this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2026
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Ok so this is my current understanding, please correct me where I err and supplement where I omit needed information.

Historically the Mensheviks and chartists inspired social democracy whereas the Bolsheviks inspired Marxism-leninism.

They (demsoc and socdem) are extremely similar but have some key differences. Social democrats are to the right of democratic socialists and they are both centre-left parties slightly to the left of social liberalism.

left-ish------Center-left----Center
---------Demsoc-----Socdem Libsoc Lib

Where they differ is usually on imperialism and capitalism.

Social democrats typically support imperialism continuing so long as a slice of the spoils support a welfare state. In that sense they're just capitalist reformists. It also appears that the DSA and the "Democratic-Socialist" movement in the United States is simply social democracy with no intention of seizing the means of production.

Democratic socialists do advocate for seizing the means of production and want the end of imperialism but believe this can be accomplished democratically -- however naive that may be.

As far as I can tell social liberalism appears to be almost synonymous with social democracy but with an added emphasis on the "freedom" to own private property and a more laissez-faire role of the state.

Please fill in my understanding :)

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[โ€“] muad_dibber@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

There is no fundamental difference. "Democratic socialism" is either:

  • A term to demonize existing socialist attempts as not democratic or western enough, and thus make socialism palatable to westerners who want to keep their chauvinism, or
  • The genuine thought that socialism can be acheived through the institutions of bourgeios democracy (IE the most stable form of government for capital), which is historically naive. Socialism has never taken root anywhere this way, and it's always been accompanied by a revolutionary war. We can point to the failed attempts at "bringing socialism through the ballot box", like in Chile and dozens of other examples.
    • Since this is impossible, democratic socialism has to choose to either embrace Marxism and the violent proletarian overthrow of bourgeios democracy, or abandon socialism and embrace social democracy. History proves that demsocs always do the latter.

Some more resources:

[โ€“] cfgaussian@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 1 week ago

Best answer here.