Some users are conflating Social Democracy and Democratic Socialism so we are making this post to clarify!
Social Democracy
(which was the Sanders platform) is still capitalism. It is capitalism
with more social reforms. Countries that have social democracy today do
have better health care benefits and quality of life than neoliberal
forms of capitalism, however, they are not transitioning to socialism,
they still have tremendous issues with racism and immigration, they are
still class societies with income inequality, and importantly, the
workers are not in control of the means of production and are therefore not well represented by their government.
Democratic Socialism
is actually socialism in the Marxist sense. It's distinction from other
types of socialism is that it has a democratic (as opposed to more
centralised or authoritarian) governing body, where representatives more
directly represent the interests of the people (which is nearly
impossible under capitalism).
In a
country like the United States, as socialists work towards socialism,
much of that work can look like Social Democracy. The two aren't so
easily distinguishable when you've got the late-stage capitalism blues,
but the distinction is important and should be made if/when revolution
comes.
If you want to learn more about
the history of the dialectics between these two ideologies, google
'Reform or Revolution' by Rosa Luxembourg (and related analyses of the
book).
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