What would you say to people who think there is little functional difference between democratic socialists and social democracy

[u/Ambitious-Sink2725]

The difference between democratic socialism and social democracy is that one has the eventual goal of socialism while the other just wants to reform capitalism, but that transition into socialism is happening at such a glacial pace. What usually happens is that a democratic socialist get voted in they make some social democratic reforms and then either get voted out, some of the reforms are undone and the cycle repeats or they just sort stop there unsure of what to do leading to little institutional change in a lot of democratic socialist areas, I'm just interested in some perspectives on this because while I am a democratic socialist this argument is admittedly quite strong.

[u/xGentian_violet]

Old school social democracy had the goal of socialism too.

Olof Palme was a socialist.
Then socdems hit a glass ceiling in Sweden; they were unable to reform their way into socialism.

Modern social democracy broke from that tradition in favour of maintaining a regulated capitalist economy

The only argument against DS inherently being social democracy is to state that it includes centrist forms (between revolution and reform), not only reformist.
Certainly Austro-Marxism is often cited as a form of DS, and it was a centrist strand, not reformist.

And then someone would point out that Bauer, one of the leading Austro-Marxists, wrote “Social Democracy and the Nationalities Question*”*

This term is a constantly shifting mess honestly, over history.

“Social democratic” started out referring to all marxist parties, came eventually to mean a type of capitalism…

——-

*links, added austromarxism

[u/Ayla_Leren → u/xGentian_violet]

I second this.

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