Reddit mentions of Socialism: Past and Future

Democratic socialism is a type of socialism informed by democratic and egalitarian values and critical of authoritarian structures that can be characterized as "dictatorships". From this perspective, socialism is not just about a change in government and government policy, but a transformation towards greater political democracy as well as democracy in the workplace (socialists used to use the term 'industrial democracy' as a shorthand for this). Higher levels of literacy and lower levels of poverty move this process (towards greater worker participation and liberty) along. And since socialism relies on democracy and requires democratic norms, a society where worker speech and organization are systematically controlled and restricted cannot qualify as socialist.

To quote one of my links below
>According to Ralph Miliband in Socialism for a Sceptical Age, three core propositions define socialism: (1) democracy, (2) egalitarianism, and (3) socialization or public ownership of a predominant part of the economy

As for Sanders, the way he uses 'democratic socialism' is more akin to European 'social democracy' which has evolved over the years into a ty[e of philosophy of government in the context of capitalism and liberal democracy. If we look at videos of Sanders from the 80s we see there was a period where he was more of a 'democratic socialist'. Sanders stuck with that self-identification (maybe out of habit), but it's fair to say his politics today are solidly 'social democratic'.


For background see

https://jacobinmag.com/2017/08/democratic-socialism-judis-new-republic-social-democracy-capitalism

http://www.dsausa.org/toward_freedom/

https://www.marxists.org/archive/miliband/1985/xx/beyondsd.htm

http://ouleft.org/wp-content/themes/wpremix3/images/21stCenturySocialism.pdf

https://thenextsystem.org/economic-democracy

https://thenextsystem.org/toward-democratic-eco-socialism-as-the-next-world-system

For book length treatments, see

https://www.amazon.com/Socialism-Sceptical-Age-Ralph-Miliband/dp/1859840574

https://www.amazon.com/Socialism-Past-Future-Michael-Harrington/dp/1611453356/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=MZEMAZZY4S7VZXTCNE62

I'd also reccomend Mike MacNair's Revolutionary Strategy

Socialism/Communism

A People's History of the World

Main Currents of Marxism

The Socialist System

The Age of... (1, 2, 3, 4)

Marx for our Times

Essential Works of Socialism

Soviet Century

Self-Governing Socialism (Vols 1-2)

The Meaning of Marxism

The "S" Word (not that good in my opinion)

Of the People, by the People

Why Not Socialism

Socialism Betrayed

Democracy at Work

Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA (again didn't like it very much)

The Socialist Party of America (absolute must read)

The American Socialist Movement

Socialism: Past and Future (very good book)

It Didn't Happen Here

Eugene V. Debs

The Enigma of Capital

Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism

A Companion to Marx's Capital (great book)

After Capitalism: Economic Democracy in Action

Capitalism

The Conservative Nanny State

The United States Since 1980

The End of Loser Liberalism

Capitalism and it's Economics (must read)

Economics: A New Introduction (must read)

U.S. Capitalist Development Since 1776 (must read)

Kicking Away the Ladder

23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism

Traders, Guns and Money

Corporation Nation

Debunking Economics

How Rich Countries Got Rich

Super Imperialism

The Bubble and Beyond

Finance Capitalism and it's Discontents

Trade, Development and Foreign Debt

America's Protectionist Takeoff

How the Economy was Lost

Labor and Monopoly Capital

We Are Better Than This

Ancap/Libertarian

Spontaneous Order (disagree with it but found it interesting)

Man, State and Economy

The Machinery of Freedom

Currently Reading

This is the Zodiac Speaking (highly recommend)

The first and hardest concept to grasp is that socialism is only an economic system. It is often conflated with the political system, communism, but both are very broad. Wikipedia's article is actually very good for an overview.

The question that neturally arises from an overview of socialism is, "well, how would we implement this so we can enjoy [insert level of quality of life]?" And that is a very involved discussion.

I've also found that Michael Harrington's Socialism: Past and Future to be a good read, but I'm sure there are others here that could recommend better books.

Michael Harrington's Socialism: Past and Future is an excellent primer (though it assumes some familiarity with the topic and players at hand). I don't know that there can be a "best" book on socialism, but that's generally what I recommend to friends.

Harrington isn't primarily concerned with picking apart capitalism here, and it won't serve as a refutation of Friedman if that's what you're looking for -- it stays basically within the bounds of what the title suggests -- but it's a well-written, valuable read nevertheless.

It isn't just right-wing talking heads, though. In the book "Socialism: Past and Future," by Michael Harrington, there is an extensive analysis of all the different kinds of Socialism, and Michael Harrington himself acknowledges that even Socialists have difficulty defining exactly what Socialism is, and he was a Socialist.

http://www.amazon.com/Socialism-Past-Future-Michael-Harrington/dp/1611453356

Most of the suggestions in this thread are specifically socialism from a marxist perspective. I think you might find Socialism: Past and Future by Michael Harrington an engaging and insightful read on socialism from another perspective.

https://www.amazon.com/Socialism-Past-Future-Michael-Harrington/dp/1611453356

Stalinism (an authoritarian form of socialism) is the most well known, and reviled, because of Cold War propaganda, but it worked pretty well. It's really the only form of socialism people know to have been fully implemented (Mao too but I don't know enough to comment on that) and since it was pretty evil in the beginning, people assume every form of socialism is inherently evil. Cuba has done pretty damn well despite being under intense embargos. Give Michael Harrington's book a read for a good recap of the history of socialism.

Then there's capitialism, which is a precursor to socialism, as it was a necessary evil (Industrial Revolution, for instance) to get us to be able to produce goods at a massive clip. I think in the beginning capitalism was fine for what needed to be done but it always ends in monopoly and incredible disparity because it relies on wealthy people being "well meaning" and "good" when we know they're not. Capitalism keeps people ruled by elites and allows us to...elect fascists like we have now. Nothing is perfect but I'm just asking you to challenge your preconceived notions of capitalism.

Apologize if this was hastily written, I'm about to drive somewhere.