The Real Divide Between Clinton and Sanders - neoliberalism

Jerome Karakul, Sociology, U.C. Berkeley 

When the Democratic candidates for president come together for their second presidential debate this Saturday, the question may arise -- as it did in the first debate -- as to what Bernie Sanders means when he says he is a socialist. But the distinction between "socialism" and "capitalism" is misleading here, for the real debate is about what type of capitalism the candidates favor, for none of them are old-fashioned socialists who advocate public ownership of major industries. There is, however, a far-reaching difference between the social democratic version of capitalism favored by Senator Sanders and the neoliberal version preferred by Secretary Clinton.

This difference is what was really beneath the disagreement that took place in the first debate about Denmark, which -- along with Sweden and Norway, the other countries mentioned in the debate by Senator Sanders -- embody the social democratic model: a type of highly regulated market economy that is characterized by strong labor unions, a generous welfare state, vigorous public institutions, and relatively high taxes and public expenditures.

A man taking a stroll on Rost Island, Norway

In contrast, the model of capitalism favored by Secretary Clinton might be termed neoliberal: heavy reliance on market mechanisms (hence Obamacare rather than Medicare for all or even a public option), privatization of many services previously carried out by the government (hence extensive private contracting by the U.S. military), a less generous welfare state, a bias toward deregulation (hence the decision to repeal Glass-Steagall), and lower taxes and public expenditures (though it should be noted that all of the Republican candidates support an even purer and more extreme version of the neoliberal model than Secretary Clinton). 

Senator Sanders captured a key element of the difference between the two models when he said in the first debate that "Congress doesn't regulate Wall Street; Wall Street regulates Congress." The degree to which concentrated corporate power dominates the political process is incompatible with the social democratic model, which is premised on the capacity of democratically elected government to regulate the economy in the public interest. An observer of European societies put the matter succinctly: In genuine democracies, the political institutions must shape the economy, not the other way around.

Standing Up to Wall Street

http://www.charlierose.com/watch/60639548


Charlie Rose interviews Bernie Sanders on Standing Up to Wall Street, socialism and social democracy, and more.  Sanders defines differences between he and Hillary Clinton.
Very good interview. 

10/29/2015 BERNİE SANDERS’ strength? What is socialism ?

Socialism With an American Face

Gar Alperovitz,,

Sen. Bernie Sanders' public defense of socialism in the Oct. 13 Democratic presidential debate has kicked off America's first major discussion of the idea in more than a generation. Columnists, talk show hosts and Donald Trump have all joined in. Most of the discussion, however, has been wildly misleading, and almost all of it has bypassed some of the most interesting forms of a very American and practical form of socialism emerging throughout the United States.

Sanders was clear about what he meant by socialism, pointing to Denmark as a positive example. But Denmark is a capitalist nation with a record of welcoming and supporting private business investment. The word "socialism" is used there - as it is in many European countries - to describe a strong welfare state that includes comprehensive health care, a solid safety net, generous retirement benefits, day care and many other programs that almost any American progressive would support.

The American term for this kind of system - capitalism with a strong welfare state - is, in fact, liberalism or, perhaps, when combined with very tough taxes on the rich and corporations, populism. Socialism, on the other hand, historically has gone far beyond progressive welfare state measures by asserting that a democratic society can be achieved only if it includes democratic ownership of the economy.

In many European countries, strong labor movements committed to socialism as strong liberalism have helped counterbalance the power of capital by supporting a stronger welfare state. However, this option has always been constrained in the U.S., where union membership has declined from 35.4 percent of the labor force at its peak in the early 1950s to a mere 11.1 percent today. Racism and other factors historically have weakened and divided the American labor movement and almost entirely prevented union organizing in the South.

(Democratic Debate) Bernie Sanders explains Democratic Socialism

A specter is haunting the 2016 Democratic Party primary. The specter of socialism. Bernie Sanders's presidential bid is forcing Americans to reckon with an ideology that has profoundly shaped the politics of just about every other developed country, and has shaped America more than we might like to admit. Tuesday night, Sanders's defense of the socialist label at the first Democratic debate got viewers frantically searching Merriam-Webster to find out what, precisely, "socialism" is.

According to Sanders, socialism — or "democratic socialism," his preferred formulation — is basically mainstream Democratic Party liberalism but more so. It entails single-payer health care, not Obamacare. It entails tuition-free college, not subsidized loans. It entails government jobs to deal with our unemployment problem, not stimulus through tax breaks. These are big policy changes, but they also don't really seem to amount to the overthrow of capitalism — especially since actually existing capitalism in the United States has long included regulation of business and a welfare state.

But Sanders isn't wrong. Looking at the history of socialism as a movement — from its utopian beginnings to Marx's refinement and popularization and the split of socialists into reformers and revolutionaries at the start of the 20th century — reveals an ideology that has changed over time and shaped most countries around the world, including the United States, and that in some ways just isn't as sharp a break with a status quo as the pearl-clutching tone of Anderson Cooper's questions might lead you to believe.

1) Is Bernie Sanders a socialist?

Steve Liss/the LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

Sanders sits in front of an image of socialist presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs in 1990.

Sanders is, in his own words, a "democratic socialist." To him, that means he supports the policies in place in many democratic countries, particularly Northern European ones like Sweden, Finland, or Denmark.

"In virtually all of those countries, health care is a right of all people, and their systems are far more cost-effective than ours, college education is virtually free in all of those countries, people retire with better benefits, wages that people receive are often higher, distribution of wealth and income is much fairer, their public education systems are generally stronger than ours," Sanders told Vox's Ezra Klein earlier this year. "When I talk about being a democratic socialist, those are the countries that I am looking at, and those are the ideas that I think we can learn a lot from."

Social Democracy

What is social democracy ?

http://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/social-democracy-for-centrists

Joe Schwartz