Social democracy: principles, history, and contemporary practice

From the beginning of the 20th century, the originally revolutionary-socialist social democracy increasingly differed from communist movements in that it attempted to solve social problems not through a revolution of the working class but through democratic reforms. Corresponding theses advocated in Germany, especially by Eduard Bernstein from the late 1890s onwards (cf. revisionism theory), gradually prevailed in social democracy against the initially still revolutionary-minded majority until after the First World War at the latest. This led to splits in the Social Democracy, which resulted in the founding of the revolutionary KPD in 1919. In some countries, social democracy was close to left-liberalism, which, however, did not assign the state - as social democracy did - the decisive role in solving political problems. In its early days, social democracy was also more oriented towards social class structures, especially the working class of the time. Communists repeatedly accused social democracy of "betrayal" of the working class because of its renunciation of revolution, its parliamentary-democratic orientation, its compromise with the bourgeois classes and parties, and its occasional collaboration with counterrevolutionary or even right-wing extremist militants (for example, in the violent suppression of the Spartacus uprising in Germany in 1919). On the other hand, right-wing circles often equated social democracy with the communists, defaming its pluralist-democratic orientation as camouflage.

Core policy orientation

According to its basic programme, German social democracy is guided by a humanistic view of man. Furthermore, it fundamentally strives for a social change towards a solidary socialist and pluralist society in which every human being enjoys equal opportunities and an equal degree of political freedom and welfare. Important social democratic theorists, such as Karl Kautsky, saw this image of society as a utopia, with the result that the idea of the path as the goal increasingly prevailed within social democratic organisations.

State image

Even if the social democrats' image of the state has been and continues to be subject to considerable change, it can be said today that social democrats see the state as the main guarantor of social justice and solidarity. In the German view, it has the task of eliminating the roots of social inequality, while Scandinavian social democrats consciously strive for material redistribution with a view to a welfare state for all. Anglo-Saxon social democrats, on the other hand, see the state's task primarily in guiding the economy to take care of its workers.

From the beginning, social democracy did not see itself as bound to a single nation, but always claimed to be an international movement. The Socialist International (SI) is the worldwide federation of socialist and social democratic political parties and organisations (cf. also Labour Party). In total, 168 parties and organizations belong to it. The organization has its roots in the International Workingmen's Association (IAA), initiated by Karl Marx, which was founded on September 28, 1864, and broke up in 1876.

The new Socialist International, which founded the tradition of the SI that exists today, was founded on 20 July 1889 in Paris as the Second International. In its early years, the SI campaigned primarily against the nationalism and rearmament policies intensifying with an imperialist colonial policy in the states of Europe at the beginning of the 20th century, and for the strengthening of the workers movement worldwide. With the outbreak of the First World War, the International broke apart in 1914. The German SPD, the Austrian SDAP, the British Labour Party and others adopted the political positions of their respective national governments (cf. Burgfriedenspolitik).

Today, the SI consists of a heterogeneous collection of parties and movements, mainly from Europe and Latin America, which often have different views due to their origins and backgrounds. Thus, on the one hand, we find former liberation movements such as the African National Congress, the Sandinistas or the Farabundo Martí, and on the other, parties such as New Labour, the traditional but modernised parties such as the German and Austrian Social Democrats, the French Parti Socialiste, Spain's PSOE, Italy's Democratici di Sinistra and the Swedish Socialdemokraterna. In addition, there are post-communist parties that have embarked on a democratic socialist path after the end of the Cold War.