Democratic Socialism

 

Some people think that “Democratic socialism” itself is a contradiction in terms, as a socialist society or a planned economy cannot be democratic. The uneven distribution of economic power and benefits through manipulations of polity had created major distortions and problems for the smooth administration / governance. Mr. Paul Johnson, a historian of 20^th century says, “ The more the State grows and impedes the free exercise of market forces, the more the quality of information deteriorates, and the more likely those decisions based on such an information, will be wrong.”

A Polish communist Government planner says, “In this crazy system, we do not know, the true cost of anything. We do not know which factories are efficient and which are hopeless. So we are continually reinforcing failure and punishing success”. Mr. Subramanyam says, “The hypocrisy of socialism developed along with centralization of authority, denigration of democratic institutions and strangulation of Panchayat Raj institutions as part of one integrated political process in the country”. J Krishnamurthy said, “Working for social welfare is to fill water into a pail that has holes. The more water is poured in it, the more it pours out and the pail remains empty.”

Milovan Djilas, a Yugoslavian revolutionary and writer, who predicted the fall of communism and fought both Tito and Stalin, said “ The suppression of classes would be the first step towards the extinction of society… There can be no society without classes. The problem is how to create a balance between the classes, to prevent some from getting rich at the expense of others,”… “ The central problem is, how to distribute wealth without disrupting economic activity, while at the same time building a society based on human solidarity…. “The future ideology of the reformist left must not become a barrier to the achievements of capitalism such as efficiency and the profitability of business.” Socialism aims “to prevent the oppression of one class by another…. It will never be possible to establish an ideal equilibrium among different social classes…There will always be injustice and inequality in the world, which will be the task of the social democrats to combat.” …. “This idealism should not be confused with the chimera of establishing a society with rigid and permanent forms – I believe the more varied a society is, the better and more creative it will be.”