In “Ill Fares The Land”, famed British historian Tony Judt observes:
“…there is a significant distinction between ‘socialism’ and ‘social democracy’. Socialism was about transformative change: the displacement of capitalism with a successor regime based on an entirely different system of production and ownership.
“Social democracy, in contrast, was a compromise: it implied the acceptance of capitalism and parliamentary democracy – as the framework within which the hitherto neglected interests of large sections of the population would now be addressed.
“The differences matter. Socialism – under all its many guises and hyphenated incarnations – has failed. Social democracy has not only come to power in many countries, it has succeeded beyond the wildest dreams of its founders.”
It is especially appropriate on the Fourth of July that we discern the difference between “Socialism”, which we successfully resisted during the Cold War, and “Social Democracy”, for which so many of our predecesors fought and died.
