What is 21st Century Socialism?

A recent diary at Daily KOS calls on progressives to raise high the banner of "Socialism" as a winning political strategy. Unfortunately we've been immunized against "socialism" by nearly 100 years of propaganda. Why hit our heads against a brick wall? Rather than campaigning for "socialism" progressives should advocate for its underlying tenets. These can be put into pragmatic and realizable terms as follows:

1. Thoroughgoing political democracy,
2. Comprehensive social democracy and,
3. All around economic democracy

To elaborate, I would evaluate the status of these three democracies at present as follows:

1. Political democracy: Currently we have at best partial, adulterated political democracy. The two party system thwarts political expression and moneyed interests subvert the electoral process. Public financing and other reforms that open up the political process to average citizens are essential for establishing true political democracy. There are, of course, profound inequalities in the structure of our political democracy including the over-representation of small states in the Senate and the Electoral College that are at present unlikely to be changed without a constitutional convention. The latter is not, however, on anyone's radar.

2. Social democracy: Social democracy in the US is underdeveloped and in need of a complete revision and full implementation. Health Care Reform is a major front in expanding social democracy domestically. Free universal higher education, a total overhaul of our "criminal injustice system," and many other reforms are needed to make social democracy a reality in our country. Expansion of social democracy has been the modus operandi of Social Democratic parties in Europe and elsewhere for generations and is a hallmark of our Democratic Party. It was also implemented in the Soviet bloc before its collapse. The only guarantor of social democracy, however, is fully functioning political and economic democracy. Otherwise social democracy will be partial and subject to erosion or dismantlement.

3. Economic democracy: Economic democracy is virtually non-existent in our country. In order to have economic democracy there is a crying need for re-unionization of the work force, changes in the tax code making it more progressive, total overhaul of the banking and financial sectors, depersonalization of corporations with corporate boards composed of all social and economic stake-holders, the establishment of new forms of co-operative and communal ownership, and any number of other reforms too numerous to list here. Included under economic democracy are environmental laws and regulations to preserve the ecological commons that is our natural birthright (clean air and water, protection of natural resources, alternative energy sources, efforts to avert climate change, etc.)

In summary I would say we have partial political democracy, inadequate social democracy and woefully underdeveloped economic democracy, other than some essential environmental laws and regulations. We need to convince the electorate that political democracy without social and economic democracy is a sham, that an expansion of social democracy cannot be implemented without enhancing political and economic democracy and that economic democracy is the ultimate arbiter of both political and social democracy.

When socialism is attempted without political democracy, the economic democracy which is predicated on state ownership of the means of production devolves into oligarchic ownership of the means of production as in the late Soviet and post Soviet eras. This ultimately leads to the suspension of social democracy. When social democracy is implemented without economic democracy there are constant attempts to circumscribe and eliminate social benefits. When political democracy is practiced without social and economic democracy it becomes a playground for special interests. The three democracies are therefore co-dependent on one another and need to be fought for concurrently.

An all around campaign for the full implementation of these "three democracies" can serve as a clarion call for real political, social and economic change, couched in terms that Americans can understand and which represents in essence what "socialism" in the 21st century should be about.