2012•cIRcle (University of British Columbia)Open access
On the ideology of democratic socialism
Kŭn Pak
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Abstract
Democratic Socialism is said to be the theory of establishing socialism by democratic means, i.e. through gradual changes brought about by the operation of democratic governmental agencies, and hence it has been put in contrast with Communism, i.e. socialism through revolution and dictatorship. Yet, while Communism has been gaining grounds in some important parts of the world today, democratic socialism has lost not only popular support, but also its own self-confidence. It has come, so to speak, to an over-all impasse. The purpose of this thesis is to grasp the nature of this impasse and then to help contribute to its solution through relevant measures. The thesis therefore consists of three parts. Part I deals with the nature of present socialist troubles. It is argued that the root of its troubles lies in that 1) democratic socialists have underrated the importance of political ideology, and 2) the ideology of democratic socialism itself has shortcomings. Part II deals with the ideology of British Socialism in order to have a good understanding of the democratic socialist ideology. The two Fabian Essays are treated here to reveal various shortcomings of British Socialism. It may be said that this part of the thesis consists, in general, of a brief criticism of Fabianism. In Part III we try to come to the core of the ideological defects of democratic socialism. Gradualism, when applied to the Asiatic situation, can be no match against Communism and democratic socialism is impelled to find a way toward new characteristics of its own. It is argued in this Part that the traditional socialist assumptions are no longer adequate to meet the present political situation of the world. In conclusion it is suggested that the problem of freedom, rather than of equality, should be the central issue for democratic socialism. In general the thesis treats democratic socialism in close connection with Communism and this is due to our conviction that Communism seems to be the real enemy of the democratic socialist movement.