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V. The Future

Social Democrats do not look forward to replacing our existing social and economic institutions with a wholly different system. We do seek change -- in some things, basic change. But we also seek to strengthen and uphold he institutions, traditions and values of today's society that we find decent, just and democratic.

To many, it appears that capitalism has emerged supreme, sweeping away all its predecessors and even its self-described successors. But, in our view, democracy has triumphed, not capitalism alone. While the market economy is surely necessary for political democracy, we do not believe it is sufficient.

In recent times we have again seen that capitalism is vulnerable to slumps, stagnation and crises which deprive people of their livelihoods and dash their dreams. Capitalism alone allows a few to enjoy wealth disproportionate to the value of their labor, and forces many to labor without ever enjoying wealth or even basic economic security. But the inequities and insecurities of capitalism encourage workers and other groups to band together to protect themselves, spawning great democratic movements of the working and middle classes, and the poor.

Social democracy developed in opposition both to laissez-faire indifference to failings of capitalism and to the dogma that capitalism must collapse in a spasm of righteous revolution. Social democracy has in many ways been vindicated by the events of the past few years. But this vindication brings new questions:

• Will capitalism evolve into a democratic socialism in which society as a whole, through grass roots democratic government, directs the entire economy?
• Is social democracy an obsolete concept, and is a welfare state that serves as a safety net for a dominant private sector and free market all that is necessary?
• Or has society already evolved into a "mix" of socialist and capitalist elements -- a mix that today is moving into a "transnational stage of development"?

With the end of the Cold War, it is again possible to address these questions in a civil and open-minded way. Like Eduard Bernstein, we are evolutionists, animated by today's movements for democracy and social justice, rather than by schematic visions of the future. Like Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine, we believe in democracy as a way of life -- a guiding moral value.

We are convinced that the way forward is through the extension of democracy at home and abroad, in the social and economic as well as the political spheres. We will not advance through the exploits of omniscient elites who guide the "mindless masses" -- whether these elites are revolutionary "vanguards," sophisticated "think tanks," or Wall Street wizards.

An American citizens' movement for social democracy must be a community of values and a source of mutual aid -- not merely a weapon for class or political conflict. It must be a movement that creates a popular constituency for its values and ideas, not one that makes change through policies administered from the top down.

We are convinced that America needs such a social democratic movement, and that today our fellow citizens will welcome it.

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Copyright: 1995, SD, USA