the over-representation of small states in the Senate and the Electoral College that are at present unlikely to be changed without a constitutional convention. The latter is not, however, on anyone's radar. Much more could be said about how to reform our political structures to make them more democratic.
- Social democracy: Social democracy in the US is underdeveloped and in need of a complete revision and full implementation. Health Care Reform is a major front in expanding social democracy domestically. Free universal higher education, a total overhaul of our "criminal injustice system," and many other reforms are needed to make social democracy a reality in our country. Expansion of social democracy has been the modus operandi of Social Democratic parties in Europe and elsewhere for generations and is a hallmark of our Democratic Party. It was also implemented in the Soviet bloc before its collapse. The only guarantor of social democracy, however, is fully functioning political and economic democracy. Otherwise social democracy will be partial and subject to erosion or dismantlement.
- Economic democracy: Economic democracy in our country exists only for capitalists and entrepreneurs. Otherwise, economic democracy is virtually non-existent in our country. Much of our political economy is organized to give large corporate enterprises overwhelming influence in the market place. China has shown that small business entrepreneurship can be a vibrant part of a market-oriented socialist economy, so 21st century American socialism need not penalize but should support small businesses and encourage entrepreneurship. To have true economic democracy, however, other actors must be brought into the picture, who are now being marginalized. There is a crying need for re-unionization of the work force, changes in the tax code making it more progressive, total overhaul of the banking and financial sectors, depersonalization of corporations with corporate boards composed of all social and economic stake-holders, the establishment of new forms of co-operative and communal ownership, and any number of other reforms too numerous to list here. Included under economic democracy are environmental laws and regulations to preserve the ecological commons that is our natural birthright (clean air and water, protection of natural resources, alternative energy sources, efforts to avert climate change, etc.)
In summary I would say we have partial political democracy, inadequate social democracy and economic democracy skewered to protect the needs and profits of a small minority of our citizens. We need to convince the electorate that political democracy without social and economic democracy is a sham, that an expansion of social democracy cannot be implemented without enhancing political and economic democracy and that economic democracy is the ultimate arbiter of both political and social democracy.
When socialism is attempted without political democracy, and economic democracy does not include a vibrant market it devolves into oligarchic ownership of the means of production as in the late Soviet and post Soviet republics. This ultimately leads to the degrading of social democracy. When social democracy is implemented without economic democracy there are constant attempts to circumscribe and eliminate social benefits. When political democracy is practiced without social and economic democracy it becomes a playground for special interests. The three democracies are therefore co-dependent on one another and need to be fought for concurrently.
An all around campaign for the full implementation of these "three democracies" can serve as a clarion call for real political, social and economic change, couched in terms that Americans can understand and which represents in essence what "socialism" in the 21st century should be about.