Social Democracy

Theory espoused by the social democratic party. It first appeared in the European workers’ movement in the 1840s. It was an ideological claim among radical democrats in countries such as Germany and France tinged with socialism. In essence, it is a bourgeois reformist social current.

In 1888, when adding annotations to the English version of The Communist Manifesto, Engels pointed out: “The name of Social-Democracy signifies, with these its inventors, a section of the Democratic or Republican Party more or less tinged with socialism.” The goals of social democracy and social democratic party are aimed at the irrational system of capitalism and the question of massive unfairness in society. They demand policies such as public property, nationalization and welfare state, and advocate the transformation of capitalism into socialism through a peaceful, legal and parliamentary-democratic path. Early social democracy used to be synonymous with scientific socialism. For example, when the Second International was founded, names such as “International Socialist Party” or “International Socialist Workers’ Party” had been considered. In his expositions before the World War I, Lenin explained social democracy from the angle of the relationship between radical democratic revolution and socialist revolution on the one hand, and on the other hand, he also held that the doctrine of social democracy or social democratic parties coincided with scientific socialism. With the defeat of the Paris Commune and the introduction of universal suffrage to varying degrees in Western countries, social democratic parties of various countries have gained the opportunity and possibility of improving the economic and political conditions of the working class through parliamentary and legal forms. They increasingly inclined to abandon the path of violent revolution. The outbreak of the World War I prompted the Social Democrats in various countries to support their own governments and to lead their parties and the toiling masses into the war. The international communist movement also headed for a split, and post-war social democracy increasingly headed for social reformism.

Lenin led Marxism to fight resolutely against the late social democracy. In April 1917, Lenin proposed for the first time that the Marxist workers’ parties should abandon social democracy and be called “Communist Party”. In March 1919, Lenin led the establishment of the Third International consisting of the left wing of various parties. At the Second World Congress of the Third International in 1920, it was stipulated that parties joining the Third International should not only change their name to the Communist Party, but also revise the “old social-democratic programme” so that every worker could clearly understand the difference between the Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party. The right wing of the Social Democratic Party, instead, stuck to its original Social Democratic designation as a sign of distinction and confrontation with the Third International. They clearly insisted on a peaceful and gradual transition to socialism and opposed violent revolution, advocated democracy in general, revered parliamentarism and democratic republic, and opposed the dictatorship of the proletariat. Henceforth, scientific socialism officially broke with social democracy, and social democracy became synonymous with social reformism.

See Democratic Socialism on p. 478.