2.8.1 Wouldn't the Nordic economies gain from abolishing Socialism?
Description
This article is from the Nordic countries FAQ, by Antti Lahelma and Johan Olofsson, with numerous contributions by others.
2.8.1 Wouldn't the Nordic economies gain from abolishing Socialism?
Let's make a few things straight!
The words "Socialism" - "Liberalism" - "Conservatism" are used in a
very different way in the USA compared to the usage in the continental
Europe and in Norden. In soc.culture.nordic we use these words as they
are understood in Europe:
Liberalism and Socialism are in Europe basically defined as ideas with
a great deal of heritage from early Liberal and Socialistic writers.
Liberalism could be said to revolve around freedom from the power of
the mighty, and Socialism around freedom from the power of the rich.
Democratic freedom is per definition a Liberal virtue.
Some Social democrats might be classified as much of a Liberal, but
most are definitely not. The program of the Social Democratic parties
are not understood as Liberal, but when it comes to practical
pragmatic politics and policies the outcome might be a mixture between
the own program and other ideas.
Conservatism is likewise defined as ideas succeeding the writings of
Burke, Disraeli and other classical political writers. There are two
major branches among the Conservatives: the Social-Conservatives and
the Value-Conservatives. The Value-Conservatives? Oh, that's people
who speak a lot of the importance of the church, the army, the family
and maybe the crown (king/ government) and are very happy to spend all
the tax money on those institutions instead of extravagances on
children, disabled and unemployed.
Socialism is the people's control over the means of production.
High spending government is something different.
This phenomenon comes in different wrappings: Feudal, Authoritarian
Conservative, Fascist, Social Liberal, Social Democrat, Christian
Democrat and so on.
As an ideology, Socialism deals more with the political basis than
with the implementation. Nobody can justify taxation as a goal, that
politicians and civil servants are always right, that it is a goal to
confiscate any kind of private property. There are some Socialist
ideologies that want society to build upon omnipotence. All but tiny
extremist groups have survived. Most were slaughtered in Eastern
Europe.
The Socialist ideology was more a visionary romantic one than a
practical political theory. There is a little bit of the rhetoric left
(for internal use) in the Social Democratic parties, so maybe one
could call them Socialist. Then there are the proper Socialists on the
left of the Social Democrats. Some of the Nordic still worship Karl
Marx.
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