Social democracy

Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism^[1] that supports a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, social democracy has taken the form of a mixed economy, a robust welfare state, policies promoting social justice, market regulation, and a more equitable distribution of income.^[2][3]

Social democracy maintains a commitment to representative and participatory democracy. Common aims include curbing inequality, eliminating the oppression of underprivileged groups, eradicating poverty, and upholding universally accessible public services such as child care, education, elderly care, health care, and workers' compensation.^[4][5] Economically, it supports income redistribution, regulating the economy in the public interest,^[6] trade unions and economic democracy, including collective bargaining and co-determination rights for workers.^[7]

The history of social democracy stretches back to the 19th-century labour movement. Originally a catch-all term for socialists of varying tendencies, after the Russian Revolution, it came to refer to reformist socialists who were strategically opposed to revolution as well as the authoritarianism of the Soviet model; nonetheless, the eventual abolition of capitalism was still being upheld as an important end goal during this time.^[8] However, by the 1990s social democrats had embraced mixed economies with a predominance of private property and promoted the regulation of capitalism over its replacement with a qualitatively different socialist economic system.^[9] Since that time, social democracy has been associated with Keynesian economics, the Nordic model, and welfare states.^[10]